Sudden Loss of Blue Egg Pigment

[Guest]

I have a one year old silver hen from John (Hey John!).  Here eggs hwere beautiful blue.  One day, I noticed a soft one laying in the run that was colorless.  Since then, her eggs are normal but the blue pigment has disappeared.  Every egg since the soft one (a month ago) is white with just the slightest hint of pink.  Otherwise, she appears in good health.
What could have caused this?   :thinking:

Thanks,
Andy

[Mike Gilbert]

Here is a link to a paper that explains the chemistry of the blue egg shell.   Hopefully there may be something in it to explain.   My feeling is that, after a prolonged rest from laying, the pigmentation may come back.   Pretty much all blue eggs fade to some extent after a prolonged period of lay.   The link:  http://ps.fass.org/cgi/reprint/85/3/546.pdf .
Without review, I don\'t remember if the article talks about the importance of copper in the diet to maintain/improve shell color, but there are some folks who say it works.   They advocate feeding copper-rich exotic foods like quinoa and sweet potato.   Intensity of egg color is not a big deal to me so I have not tried it.

[John]

Check out some previous discussions...
http://ameraucana.org/abcforum/index.php?a=topic&t=766
http://ameraucana.org/abcforum/index.php?a=topic&t=196