Egg Fun Facts

A chicken's earlobe color often predicts its egg color. Hens with white earlobes tend to lay white eggs; hens with red earlobes lay brown eggs. It's not perfect, but it's surprisingly reliable.

Source: Michigan State University Extension

The Araucana chicken breed lays naturally blue eggs. The color comes from a pigment called oocyanin that permeates the entire shell — not just the surface.

Source: Poultry Science, 2013

China produces roughly 30% of the world's eggs — about 470 billion eggs per year as of 2022. That's approximately 340 eggs per person per year in China alone.

Source: FAO, FAOSTAT Database

The world record for most hard-boiled eggs eaten in 8 minutes is 141, set by Joey Chestnut at the World Hard Boiled Egg Eating Championship in 2023.

Source: Major League Eating

The largest omelette ever made weighed 6,510 kg (14,225 lbs) and was cooked in Ankara, Turkey in 2010. It used 110,000 eggs.

Source: Guinness World Records

The most expensive egg ever sold at auction was the 1913 Rothschild Fabergé Egg, which fetched $18.5 million at Christie's in 2007.

Source: Christie's Auction House

The record for the longest distance an egg has been thrown and caught without breaking is 98.51 meters (323 ft), set in Texas in 1978.

Source: Guinness World Records

The world's largest egg collection belongs to the Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology in California, which holds over 1 million egg specimens from nearly 4,000 species.

Source: Western Foundation of Vertebrate Zoology

The record for the tallest stack of eggs is 4, balanced freestanding by Mohammed Muqbel in Yemen in 2021.

Source: Guinness World Records

Global egg production reached approximately 93 million metric tonnes in 2022, having more than tripled since 1990.

Source: FAO, FAOSTAT Database

The oldest known preserved egg is a fossilized dinosaur egg from the Late Cretaceous period, approximately 70 million years old, found in Guangdong Province, China.

Source: National Geographic; Chinese Academy of Sciences