My friend in New Jersey is hoping to purchase a few chickens (probably 3 or 4) to lay smooth, white eggs for craft purposes. She has brown eggs to eat, but wants the white eggs for making fancy Ukrainian Easter eggs. So she's looking for the kind of chicken that lays white-only eggs, hopefully nice and thick and smooth-shelled. Any ideas of what kinds of chicken would be good here? The eggs can be of any size, smaller is better.

-- brooklynsheep (robbins@informinc.org), September 10, 2001

Answers

Leghorns are the most common.

-- Tom S. (trdsshepard@yahoo.com), September 10, 2001.

White or Brown leghorns are real good layers of white eggs. Although once they start laying good their eggs start getting on the large size. I think some of your banties will lay small white eggs. Not sure, maybe somebody can tell us what kind of chicken will lay small white eggs.

-- r.h. in okla. (rhays@sstelco.com), September 10, 2001.

bleach the shells

-- stan (sopal@net-port.com), September 10, 2001.

our buttercup hen lays small white eggs.

-- Elizabeth (eball2@wvu.edu), September 10, 2001.

Bleach renders the shell less capable of taking dye, especially light colors, so unfortunately that's not a workaround for us.

-- brooklynsheep (robbins@informinc.org), September 10, 2001.

In addition to the Leghorn varieties already mentioned there's also two varieties called the California Gray and the California White that lay white eggs. They're supposed to be a calmer disposition than the Leghorns but I haven't seen the birds myself. A Google search would probably turn up a hatchery for them.

From fallible memory I believe the Ancona, Andalusian and White Faced Spanish also lay white eggs.

Goose eggs are quite large and all that I've seen have been white.

={(Oak)-

-- Live Oak (oneliveoak@yahoo.com), September 10, 2001.

Silkies lay small, smooth, white eggs.

-- Sheryl in Me (radams@sacoriver.net), September 10, 2001.

Leghorns are great layers, but don't have the greatest disposition, and the ability to set on a nest has been bred out of them. I was given some and wound up giving them away; they wouldn't let the other hens in the nest boxes, and I have a half dozen nest boxes in each pen. Bossy little critters! -G-

Adding oyster shell to the feed of ANY bird will give a much harder egg shell, and it's good for the bone growth of the birds.

-- ~Rogo (rogo2020@yahoo.com), September 10, 2001.

Dear brooklynsheep,

We raised white leghorns, but found that they were very "flighty". We switched to Black Minorcas and they lay a large white egg and are very nice looking birds. Ours were purchased through Murray McMurray Hatchery.

-- Charleen in WNY (harperhill@eznet.net), September 11, 2001.

Leghorns are flighty and sometimes downright mean. I have friends who use California Greys.

When I was a kid, we had a really mean Leghorn rooster. I was about 8 or 9 years old (and small for my age). One day he attacked me, spurs and all. I was so startled I didn't even have time to scream. I managed to grab a wing, and started swinging him around and around, like we used to do with each other when we were kids, round and round in a circle. Finally, about the time *I* was getting dizzy, I just let him go, and he went flying across the yard (memory insists into the side of the barn, but I don't think I aimed that well in reality).

After awhile, he picked himself up and staggered off. Never attacked me again.

-- Sojourner (notime4@summer.spam), September 11, 2001.