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Short Stuff: All About Egg Colors · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck and we're about to take you on a
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: ride through a chicken's ovaduct at some point in this episode.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: And why we're doing that is to explain why chicken
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: eggs have different colors in some cases, and we're going
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: to get really into the weeds on it and it's
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: going to be great.
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: That's right. And for this episode, we're going to pretend
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: that eggs are not super expensive because we're going to
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: talk about buying eggs and you know, stuff like that, right,
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: And that's just the fact that life eggs are really
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: expensive right now, So let's just put that to the
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: side for a moment.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Well, we also have to presume that you can even
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: find the eggs to buy.
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a solid point. This came about because I
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: just went on our annual fifth annual rather frigid Fiesta,
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: which is my buddies and I try to get together
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: and go to my camp on the coldest, one of
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the coldest days of the years. I make an MVC
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Most Valuable Camper Trophy. I earned that trophy for the
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: first time this year.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Very provatulation. Would you do to earn it.
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: I so bead some Wagoo steaks I provided the camp
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: I think it finally dawned on everyone. That was kind
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: of a big deal. You know. I partied in just
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: the right way to impress everybody nice and you know,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: some other things, and that's generally how you went it.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: You kind of go above and beyond. And my comedy
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: was on point. I was just on fire with the jokes,
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: wow and DJing like, yeah, I kind of had it
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: in the bag. But long way of saying, my buddy Justin,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: whom you know from London, England, who raises chickens. He
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: always supplies the eggs, and he showed up with some
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: olive eggs, some brown speckled eggs, a couple of sort
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: of light tan eggs, and I just started wondering about it.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: And now I know, and I told Justin the deal
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: as well, why his chickens are making different eggs.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Did he want to know that?
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: He was very curious. Okay, good well, Chuck. One of
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: the things that I think immediately pops up that we
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: can't possibly get past without mentioning first is that, regardless
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: of the color of the eggs, I really hope this
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: is true. One is not necessarily more nutritious than the other.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Now, those brown eggs, you gotta get those brown eggs
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: or natural josh, no bleach them.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: You're thinking of rice or flour. Oh, non brown chicken
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: eggs are not bleached. That is not true. That would
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: be a really bad thing to do to an egg.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: The white eggs that you see that make up the
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: vast majority of the eggs that you buy in the
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: United States, they come from leghorn chickens, as in foghorn
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: leghorn but he was a rooster, but the hens of
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: his breed lay white eggs. They're not bleached, they just
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: come out that way.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And most eggs in the commercial egg industry in
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: the United States are from leg horns, so most are white.
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: So when you see like a fancy brown egg, it's
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: the same egg. Well that's if it's you know, not
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: you know, the pasture rays and the stuff that we're
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: already expensive.
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: The one distinction really.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we'll talk about that later. But a white
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: egg is the same as a brown egg nutritional. Nutritionally speaking,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: they come from the leg horns, Orphington's and plymouth rocks.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Those are varieties of chickens they're going to lay the browns.
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: There's a chicken called an Americana and not Americana because
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: it has an au in there that is a breed
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: which gives the the It permeates that pigment goes all
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: the way through, and so the inside color of the
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: egg is bluish as well as the outside, which is
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: a pretty cool fact.
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we need to shout out. A University of Georgia
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: poultry scientists named get this justin Fowler Amazing. It is amazing.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: And so he provided a lot of the insight on
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: how all of this works, and he basically said it's genetics.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: But you don't have to run a chicken's genome to
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: figure out what color eggs it's going to produce. It's
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: it's much easier than that. You can at least distinguish
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: colored egg layers, not necessarily the color, but whether they're
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: going to lay an egg that has some sort of
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: tint to it versus ones that are going to lay
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: just white eggs based on their ear lobes. A couple
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: of things about this. I didn't know that you could
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: judge the color of a chicken's eggs by looking at
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: its earlobes. I also didn't know that chickens had earlobes.
• 4:41
  Speaker 2: And you're gonna say that because you know what I
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: told Justin that he has chickens, and he said the
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: same thing.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean I've seen them a million times. They're
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: like they almost look like mutton chops, like meatloaf from
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: a Rocky horror picture show, but they're on chickens faces instead.
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Those are their ear lobes.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Can you imagine if his name was Greg Fowler, why
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: we'd have the name egg in his name too.
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, he could.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: Go buy g R egg Fowler.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: He could.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: Anyway, if you've got a white chicken, it's gonna lay
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: a white egg because they probably have white ear lobes
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: or generally lighter ear lobes or lighter feathers. If they
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: have colored feathers and colored ear lobes, are going to
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: have colored eggs.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, but again not necessarily like the same color as that.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: But it just means that they're producing more pigment than
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: other chickens, and they like to really show off by
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: laying some of that pigment on the eggs. And I say,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: we take a break, and we come back and we
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: take that trip down the oviduct when we return.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: All right, let's do.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: It, Okay, Chuck, get your miner's cap on turned on
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: the light. Yep, maybe don some gloves. Yeah, And we're
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: going to go in the oviduct of a chicken a hen.
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: And when you go in there, we're going to see
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: the ova that is the chicken yolk and it forms
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: in the chicken's ovaries and an ovum leaves the ovary
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: and it gets deposited in the oviduct and it's almost
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: like a cartoony conveyor belt, like I can almost see
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: like mechanical gloved hands shaping things along the way.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, for sure, in the oviduct on that conveyor belt,
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: there're gonna be five different sort of in order, because
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: it's a conveyor belt segments that they're going to go
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: through that yoka is going to go through or the
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: ovum and it's in the fourth one of those five
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: where that shell is formed. It's a calcium carbonate shell
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: that comes from the shell gland and that is where
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: the shell forms around the ovum and that's where it
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: gets pigmented.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Right. That's uh, that's Greg Fowler's middle name.
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: Gregg, Greg's shell Gland Fowler.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Or his fraternity nickname.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: But they all start white, right, Yeah.
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Because they're made of calcium carbonate, and that is white
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: in nature. It's so all chickens eggs are white. That's
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: That's all you really need to know, except for everything
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: else that's about to follow, and that is that once
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: the egg is formed and it's a white egg, some
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: kinds of chickens deposit a pigment on it. Yeah. Again,
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: like the leghorn white ear lob, no pigment deposit. But
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: other kinds, like you said, Plymouth Rocks, Orphington's, Rhode Island reds,
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: they all put a little bit of pigment, I guess,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: just to kind of make the world a slightly brighter place.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: I can't think of any other reason for this, evolutionarily speaking,
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: but we have narrowed it down to two distinct pigments
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: that are responsible for the galaxy of colors. Maybe not galaxy,
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: but the wide array of colors that chicken eggs come in. Yeah.
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: And do you know, by the way, I heard a
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: recording of the actual sound they got a microphone inside
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: of chicken. The sound of the pigment being placed on
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: it is kind of like this. Let me try another
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: take just in case.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, does it come out of like a pastry frosting bag?
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Well, sure you can call it that, Chris. All right,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: So back to sorry about that twelve year old Chuck
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: showed up for a minute. Those two pigments that, like
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: you said, are the ones responsible for the different shades
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: are Billi Verden Biliverden I like Billi Verden and poor
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Fyrine or proto poorfyron Porrin.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: Okay, so that's proto. Yeah, that is those two make
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: the whole thing. The greens and blues are the Billy
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Verden and the protopor Frin make the reddish browns. That's right.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: And it's not just chickens that this happens with. You
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: know Robin's lay Tiffany box blue eggs.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look at you.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: I think it's usually described as Robin's egg blue, but
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: that's from the same process. It makes that same sound.
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: Can we hear it again? Yeah. There's also a bird
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: called the common mure, and they have a blue egg
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: that sometimes is speckled. I think all of this is
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: so wonderful, but really there's nothing that can compare to
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: an easter egg that's been dipped in a vinegar food
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: dye dip and held by that little wire thing that
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: you kind of bring it out with and then you
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: mark or no, you start with the crane and then
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: you you dyet like, let's see a chicken do that
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: maybe a chevron patterned on your egg? Naturally chicken and
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: you can't do it.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: I totally agree. Uh. And here's the thing. We talked
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: about nutrition earlier and you said it's all the same,
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: and that's true. The inside of a white egg is
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: the same as the inside of a brown egg. If
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: you if you get like, you know, the really now
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: they're super expensive. Not not the free range, because you know,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: I worked in the chicken industry and I've tried to
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: dispel that myth that generally if it says free range,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: that just means that the door is open to the barn.
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: But they're not really.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Out there with page free too.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, cage free, but a genuine pasture raised chicken. They
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: can actually be more nutritious if they're foraging on greens
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: and eating insects and things that just a better variety
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: of of stuff that the even the cage free and
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: the free range aren't getting If you get those really
• 10:54
  Speaker 2: really expensive pasture raised ones, they may have slightly higher
• 10:59
  Speaker 2: levels of Omega three, fatty acids and vitamins.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and before Warren, because in the United States, at least,
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: the term pastur raised is not regulated. You could slap
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: that on any egg you wanted some research. Luckily, there
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: are some certification groups that go through and actually certify
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: these are pasture raised. So you want to look for
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: certifications like certified humane is a legitimate one that means
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: that that chicken actually was walking around pecking at the ground,
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: not in like some big metal shed with a trillion
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: other chickens.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I'm gonna recommend, especially now that eggs are
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: so expensive, like try and source them locally. They're guarantee
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: you in your town there is a farmer's market with
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: some stinky hippie that's going to sell you some eggs
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: and a funny looking container, or at the very least
• 11:47
  Speaker 2: a used egg carton from somewhere else. Or if you
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: have a friend like I do that you know they'll
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: give us eggs because those used to be like, oh gosh,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: they're so pricey, but their prices aren't jacked up because
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: they're not. You know, the locals aren't suffered from the
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: commercial egg industries woes. So now some of those are
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: cheaper than grocery store eggs.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know where they're.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: Coming from and they're walking around eating insects and grass.
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But there's some things that you need to know
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: about this if you're eating locally sourced eggs. One is
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: that they probably haven't been washed, which is fine, that
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: they don't normally come washed. Unless you're buying the commercially
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: produced eggs in Australia, the US, Japan, you have to
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: wash them. The problem with washing an egg, though, is
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: that it removes the little waxy coating that the egg
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: is naturally encased in that keeps bacteria out of the shell.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: As hard as the shell seems, it's actually kind of
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: porous and bacteria can make it right into the egg
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: and kill you and everyone you love, but that waxy
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: coating keeps that from happening. The problem with all this is,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: and this is the reason why the United States, in Japan,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: and Australia require their commercially produced eggs to be washed,
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: is that coating really hangs on to things like salmonella
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: and chicken yard poop and all this stuff. So you
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: kind of have to balance the two. Do you want
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: salmonilla or do you want e coli? Which one do
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: you want? So if you get locally sourced eggs, it
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: makes sense to keep them unwashed until you want to
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: eat them. Then you wash it, use a little bit
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: of DON some water, you wash that off, and then
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: you eat it a washed.
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I would not recommend using don, but that's just me.
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: Why what's wrong with Don? I love Don great. They
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: have a free and clear with the it's got a
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: little duck on it. It's totally natural.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm sure it's free and clear. It is the
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: good thing though about getting eggs from your friends or
• 13:50
  Speaker 2: someone that doesn't wash their eggs, as you can just
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: leave them out.
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: They don't need to be refrigerated, true it, But once
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: you do wash them, you need to refrigerate them because again,
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: bacteria can invade them pretty easily. Yeah.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: But I'll tell you I've eaten dozens and dozens of
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: those eggs from justin, never washed them, never had a problem.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Really. Oh yeah, did you get a little poop in
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: your eggs?
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: No?
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: They're great? Cool? Well there there you go to everything
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: you need to know about locally sourced eggs from your
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: friend Chuck feet. That's right, Well, I Chuck said, that's right,
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: and that means obviously that short stuff is out.
• 14:28
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