Yolk Colour

Brownie · **Posted:** Sat Sep 08, 2012 10:09 pm

My pullets are all laying now, and with four eggs a day I sold my first dozen last week. I got a polite comment back that the yolk colour was 'funny', very yellow, not orange like the free range eggs they'd been buying before.

I give my four layer's pellets, lots of greens (silverbeet, milkthistle, clumps of grass) and they spend the day on grass. They get a handful of composting worms to share each day. I think that's a pretty balanced diet. What makes the yolk colour yellow or orange? Are very yellow yolks what they'll always lay, or does yolk colour change over time?

Hens and Hobbits · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 9:31 am

Hi, Brownie,

Funny thing about selling produce or craft, some people you never can please and always find fault and are never happy. I bet if you gave them the eggs for free they would have commented how lovely they were.

Carotenoids in the chook's feed make their yolks yellow or orange, so feeding your girls corn whether it be fresh corn on the cob, or even frozen corn kernels or cobs (don't forget to cook them first) a handful of crushed maize/corn in the evening, along with the dark leafy green vegetables such as silverbeet and spinach etc will produce a yellower yolk. When we have marigolds they love to dine on the petals. You can buy marigold petal salad mix at Vic Market too. I occasionally grate carrot for the girls or they have left over mashed pumpkin. All in all the chookie ingests the yellow pigments of the corn etc and in theory they should produce a nice golden yellow yolk.

I am waiting for my brood to get up for a cooked Sunday breakfast so I'll post a photo of one of our girl's eggs in the pan. egch6678

Brownie · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 9:52 am

Thanks Hens & Hobbits. They are a good rich bright yellow, but I think most people are used to the rich orange colour of commercial eggs: I certainly was too till seeing mine and now I don't notice. Apparently all commercial chickens (even most commercial free range) are fed yolk pigment in their feed to make the yolks consistently orange, the colour that people expect to see. Then that brainwashes people into thinking they always have to be orange.

I'll have heaps of marigolds in the next few months, so that's good to know. And when you say crushed corn makes the eggs a nice golden yellow, that's what I would have called the colour of mine, but you probably mean with more orange in it. They don't get any grains at the moment.

It would be good to see one of your eggs in the pan to compare the difference in colour, thanks.

Hens and Hobbits · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 10:52 am

Here you go, freshly laid and cracked in the pan, all natural yellow food pigments from corn etc

A 2kg bag of cracked corn cost about $4 at the local stockfeed. The girls get a handful in colder months for supper, but not in summer as it will overheat them.

viewtopic.php?f=32&t=19058

Brownie · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:08 am

Thank you very much for posting that yummy looking Sunday breakfast egg. Well that's definitely what I'd call a very orange yolk, and you haven't added anything unnatural to get it. I'm off to the stock place to get some cracked corn tomorrow. By the time the weather warms up when it's too hot to feed them corn there will be plenty of Marigolds to eat instead.

I believe there's no nutritional difference between yellow yolks and orange ones, but I may as well 'get with the program' and go for the more orange yolk that everyone seems to like so much. You've solved the egg yolk colour mystery for me Hens & Hobbits. Thank you.

Petite Poulet · **Joined:** Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:17 pm **Posts:** 5219

Hi, Brownie

,

Fresh corn on the cob is expensive to buy now. NQR supermarkets have really cheap bags of frozen corn, kernels and cobs about $2. My girls get warm corn for breakfast in the winter and a handful of scratch (cracked corn, wheat and a few sunflower seeds)for dinner . They are also on Barastoc Darling Layers Downs and Red Hen Free Range Layer, lots of dark green leaf veggies and almost daily access to free ranging.

We know someone who went on a carrot juice diet, their skin turned a funny orange colour [smilie=orange.gif]

it was due to the carotene she had over dosed on; so it would be the same with chook's egg yolks I suppose the more yellow food you feed them the more yellow their yolk.

Brownie · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 1:44 pm

Well there's another couple of good tips thanks PP. I'm budget conscious and prefer not to buy people food or tinned food for the chooks. Anything natural in the garden or home or cheap from the stock place is the go for me.

Some of those mixed grains in 20kg bags would certainly be worth a look, especially if they have the cracked corn in them too. And carrots ay? It's about time I got another big bag of cheap 'horse carrots' (fresh but broken or mis-shapen) to blanch and put in the freezer for myself, so there will be plenty of gratings and offcuts left over for the chooks. If they keep the chooks happy and help get the yolks more orange, that sounds like a good idea too. Thanks PP!

Sebducks · **Joined:** Wed Mar 11, 2009 3:41 pm **Posts:** 812

It's very normal for egg yolk colour to vary, mine do even though they all eat the same and free range the same. Unless you are trying to please the person who said the colour was "funny" I wouldn't bother too much about it. Sounds as though your chooks are very well looked after and healthy. I give mine layer mash, 17% protien with free access to an acre of my yard, they get the odd scrap but not much, the layer mash I get has cracked corn in it already. $17 for 25kg.

Brownie · **Posted:** Sun Sep 09, 2012 11:22 pm

Sebducks wrote:

It's very normal for egg yolk colour to vary, mine do even though they all eat the same and free range the same. Unless you are trying to please the person who said the colour was "funny" I wouldn't bother too much about it. Sounds as though your chooks are very well looked after and healthy. I give mine layer mash, 17% protien with free access to an acre of my yard, they get the odd scrap but not much, the layer mash I get has cracked corn in it already. $17 for 25kg.

Thanks for that Sebducks. Sometimes I feel like a clue-less new mother watching the every move of these poor new chooks, and I'm sure learning a lot quickly thanks to the sensible advice and reassurances given by generous people like you.

$17 for 25kg of 17% protein mash including corn!? That's great value. I don't think our stock place had mash, but I'll see if they can get it in for a similar price. I do wonder about the basic 15% protein layer's pellets I'm using ($15 for 20kg). There has to be a lot of non-nutritious junk in there as filler. Thanks for the good information.

Hens and Hobbits · **Posted:** Mon Sep 10, 2012 7:19 am

Sebducks wrote:

the layer mash I get has cracked corn in it already. $17 for 25kg.

Hi, Sebducks,

Is this what your layer mash looks like, sort of a free range mix with pellets?

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