Yellow yolks? [Food question]

Recently, our chickens' gorgeous, thick shelled, orange yolked eggs have been slightly thinner with a much paler yolk. : ( They have a constant supply of oyster shell and get occasional scratch and mealworms, (I recently gave them a forage block which they decimated, lol) but they haven't been able to graze at all recently, due to the newer chickens (assumed) impossibility to round up back into the coop and run. Do you think this is why the yolks are so ugly now?

I'm guessing it is mostly the fault of switching feeds - we're back to what I believe we started with (my mom buys the food so I can rarely remember), which is Purina Layena, and am hoping for a positive change. (They absolutely hated the 'new' feed and weren't eating as much). Is there anything else I can do to get those gorgeous eggs and healthier chickens? I am planning on building a little pen for them to pasture in supervised, but in the meantime they're stuck in. (It's a 20ft run, but entirely dirt and sand now).

Are supplements, like Manna Pro Egg Maker good for them, or does it have any negative affects? What are the best vegetables to supplement them with? Vitamins, other supplements?

Also, what can I give the 'new chickens' to help them with healthy feather growth? 2/3 chickens' feathers are absolutely hideous, dirty and ragged, while my raised-from-chick girls have gorgeous, shiny feathers. Do I just have to wait for them to molt? One poor girl is missing all of her tail feathers.

do the chickens have pale legs and waddles? if so they are just going thro a process that makes them stop laying eggs and during it their egg quality goes down

It's most likely the feed change. Also, did they free range at all? Loss of certain fresh greens this time if year can affect pigment of yolk.

Fresh greens with xanthophylls, spinach, chard, beets, zuchinni, yellow squash, pumpkin, etc... Those will help brighten the yolk back up; some producers simply use marigold extract to color the yolks nice and orange.

Supplements can help, especially if they're molting, or trying to keep up with cold weather; so can probiotics and fermented feed. It will help them maximize nutrient absorption so they can build immunity and use all those precious vitamins for shiny feathers and heakthy eggs.

It's because they aren't foraging. I started out with chickens on my lawn 100% of the time, and they always had dark orange yolks. But, I had to confine them to a traditional chicken run that has hardly any grass (just a small grazing frame area that they mow down quicker than it can grow!) They're yolks all went yellow after that. My chickens still eat a healthy diet of whole grains and seeds, but for some reason the grass is what makes the color difference in yolks.

Without fresh forage they need supplemented greens for the vibrant yolk. Most folks can provide that with food prep leavings or left overs that have been in fridge too many days. Don't throw that stuff out, it's valuable feed!

I add to my chicken feed sweet Paprika and very hot chili, the Capsaicin is one of most greatest disease( bacterial, fungal, helmintal) preventer in nature! And the bonus is the most orange yolk you ever seen! See pic,( 2-3 tbs for 1kg of feed!)




The orange are mine the yellow is organic free range egg I have perches in the market.
They do free range in my garden an get a lot vegis!

Those are some beautiful yolks, @Akrnaf2! Do you find the pepper useful for medicine, too? I've read that cayenne can help cure fowl pox!

Thanks!
It do magic! Its help preventing the establishment of a lot of pathogens!
And the hottest it is the better it gets! The chickens eat it with no problem at all!
And the eggs are delicious!

Beautiful yolks! What a great illustration of the difference. Mine are pretty orange too. I didn't realize greens could make a difference. My girls free range and eat a lot of kale. We feed Scratch & Peck so don't know if the food helps but if the change in yolk color happened when the food was switched, you might consider asking mom to switch back.

I think food choice is one of the most important things we can do for our animals.

beginnergirl said:

Beautiful yolks! What a great illustration of the difference. Mine are pretty orange too. I didn't realize greens could make a difference. My girls free range and eat a lot of kale. We feed Scratch & Peck so don't know if the food helps but if the change in yolk color happened when the food was switched, you might consider asking mom to switch back.

I think food choice is one of the most important things we can do for our animals.

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Agree!
and the most important is that the good food that we give our animals will come back to us!