Chicken squatting

[ElaynasChick]

Is this a good brand??

 

[aart]

So i also want to switch to organic feed so that the eggs i eat will be good (i know my chickens will never be "Organic" chickens but the egg yolks where bright yellow and i want them too be orange like a healthy egg, so i think i will switch to organic chick starter/grower.

'Organic' doesn't necessarily make for more colorful eggs.

 

[ElaynasChick]

'Organic' doesn't necessarily make for more colorful eggs.

Oh, so how do i get more orange eggs. it's also winter so all the grass has died.

 

[GC-Raptor]

Oh, so how do i get more orange eggs. it's also winter so all the grass has died.

I toss a flake of Alfalfa under the raised coops when grass/greens are scarce, a couple of times a week.

I think my Hens yolks are a nice color.

Look for Marigold meal or extract in the chicken feed ingredients to also add an orange color to yolks.
My current chicken feed doesn't have Marigold meal or extract. GC

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Oh, so how do i get more orange eggs. it's also winter so all the grass has died.

@aart is right. Organic feed has nothing to do with yolk color. The color of the yolk comes from the amount of carotenoids in their food. That would be any yellow, orange or red fat soluble plant based pigments. The reason yolks are yellow in the US is the use of yellow corn in most feeds. White corn, used in some areas of the world may yield extremely pale yolks depending on what else they eat.
Carrots, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, kale, spinach, turnip and collard greens.
Some feeds yield darker yolks by including marigold in the ingredients.
In winter you can grow fodder for your birds to get more pigments in the yolk and to give them some fresh greenery to eat.

 

[aart]

@aart is right. Organic feed has nothing to do with yolk color. The color of the yolk comes from the amount of carotenoids in their food. That would be any yellow, orange or red fat soluble plant based pigments. The reason yolks are yellow in the US is the use of yellow corn in most feeds. White corn, used in some areas of the world may yield extremely pale yolks depending on what else they eat.
Carrots, pumpkins, squash, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, kale, spinach, turnip and collard greens.
Some feeds yield darker yolks by including marigold in the ingredients.
In winter you can grow fodder for your birds to get more pigments in the yolk and to give them some fresh greenery to eat.

Thanks, @ChickenCanoe I was hoping you'd come along and explain fully!

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Thanks, @ChickenCanoe I was hoping you'd come along and explain fully!

I misspoke somewhat when I said plant based foods. I didn't intend to say only plant based pigments. The feather color of flamingos is due to carotenoids that come from their diet of brine shrimp and blue green algae.
Salmon and lobster contain carotenoids, producing their colors.

Chickens, and I suppose most birds, don't assimilate carotenoids in other ways so they end up in the egg yolks. Humans and other animals can convert carotenoids to vitamin A so Carotenoids are important for disease resistance including cancer and especially eye disease.

 

[rosemarythyme]

'Organic' doesn't necessarily make for more colorful eggs.

x2, ChickenCanoe explains it well. I've bought plenty of organic pastured eggs that have a lighter yolk (probably due to less available forage during winter) than commercially grown eggs.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

x2, ChickenCanoe explains it well. I've bought plenty of organic pastured eggs that have a lighter yolk (probably due to less available forage during winter) than commercially grown eggs.

It could also be due to some gmo corn free feed that is wheat/barley/oat based that didn't contain the carotenoid xanthophylls of yellow corn.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19003733

 

[ElaynasChick]

Okay so i got a non gmo corn and soy free chick starter/grower feed and i will slowly transition them to that i don't think it is organic though but theres no hormones or any thing, so i organic always necessarily better than non organic?? because i feel like my chickens would be the same if they where organic or non organic.