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

[valleychicks]

So yesterday at our Farmers Market I had someone come up to look at my eggs I had set out for sale. She and a few other people were from out of town staying in our little town to go see the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, GA. She saw my Easter Egger green/blue eggs and called her female friend over to say, "look green eggs". The other lady came up and said are these real eggs? Now I get this a lot but what was said next is what really made me smile and take a deep breath. The first lady then said that she had heard somewhere on Facebook that they have developed feed that makes chickens lay different colored eggs and wanted to know if that was what I was feeding my chickens. No, I told her there are different breeds and types of chickens that lay different colored eggs. Neither one looked like they believed me and did not buy my eggs.

Thanks, thanks a lot for this.

 

[N F C]

 

[Lynn Manes]

Happy April Fools 2016!!​

​

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.

"Miracle Shells" is my suggested colored egg name. Also "Rainbow Layer Feed"or"Eggtastic Colors" or should this possibly be called, "Colored Eggs of April Fools".

 

[Spangled]

The one that really got me was
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...ken-broodiness-by-up-to-48-with-aluminum-foil

Do you remember the pic of the hen wearing a tin foil hat?

I was so fooled that I tried to find the article several months later when I wanted to hatch some eggs.

Oh, dear! At least you have a good sense of humor. Rob is tricky!

The one that really got me was the server upgrade/posts lost (2009). So many people were upset/concerned/sad/troubled/pretending to be understanding. It didn't matter to me because I wasn't registered. But I followed the thread anyway ... and was fooled.

Then I read the BYC Parnership + Sell your extra eggs AF prank and couldn't believe the program would work. It didn't seem plausible and I couldn't believe BYC would start such a flawed program. They got me on that one, too.

But never again. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! (I hope that isn't famous last words on my part.)

 

[All Ball]

Thank God!!!!!!! That definitely got my Berkeleyness going!!!!!!

 

[Lozuufy]

This thread was so amusing! I looked through the past years April fools threads too, the "Hacked" one was my favorite

 

[Arwenelfmaiden]

Kaleidoscope Layer Feed
A Palette for Your Pullet
You Are What You Eat Layer Feed
Hippie Chicks Tie Dye Layer Feed

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

So yesterday at our Farmers Market I had someone come up to look at my eggs I had set out for sale. She and a few other people were from out of town staying in our little town to go see the Masters golf tournament in Augusta, GA. She saw my Easter Egger green/blue eggs and called her female friend over to say, "look green eggs". The other lady came up and said are these real eggs? Now I get this a lot but what was said next is what really made me smile and take a deep breath. The first lady then said that she had heard somewhere on Facebook that they have developed feed that makes chickens lay different colored eggs and wanted to know if that was what I was feeding my chickens. No, I told her there are different breeds and types of chickens that lay different colored eggs. Neither one looked like they believed me and did not buy my eggs.

Thanks, thanks a lot for this.

That is SUCH a great story!!!!!!

 

[Coop de Grass]

Ya got me!!! I can't believe that I fell for it, but I am looking forward to reading all the back April Fool's pages! Way to go BYC!!!

 

[love laugh farm]

Haven't checked since Friday, and i'm not too up to reading another 30 pages

was the joke of it announced?

I honestly kinda wish there was some feed out there like that! I'd love to make pink & purple eggs for the kids at Easter!!