Why Are Blue Eggs Blue

By Jessie Collins

Did you know that there are only 2 egg shell colors – blue (green eggs are a variation of the blue egg) and white. Brown, tan, cream, olive, etc. are due to the pigment that is deposited on the blue or white egg shell.

So what makes a blue egg blue? Blue eggs are due to a retrovirus that has transformed it’s RNA into DNA. This retrovirus is completely harmless and does not mean the chicken is sick or a carrier of a virus. The links below explain more in depth how this works.

References

http://www.virology.ws/…/a-retrovirus-makes-chicken…/

https://articles.extension.org/…/food-safety-and-blue…

https://academic.oup.com/ps/article/94/10/2566/2077496