April Fools 2016 - New Development: Chicken Feed That Changes Egg Shell Color!

[sunny & the 5 egg layers]

hey if the can do it with birds, fish and orchids why not eggs right

That's Right!

 

[rlancaster]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE​

SAN FRANCISCO, California - For hundreds of years chicken breeders have excitedly worked towards developing chicken breeds that lay a specific unique egg color. Today we're excited to announce the development of a type of feed that can change a white egg-layer's egg-shell color to one of 4 (four) different colors: dark brown, pale green, pale pink, or pale blue. "We have thousands of amazingly passionate chicken owners on our community forum that wish they could have a more colorful egg basket", said Rob Ludlow, owner of www.BackYardChickens.com. "They just want to get a bit more variety from their nest boxes, but aren't sure which breeds to get or which color eggs they will end up preferring. After years of testing and development, and thousands of trials, we've finally found a solution to this problem, and we're excited to release the news!" Background: Egg yolk color can be controlled to some extend by chickens' diet. The question then became: "Is it possible to take that a step further and also change the egg's shell color?!" After posing this question to a handful of avian experts that specialize in chicken egg development, BYC management approached a well known feed company with the challenge to develop a feed that will, over time, change a white egg-shell laying hen and transition them into laying one of four predetermined colors. After years of trials and testing, a recently documented set of 500 White Leghorn hens were separated into the following groups of 100 hens:

1. Group 1: Control Group - Fed a non-adjusted version of the feed
2. Group 2: Dark Brown Group - Fed the Dark Brown version of the feed
3. Group 3: Pale Green Group - Fed the Pale Green version of the feed
4. Group 4: Pale Pink Group - Fed the Pale Pink version of the feed
5. Group 4: Pale Blue Group - Fed the Pale Blue version of the feed

Each group was fed this feed exclusively for a period of 6 weeks. The change in egg shell color was gradual and the examples shown below are from hens that have been fed this feed for 2 months. (The examples shown below are from the White Leghorn hens from the groups mentioned above.)

Additional details on the product will be posted in a follow-up release tomorrow. We anticipated some of these questions, so here are the topics that will be discussed in detail tomorrow:

1. Which company is BYC partnering with?
2. When will this feed be available?
3. Is the feed safe?
4. How does the feed change the egg-shell color?
5. Is the feed organic?
6. How long will it take for my white egg-laying hen to return to white eggs after I stop feeding this special feed?
7. What happens if I feed the egg-changing color to a non-white egg-laying hen?

Again, these questions, and others, will be answered in detail tomorrow. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to post them as replies to this thread! YOUR HELP NEEDED: We're looking for a good name for this product and the feed company wants our BYC Members to propose some names. The lucky member(s) who have their suggested name(s) chosen, will receive 5 free 20lbs bags of feed, plenty to convert your white egg-layers into a color of your choice! Please reply to this thread with your proposed product name and also any questions/comments you may have. A representative of the feed company will answer all questions tomorrow.

 

[movingon]

Very interesting.... I would call it A1-Feed It would pop up first in searches. If I win

please divide the bags between the 5 runners up !

 

[mobius]

What's the protein content?

 

[attimus]

My chickens have been eating turmeric (mixed into their feed) since 2009 with no change in the egg shell color.  If I feed them larger amounts, it wouldn't be cost effective.  So, while it could be the herring, or maybe salmon, where the plankton they eat is actually that dark melon color, they're not going to be able to use turmeric.  A more scientific method of getting yellow/gold eggs will have to be employed so that prices of the feed will be low enough for people to buy it.

Also, a real feed additive, marigolds, does make the yolk darker orangey/yellow, but doesn't change the shell color.  I can't wait for tomorrow to find out from the feed company how they're going to do it.  I bet it's patented, though, or a secret, like KFC, where the feed company doesn't legally don't have to tell the recipe.  Plus, if the ingredient is added in a low enough amount, it doesn't have to be listed ... like Senomyx (or at least it used to be like that).

Oh, but farmed salmon does get its color from something added to the feed.  That colorizing feed additive for salmon must be cheap-ish or farmed salmon would be priced out of the market.

But attimus with his/her red herring idea.  That's genius.

farmed salmon actually has a lack of proper pigmentation and it was @Amelia Egghart that first mentioned a herring, for "color". jinkies, we're on to something, thinking like the color of his hair maybe

 

[rlancaster]

Komakazi chicken feed

 

[silkiecuddles]

This does not sound very natural to me.  I'd be hesitant to feed my chickens something like that. We like the various egg shell colors, the more the merrier, but I would prefer to have them be naturally produced by the hen herself, not by some additive.  Just my opinion.

True, it doesn't. But Rob said he'd give all the details tomorrow, so I'll guess we'll know then.

 

[Spangled]

Shell-a-bration

A lot of good name ideas have been submitted! I love this one! I was trying to come up with a name for the feed using "shell," but nothing I can come up with will beat this. It sounds like a party for a basket full of colorful eggs!

 

[pipAchick]

'fruity feathers'
'cockeral crunch'
Come on the ceral company's been profiting off that old rooster for years,its time they contribute!

 

[BantyChooks]

'fruity feathers'
'cockeral crunch'
Come on the ceral company's been profiting off that old rooster for years,its time they contribute!

X2!


....... I still like "Clucky Charms" the best......