Egged On To Nutrition

Is there significance to the color or size of an egg? As Jim Shortt of Shortt’s Farm in Sandy Hook explains it, “Egg coloring is like skin pigmentation that determines what color skin you have — brown, black, white, whatever. The chicken’s pigmentation determines the color of the egg.” That pigmentation is best determined by looking at a chicken’s earlobe: white earlobes indicate white eggs, reddish-brown earlobes mean brown eggs.

The Shortts’ flock of 40 hens is made up of black sex link and Barr Plymouth Rocks, two varieties of hens that lay eggs of a rich brown color. The lone Rhode Island red in the flock is also a brown egg layer, but the one Araucan they own lays an egg of pale blue-green.

The black sex link and Barr Plymouth Rocks, says Mr Shortt, are hardy, heavy bodied chickens that have served as an all-purpose bird in the Northeast for several decades.

Because the white Holland Leghorn is more popular in other parts of the US than it is in New England, Mr Shortt says that fewer small chicken farmers in Connecticut end up with white eggs to sell. The Holland Leghorn, however, is a prolific producer of white eggs, the kind that are best for dyeing vibrant colors at Easter time.

Other breeds of chickens lay varying shades of brown, speckled or white eggs. If you want a colorful, but natural egg, The Ameraucana and Araucan breeds are known for eggs that range from pale green to turquoise blue.

The number of eggs a chicken lays, says Mr Shortt, is determined by the amount of light in the day. During the brief days of winter, laying comes to a near stand-still, picking up again in the spring as the days become longer. The size of an egg, however, is determined by the age of the chicken. “Most commercially raised chickens are slaughtered at a fairly young age,” Mr Shortt said. Hens such as those who peck away in the grass at Shortt Farm are luckier. They will live out their natural lives, about 5 to 6 years of age, and the size of their eggs is remarkable. His older chicken’s eggs burst out of a standard egg carton, too large to be contained without a rubber band to hold them in place.

The one thing all of these eggs have in common is their nutritional value. The USDA states that there is no verifiable difference in the amount of iron, folacin, or vitamins contained in an egg based upon its color. The average egg contains 70 calories with 6 grams of protein, 60 mg potassium, 6 percent of the RDA of vitamins C and B-6 and 8 percent of the RDA of vitamin B-12. It is a meal in a shell.