usa eggs

[pringlepants]

Why are american egg shells white?

[treaclefight]

different breeds of chicken lay different coloured eggs. we kept chickens for years and we could tell which egg came from which individual chicken. all white eggs means all the same breed of chicken, which i think indicates battery farming, i could be wrong, maybe there is only one breed of chicken in america .

[WendyW]

As treaclefight says different breeds of hens lay different coloured eggs. In the 60's most eggs in the country had white shells only a few had brown. Then people started to think that brown shells were better (and were willing to pay more for them) the result was that breeders changed over to hens that layed brown eggs. Americans seem to prefer white shelled eggs so thats what they get (both freerange and battery) >P>.

Interestingly enough, when Delia Smith's book was published with white eggs on the cover there was a hugh demand for white shelled eggs. No matter what the colour they taste just the same.

[mikewall01]

It's all to do with genetics in the hens, although there are a number of other factors that can affect the shell colour of eggs. Too complicated for me to explain, but if you want more detail I suggest you have a google.

[xyzzy@bok]

in the 60'z most UK eggs were white by design, occasionally a brown one would turn up. Due to their rarity they came to be preferred; now most uk eggs are brown, so white may one day become preferable; this i think has already happened in usa.

[stanbee]

America has both white and brown.