White eggs

IF you buy eggs in a carton, from a shop or supermarket, when did you last see a white one?

White hens’ eggs are becoming as rare as hens’ teeth. There is a fad for brown eggs, although hens of different breeds lay eggs of various shades. Brown eggs are not ‘‘more natural’’, they are just laid by a differentcoloured hen. It doesn’t make them ‘‘free range’’. It just makes them brown.

In the days when livestock breeds were being improved, hens were selected for their laying qualities. Some of these hens were white, and laid white eggs. Nobody minded.

Now, however, it seems that white eggs are not wanted. If their eggs are unsaleable it becomes uneconomic to keep them, except for a few kept as a hobby. This could mean large numbers of firstclass layers, previously valued for their eggs, being slaughtered simply because their eggs are an unfashionable colour.

These breeds could be lost along with their valuable genes. This doesn’t make much sense to me, and in a hungry world it seems appalling. Doesn’t it bother anyone else?

J. R. Bennett South Dunedin