Short Stuff: All About Egg Colors | STUFF YOU SHOULD KNOW

[Music]. hey and welcome to the short stuff I'm. Josh and there's Chuck and we're about. to take you on a ride through a. chicken's. UCT at some point in this episode and. why we're doing that is to explain why. chicken eggs have different colors in. some cases and we're going to get really. into the Weeds on it and it's going to. be great that's right and for this. episode we're going to pretend that eggs. are not super expensive.

cuz we're going to talk about buying. eggs and you know stuff like that right. and that's just ative life eggs are. really expensive right now so let's just. put that to the side for a moment well. we're we also have to presume that you. can even find the eggs to buy yeah. that's a solid Point uh this came about. because I just went on our annual uh. fifth annual rather frigid Fiesta which. is uh my buddies and I try to get. together and go to my camp on the. coldest one of the coldest days of the. year thanks I make an MVC most valuable.

camper trophy uh I earned that trophy. for the first time this year very proud. congatulations wow what did you do to. earn it uh I sved some uh Wago steaks uh. I provided the camp I think it finally. dawned on everyone that that was kind of. a big deal uhuh uh I you know I I. partied in just the right way to impress. everybody nice uh and and you know some. other things and that's generally how. you win it you kind of go above and. beyond and.

uh my comedy was on point I was just on. fire with the jokes wow and and DJing. like yeah I kind of had it in the bag. but long way of saying my buddy Justin. whom you know uh from London England who. raises chickens I um he always supplies. the eggs and he showed up with some. olive eggs some brown speckled eggs uh a. couple of sort of Light tan eggs mhm and. I just started wondering about it and. now I know and I told Justin the deal as. well uh why his chicken are making.

different eggs did he want to know that. yeah he was very curious okay good well. Chuck one of the things that I think. immediately pops up that we can't. possibly get past without mentioning. first is that regardless of the color of. the. eggs I really hope this is true one is. not necessarily more nutritious than the. other brown eggs you got to get those. brown eggs are natural Josh they don't. bleach them you're thinking of rice or. flour oh non brown chicken eggs are not.

bleached that is not true that would be. a really bad thing to do to an egg um. the white eggs that you see that make up. the vast majority of the eggs that you. buy in the United States they come from. leghorn chickens as in fog horn Leghorn. MH uh but he was a rooster but the hens. of his breed lay white eggs they're not. bleached they just come out that way. yeah and most eggs in the commercial egg.

industry in the United States are from. leg horns MH so most are white so when. you see like a fancy brown egg it's the. same egg uh well that's if it's you know. not you know the pasture rays and the. stuff that are we already expensive. that's the one distinction really yeah. and we'll talk about that later but a. white egg is the same as a brown Egg. nutritional uh nutritionally speaking. they come from the legghorns orphon and. Plymouth rocks those are varieties of. chicken they're going to lay the Browns.

M there's a chicken called an uh. Americana and not Americana cuz it has. an au in there MH uh that is a breed. which gives the uh the it permeates that. pigment goes all the way through and so. the inside color of the egg is bluish as. well as the outside which is a pretty. cool fact yeah and we need to shout out. a University of Georgia poultry. scientist named get this Justin Fowler. now amazing it is amazing and so he.

provided a lot of the Insight on how all. of this works and he basically said it's. genetics but you don't have to um run a. chicken's genome to figure out what. color eggs it's going to produce it's. it's much easier than that you can at. least distinguish uh colored egg layers. not necessarily the color but whether. they're going to lay an egg that has. some sort of tint to it versus ones that. are going to lay just white eggs based. on their earlobes couple of things about.

this I didn't know that you could judge. the color of a chicken's um eggs by. looking at its earlobes I also didn't. know that chickens had earlobes I know. you're going to say that cuz you know. what I told Justin that he has chickens. and he said the same thing yeah I mean. I've seen them a million times they're. like they almost look like mutton chops. like meatloaf from uh Rocky Horror. Picture Show but they're on chicken. faces instead those are their earlobes. can you imagine if his name was Greg.

Fowler uh why he'd have the name egg in. his name too oh yeah he could go by gr. egg Fowler. good anyway if you got a white chicken. it's going to lay a white egg because. they probably have white earlobes or. generally lighter earlobes or lighter. feathers uh if they have uh colored. feathers they and colored earlobes are. going to have colored eggs yeah but. again not necessarily like the same. color as that but just means that.

they're producing more pigment than. other chickens and they like to really. show off by laying some of that pigment. on the eggs and I say we take a break. and we come back and we take that trip. down the. UCT when when we return all right let's. do it. [Music]. [Applause].

[Music]. stuff you should. know okay Chuck get your Miner cap on. mhm turn on the light yep maybe don some. gloves yeah and we're going to go in the. OV duct of a chicken a hen and when you. go in there we're going to see the OVA. that is the chicken yolk M and it forms. in the chicken's ovaries and an ovam. leaves the ovary and it gets deposited.

in the OV duct and it's almost like a. cartoony conveyor belt like I can almost. see like mechanical gloved hands shaping. things along the way yeah for sure uh in. the UCT on that conveyor belt they going. to be five different sort of in order um. because it's a conveyor belt uh segments. that they're going to go through that. yoka is going to go through or the ovom. and it's in the fourth one of those five. where that shell is formed it's a. calcium carb shell uh that comes from.

the shell gland and that is where the. shell forms around the ovam and that's. where it gets pigmented right um that's. uh that's Greg Fowler's middle name. shell Greg shell gland Fowler or his. fraternity nickname but they all start. white right yeah because they're made of. calcium carbonate and that is white in. nature it's so all chicken eggs are. white that's that's all you really need. to know except for everything else.

that's about to follow and that is that. once the egg is formed and it's a white. egg some kinds of chickens deposit a. pigment on it yeah again like Leg Horn. white earlobe no pigment deposit but. other kinds like you said um Plymouth. rocks orpington uh Rhode Island Reds. they all put a little bit of pigment I. guess just to kind of make the world a. slightly brighter place.

I can't think of any other reason for. this evolutionarily speaking but we have. narrowed it down to two distinct. pigments that are responsible for the. Galaxy of colors maybe not Galaxy but. the wide array of colors that um chicken. eggs come in yeah and do you know by the. way I heard a recording of the actual. sound they got a microphone inside a. chicken the sound of the pigment being. placed on it is kind of like. this hey let me let me try another take.

just in. case yeah does it come out of like a um. a pastry frosting bag yeah well sure you. can call it that. Chris all right so back to sorry about. that 12-year-old Chuck showed up for a. minute uh those two pigments that like. you said are the ones responsible for. the different shades are uh bden bivin I. like bden and and Proto.

porin or Proto porin porin okay um so. that that's it Proto yeah that is those. two make the whole thing the greens and. blues are the Billy veren um and the. protop porin make the reddish Browns. that's right and it's not just chickens. that this this happens with you know. robins lay um Tiffany box blue eggs oh. look at you I think it's usually. described as robin's egg blue. um but that's from the same process it.

makes that same sound can we hear it. again yeah there's also a bird called. the common mure and they have a blue egg. that sometimes is speckled I I I think. all of this is so wonderful but really. there's nothing that can compare to an. Easter egg that's been dipped in a. vinegar food dye dip or blend and held. by that little wire thing that you kind. of bring it out with and then you Mark. or no you start with the crank and then.

you you dye it like let's see a chicken. do that make a chevron pattern on your. egg naturally chicken you can't do it I. totally agree uh and here's the thing we. talked about nutrition earlier and you. said it's all the same and that's true. uh the inside of a white egg is the same. as the inside of a brown egg um if you. if you get like you know the the really. now they're super expensive yeah uh not. not the free range CU you know I worked. in the chicken industry and I've tried. to dispel that myth that generally if it.

says free range that just means that the. door is open to the barn but they're not. really out there same with cage free too. yeah cagefree but a genuine pasture. raised chicken they can actually be more. nutritious if they're foraging on greens. and eating insects and things that just. a better variety of of of stuff that the. even the cage free and the free range. aren't getting uh if you get those. really really expensive pasture raised. ones they may have uh slightly higher. levels of omega-3 fatty acids and.

vitamins yeah and be forewarned because. in the United States at least the term. pasture raise does not regulated you. could slap that on any egg you wanted. but research luckily there are some. certification groups that go through and. actually certified these are pasture. raised so you want to look for. certifications like um certified Humane. is a legitimate one that means that that. chicken actually was walking around. pecking at the ground not in like some. big metal shed with a trillion other.

chickens yeah and I'm going to recommend. especially now the eggs are so expensive. like try and Source them locally they're. I guarantee you in your town there is a. farmers market with some stinky hippie. that's going to sell you some eggs in a. funny looking container or at the very. least a used egg carton from somewhere. else or or if you have a friend like I. do that you know they'll give us eggs. cuz those used to be like oh gosh. they're so pricey but their prices. aren't jacked up because they're not you. know uh the locals aren't suffering from.

the the commercial egg industry's wos so. now some of those are cheaper than. grocery store eggs yeah and you know. where they're coming from and they're. walking around eating insects in Grass. yeah but there's some things that you. need to know about this if you're if. you're eating locally sourced eggs um. one is that they probably haven't been. washed which is fine um that they don't. normally come washed unless you're. buying the commercially produced eggs in. Australia the US Japan um you have to.

wash them the problem with washing an. egg though is that it removes the little. waxy coating that the egg is naturally. encased in that keeps bacteria out of. the shell as hard as the shell seems. It's actually kind of poor and bacteria. can make it right into the egg and kill. you and everyone you love but that waxy. coating keeps that from happening the. problem with all this is and this is the. reason why the United States and Japan. and Australia require their commercially.

produced eggs to be washed is that. coating really hangs on to things like. salmonella and chicken yard poop and all. this stuff so you kind of have to. balance the two do you want salmonella. or do you want eoli which one do you. want so if you get locally sourced eggs. it makes sense to um keep them uh. unwashed until you want to eat them then. you wash it use a little bit of dawn. some water wash that off and then you. eat it it um a washed I would not.

recommend Using Dawn but that's just me. why what's wrong with Dawn I love. Dawn great they have a free and clear. with the it's got a little duck on it. it's totally natural yeah I'm sure it's. free and clear it is uh the good thing. though about getting uh eggs from your. friends or someone uh that doesn't wash. their eggs is you can just leave them. out they don't need to be refrigerated. true. it uh but once you do wash them you need. to refrigerate them because again. bacteria can invade them pretty easily.

yeah but I'll tell you i' I've eaten. dozens and dozens of those eggs from. Justin never washed them never had a. problem really oh yeah did you get a. little poop in your. eggs no they're great cool um well there. there you go everything you need to know. about locally sourced eggs from your. friend Chuck B that's right uh Chuck. said that's right and that means. obviously the short stuff is. out stuff you should know is a. production of iHeart radio for more.

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