Greenish/darkish egg yolk (raw, not boiled and fresh not rotten!)

Yesterday I went to make something and I cracked open two eggs and both yolks were an odd greenish/darkish color. They were fresh eggs, I gather eggs each day. I smelled it and it smelled fine. This was not a rotten egg. I threw them away and I cracked open two more eggs of which were also fresh (I ended up cracking open 8 total) and all of them had this same freakish color to them.

I live on the northern plains where it has been bitter cold. My chickens have not been going outside except on a rare day when the sun is shining and it's "warm" (relatively speaking). Otherwise they'd rather not be in the snow. I haven't changed their feed. They get chicken feed from the local farm and home store that I have always purchased. I also supplement them with cracked grain which I also purchase from the same store.

There is nothing else that they have access to. They get fresh water every day. We pick their eggs every day.

The one thing that I have done differently in the last two weeks was to take a small Walmart sized bag full of shredded paper and tossed it into their coop. I've been considering getting shredded paper to use as bedding and I had this small bag of it and just threw it in. (No, I did not leave the walmart bag in there).

Today when I cracked open the eggs that were gathered from today, they still have an odd greenish tinge to them, but it's getting lighter colored.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Anything here:

Green yolks:
100 to 250 mg of sodium
chlorophyllin in feed.
Avoid feeding to hens.
Seed pods of Shepherd’s purse
and pennycress
Use clean grains in feeding programs.

Greenish-brown yolks:
5 gm or more of pimiento peppers
daily to each hen
Use smaller amounts for a desirable color in egg

Gossypol in cottonseed meal
Prevent bluish-green yolks by limiting cottonseed meal with high gossypol content to 5% of the layer diet. New varieties and improved processing of CSM have been developed that have low levels of gossypol. If the diet contains cottonseed meal with high gossypol levels, add iron at the rate of 0.05% by weight of the diet. This can be achieved by adding ferrous sulphate powder at die rate of 0.25% by weight of the diet.

Good luck,

Imp

Thank you! I just noticed this happening to the small eggs my Bantys have been laying. There is no difference in their diet, but the do free range during the day now...

Great info to have, thanks again.

Can you please clarify whether the greenish eggs are safe to eat?

I've eaten many of them, same taste, hasn't made me sick yet.

GGood to know but I gave this first one to my dog, who didn't complain.