Are darker quail egg yolks better tasting?

[JimmyJames]

My fiancé and I are so new to quail... But we recently started keeping 9 of them in a quail hutch in our back yard in Los Angeles.
We already want more and to move to 6,000,000 acres in the middle of no where and start a regenerative farm/garden. (joking, but also, kind of not joking).

As we have been exploring their diet, we have been curiously wondering if the shade of the egg yolk makes a difference in the flavor.
Has anyone found that darker (yellow/orange) yolks produce a different flavor?

If darker yolks taste better, what is the feed difference?

We currently have them on a layer feed (from tractor supply) and supplement their diet with sprouts and the occasional kitchen scraps every other day or so.

Is there something else we should be doing to get richer yolks? are we barking up a tree that doesn't even matter?

yours truly,
Unqualified,
~James

 

[Kiki]

The color of the yolk is based off of what they eat. And no it does not change the flavor of the egg as far as I've ever noticed. Nor does it change the nutritional value.

You can feed them cayenne pepper and their yolks will get really orange.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Generally, no. They are often presumed to be more nutritious, but that is also untrue. Diet, as you have correctly surmised, affects egg color (we are approaching the period when my ducks start eating more acorns, and their yolk turns an unattractive greenish - flavor unaffected). You've probably seen feeds with marigold and or cayenne - both will make yolks more orange/golden. If you fed your birds a bunch of supermarket salmon with the red color added, ythe yolks would darken (and, eventually, take on a fishy flavor). There are a few veggies which will do the same. particularly those high in carotenoids.


You can adjust diet in ways which will make the egg more nutritious in Omega 3s and certain vitamins (D, most commonly) via things like flax seed (expensive - juist eat the flax directly!), but they don't come with a ready to read egg color indicator.

 

[JimmyJames]

The color of the yolk is based off of what they eat. And no it does not change the flavor of the egg as far as I've ever noticed. Nor does it change the nutritional value.

You can feed them cayenne pepper and their yolks will get really orange.

Great to hear. thank you for your response.

 

[JimmyJames]

Generally, no. They are often presumed to be more nutritious, but that is also untrue. Diet, as you have correctly surmised, affects egg color (we are approaching the period when my ducks start eating more acorns, and their yolk turns an unattractive greenish - flavor unaffected). You've probably seen feeds with marigold and or cayenne - both will make yolks more orange/golden. If you fed your birds a bunch of supermarket salmon with the red color added, ythe yolks would darken (and, eventually, take on a fishy flavor). There are a few veggies which will do the same. particularly those high in carotenoids.


You can adjust diet in ways which will make the egg more nutritious in Omega 3s and certain vitamins (D, most commonly) via things like flax seed (expensive - juist eat the flax directly!), but they don't come with a ready to read egg color indicator.

Thank you for the response. This will send me well further down the research rabbit hole. I had been hearing you can't feed your quail meat. That doesn't include fish?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Thank you for the response. This will send me well further down the research rabbit hole. I had been hearing you can't feed your quail meat. That doesn't include fish?

Its complicated.

They CAN eat meat (generally, insects). But they are built for eating seeds - protein and fat dense nutritional sources. In a pinch, when a quail feed isn't available, people have briefly supplimented with canned fish, cat food, and other things more likely to be found in a typical pantry. Recommended??? NO.

Mostly I was trying to illustrate that appearance and nutrition aren't closely linked. It was a bad example, and thank you for asking.

 

[Kiki]

Thank you for the response. This will send me well further down the research rabbit hole. I had been hearing you can't feed your quail meat. That doesn't include fish?

You can feed them quail meat if you want.

It's best to feed them a balanced diet and a balanced diet would be a crumbled age appropriate poultry feed.

 

[JimmyJames]

You can feed them quail meat if you want.

It's best to feed them a balanced diet and a balanced diet would be a crumbled age appropriate poultry feed.

Thank you Kiki,
We have a layer feed for them (6 ish weeks old) and are now supplementing sprouts that we grow in the kitchen, along with recently trying some red peppers and their old egg shells dried and crushed up.

 

[JimmyJames]

We are now planning on doing and experiment moving forward and supplementing different veggies for them to really test if the eggs taste any richer. Our control will be their eggs on purely layer feed alone. As time moves forward we are planning on adding different supplements each week to see if there is any effect on the taste. I have researched that it can take around 5 days to change any flavor and or color. So we will start with a week or supplements, then perhaps move to two weeks with those same supplements to test.

First: Lentil Sprouts, Thai chili peppers and carrots shavings.

Thank you all for the kind and informative responses.
We will let you know!

The Unlikely Professor,
~James