Recently we’ve started buying “Cage-Free” eggs at the grocery store. This had led me to notice that all the “organic” or “natural” or “cage-free” eggs are brown. There are also a good mix of brown eggs in with the standard eggs as well. This is new to me, as in both VA and NY, brown eggs were a bit of a rarity. The eggs for sale were almost exclusively white. In England, the eggs were almost exclusively brown – they only brought the white out around Easter. But, here in New England, apparently brown eggs are also popular.

So I said to myself today, “I wonder what the difference between brown and white eggs is?” It’s just not a question I’ve ever pursued before, so I really didn’t know. Me being me, I can’t let a matter such as this lay for long, and so I pulled up my handy-dandy web browser and did a little research.

The consensus? There is no difference other than the breed of chicken that lays the eggs. Apparently (especially with commercially produced eggs) there is no difference in taste or nutritional value. Generally speaking, brown eggs are laid by chickens with red feathers and earlobes (!), and white eggs by chickens with white feathers and earlobes. I even found one source that said there is a breed that lays blue eggs!

So, the next time you go to the grocery store, take a moment to appreciate our red-feathered chicken friends and their brown eggs, and the variety they bring to our refrigerator shelves.

Now if only we could get some of those blue eggs in the mix!

This message made possible by The American Egg Board, and brought to you in time for Easter by Mandy’s Random Brain and the Letter E.