Rainbow colored egg yolks!

[Corny Caleb]

this photo was not altered In Any way, but the yolk was RED!! In the pic it's much LIGHTER colored actually! I was amazed!!!! And the diet hadn't changed at all in the hen that laid this. And I wasn't feeding her food coloring lol. Anyone know why randomly a hen would lay a yolk THIS red?

 

[Corny Caleb]

Oh, and I'm going to do the yolk dying experiment, but a bit differently . I'll post pics if it works.

 

[tbiM20]

Oh, and I'm going to do the yolk dying experiment, but a bit differently . I'll post pics if it works.

Update?

 

[Xiao Casa]

I too would love an update!

x2

 

[Dagirls]

You all got me going. I always knew in general about egg yolks. One of my customers told me my yolks were not as yellow as another person he buys eggs from so I come to my expert friends to see what they have to say. Now I am really curious as to the food coloring experiment. I explained to my customer that if you feed your hens papayas then the yolks will be yellow. Mine are free range eat plenty of grass and bugs and yolk color varies.

 

[tbiM20]

http://chemistry.about.com/od/foodcookingchemistry/fl/How-To-Change-Egg-Yolk-Color.htm

I found this interesting for an explanation. Hoping someone posts some results! Would love to see a purple egg!

 

[mumofsix]

Someone told Me to feed My Girls Carrots

. My Girls Yolks are orange enough so Why mess with something that works

 

[Chickenchick11]

Subscribing.

 

[ChickenPeep]

Someone told Me to feed My Girls Carrots

. My Girls Yolks are orange enough so Why mess with something that works

I tried feeding one of my girls sweet potatoes which (just like carrots) have a lot of beta-carotene which is the orange coloring. After a week of feeding her sweet potatoes I could tell that her eggs were distinctly a more vibrant orange color than the eggs of my other hens.
So if that works, why wouldn't food coloring?

 

[misfitmorgan]

Any updates?


Apparently it does work according to this paper which lays out one of the times the experiment was done, it has been done several times it seems. The First paper linked below is i believe what the Poultry phd was talking about.

WARNING: The experiment terminates animals and gives some details everyone may not be comfortable with, there are thankfully no pictures though.

http://www.jbc.org/content/13/1/71.full.pdf

It uses "fat soluble" dye only. Fat soluble dye is not sold as food dye, which is likely why anyone attempts with store bought dyes have failed.

The main dye used to dye the egg yolks was/is Sudan Stain/Dye often used in medical research and what makes fuels such as diesel red. It is also used in things like mechanic type grease, wax, plastic etc. Several types of Sudan Stain/Dye are known to cause cancer in lab tests.

Basically the over all safety of feeding the dye to chickens let alone eating the eggs laden with the dye is questionable. They do make commercial dyes to make egg yokes more yellow/orange but those are made from carotenoids such as marigold petals or a synthetic type dye.

This article talks more about carotenoids and using them to influence egg yoke color, which would be a safe way to make fun colored yokes.

http://chemistry.about.com/od/foodcookingchemistry/fl/How-To-Change-Egg-Yolk-Color.htm

Carotenoids are why feeding sweet potatoes to chickens as someone noted made their yokes very orange.