Please note: A similar PDF version of this blog is now available as a downloadable wall display in the schools and nurseries ‘General Resources‘ area (all key stages) and ‘Care Home Resources‘ area of this website, titled ‘Exploring Eggs – Size and Colour’.
Welcome to our special Easter egg blog!
As you might guess, we’re rather enthusiastic about eggs here at Incredible Eggs – they’re a big part of our lives!
Just in case anyone thinks all eggs are basically the same size and colour, we thought we’d show you a few of the wonderful and huge variations we are lucky to see every day. We’ll also show you the birds that lay them – and the babies that hatch out.
These photos were all taken at our Incredible Eggs branch farms. They show our own birds and just a few of the eggs which go into our hatching kits. We hope you enjoy…
Firstly, let’s take a look at a few different eggs:
Eggs laid by our Cream Legbars
Eggs laid by our Welsummers
A very pretty mix of Light Sussex and Cream Legbar eggs – almost a rainbow!
Now let’s take a look at some parent birds, their eggs and the babies which hatch out!
Black East Indian Ducks
Almost everything about our Black East Indian ducks is…black! And yes, this includes their eggs! These ducks are one of the many rare breeds we preserve here at Incredible Eggs. Adult birds have the most beautiful beetle green sheen on their feathers when the sun shines, as you can see below.
Pekin Bantams
Chickens don’t come much cuter than Pekin bantams and we breed them in a wide range of colours. A bantam is a ‘mini-chicken’, and their eggs are mini too! We’ve put a ‘normal’ sized chicken egg, – like those for sale in supermarkets – next to some Pekin eggs, so you can see the size difference for yourself.
Grey Partridges
Unlike all the other domesticated breeds we keep, grey partridges are wild birds and they lay the smallest of the eggs we work with. They lay their eggs in clumps of long grass. There are many birds and animals who would eat these eggs if given half a chance. Clever Mother Nature has made this far less likely by matching the colour of the eggs exactly with the colour of the long grass in which they are laid. The eggs are almost completely camouflaged when in situ.
Light Sussex
These chickens lay eggs more like those you’d find in a shop. Hens lay approximately 180–200 tinted eggs per year, the shells of which range in colour from a delicate pink to a soft peach.
Pekin Ducks
Pekin duck eggs are larger than most chickens eggs and white in colour. Although many people only eat chickens eggs, duck eggs like these also make fantastic eggs for eating. Many cooks insist that cake made with duck eggs is far superior and more delicious than cake made with chicken eggs!
Cream Legbars
Yes, some chickens really do lay blue eggs! Meet the Cream Legbar, one of the rare breeds we preserve here at Incredible Eggs. As you can see, the eggs are a beautiful powder blue and look almost unreal. We promise you they are just like any other chicken egg inside though – no chocolate here!
Wishing all of our customers, old and new, a really eggcellent Easter!
From all at Incredible Eggs
