Easter celebration; Why are some eggs white and others brown?

Had a very enjoyable Easter day. This is the first Easter that I remember where our oldest 2 children were really engaged in the celebration. They seemed much more aware of what was going on than they did before now.

Belleville just had one regular service at 10:00 a.m., as many regulars are away for the long week-end. During the service, our 2 month old got held by lots of different people. In fact, all throughout the day, different people held our children and/or engaged with them.

We had 7 guests with us for lunch: regulars Alain and Lindsey, intern Anne, Marie and Patricia from our church, and Paul and James from another church. It was good to get to know all of them better and to hang out with them. No one was in a rush to go, so it was a relaxing afternoon of eating and talking.

Lunch was a combination of roast pork with orange sauce, a pototo and cheese dish, green beans, salad, an assortment of cheese, dessert, and coffee/tea. Everyone helped out in bringing something, setting up and cleaning up, taking kid duty, etc.

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One topic of discussion was why the U.S. primarily has white eggs while France has brown ones. None of us really knew.

However, Trisha from Georgia e-mailed after reading yesterday's blog with a response that seems to make sense. Thanks Trisha. Here is her explanation.

I am a poultry veterinarian in my day job and the types of eggs available in an area really depend on local custom. In France, brown eggs have always been preferred so farmers have chosen to use the larger, less productive brown hens to meet that national desire. Brown breeds of hen are also hardy enough to survive okay in a cage-free system. Contrary to popular belief it is not better for the bird in a cage-free system and we have seen the resurgence of poultry diseases in Europe that we haven't seen since the 1920s because of this and many more birds die than they would in cages. So all in all, very few white leghorn hens are raised in Europe and so very few white eggs.

In the US, consumers never really cared and so the more productive and smaller white hens have been used predominantly. Also, in the US the veterinarians still have more say over how birds are raised than public opinion and so cages are still widely used.

SO you will probably never find white eggs commonly in France.