I get a lot of questions about the color of my eggs. Well, not mine. My chickens.

It’s fun seeing the variety in our egg basket. But can you know which color egg a hen will lay just by looking at her? Yep. Early in my chicken-raising career, I learned a cool way to know.

Her ear lobes.

I know, you didn’t even know chickens had ear lobes. They do. You have to look close and they are covered in little pin feathers, but they are there and they correlate to egg color to a shocking degree.

Bottom line, if a hen has white ear lobes, she (almost always) lays white eggs. Non-white lobes (brown, gray, yellow, tan, etc.), and she will likely lay a shade of brown. There are a few breeds that lay blue/green ones. Ameraucanas are the most common.

Wanna see a chicken’s ear lobe? Here you go:

White lobes = white eggs. Non-white = brown eggs.

Cool right?

Bonus info

Many folks ask if there is any taste or nutritional difference between different colored eggs.

Nope!

Kevin