Can diet affect egg color?

[missmae66]

Can diet effect egg color

 

[ChickenCanoe]

The yolk or the shell?

Actually to some extent both but especially yolk.

 

[RonP]

Give them a bushel full of unsellable red bell peppers.

Let me know the color of their yolks the next few days....

 

[MeepBeep]

Yep, diet effects the yolk color like day and night, it also effects the skin color of the chicken... That is why a lot of the 'broiler' farms feed their chickens marigolds and/or other yellow/orange/red items so that the skin turns a nice golden color and is more appealing vs pasty pale...

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Can diet effect egg color

Are you asking about the internal egg color or the external/shell color?

 

[missmae66]

Well I guess I was most interested in the external shell color. Can the natural color, blue for example or brown, be enhanced by diet.


I was very interested though in the post about regarding yolk color. Thank you for those reply's also.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I've done a bit of research on dark brown eggs. Since there are several chemicals that make up the dark egg pigments and there are a number of biochemical reactions that produce those pigments, it stands to reason that if the basic chemicals to make those pigments are unavailable in the diet, shell color would suffer. If they are abundant in the diet, color will be enhanced. Time in the shell gland can also affect the amount of pigment applied. Just as stress will inhibit the application of pigments.

It's possible that animal protein and the micro nutrients in fruits like pomegranate, acai and blackberries could make a difference. Those are things that won't be in chicken feed.