do dark yellow or orange yolks mean they are healthier.

[Cindy in PA]

I know I feel darker yokes taste better BUUUUUTTTTTTTTT. I have done blind taste tests with my eggs and store bought. cooked the same in two skillets and I could not see the egg. I COULD NOT TELL A DIFFERENCE ... TRY IT !!! Since you have a 50% chance of guessing use this following rule. The person serving you will serve you 4 plates, might be different egg on each plate or same egg on each plate. This way you lose the 50 50 guessing option.... make sure both eggs are the same temp going into the skillet..

I never really tasted a difference in eggs, but I know what they eat & how they are treated & I am happy with that. I know the texture of my eggs are different, because you can see it!

 

[BReeder!]

I never really tasted a difference in eggs, but I know what they eat & how they are treated & I am happy with that. I know the texture of my eggs are different, because you can see it!

texture is definitely different than mine. I often slightly overcook my eggs by accident (I prefer cooked whites and running yolks). A store bought egg will turn to a solid yolk quickly, while my hens' egg yolks stay soft/runny much longer and will turn to a creamy texture surrounding a soft center if slightly over done - they are like yolk truffles. Lindt chocolates should be jealous of my yolks!

 

[GldnValleyHens]

My mother bought eggs at the store ( probably Walmart ) and the whites were hard and rubbery with no flavor. They must have been old eggs, yet she had just bought them.

Yeah, some of those store bought eggs can be pretty old, since they can technically last two weeks. Doesn’t mean they taste good!!!!!

 

[CindyinSD]

Ive been reading this thread and it’s made me think... so for what it’s worth (pretty much what you paid lol), my musings:

The color in the yolks probably actually is at least slightly healthier. The pigments are themselves often antioxidants and/or characteristic of vitamins or vitamin precursors (which become the vitamin in your body if your body needs and is calling for that vitamin.) I’m just extrapolating from general knowledge, but I would be surprised if I was wrong about this one.

As to the bagged foods... (excluding small manufacturers who may be free to be more dedicated to quality)... On the one hand the manufacturer is in the business to make money and also has an obligation to stockholders to turn the highest profits possible. OTOH, if their food isn’t of reasonable quality and flocks noticeably suffer, they’ll lose customers and market share and the stockholders will move on to fairer horizons. Just because “studies show” their foods are the best option for feeding poultry doesn’t mean we should take those studies uncritically as gospel truth.

Birds in the wild live shorter lives because of predators, scarcity, stress, predators, disease, predators... not necessarily simply because they lack manufactured feed. Our chickens are descended from long lines of chickens who lived productive lives mostly on whatever the family had left over from the table and the fields, and on their own free ranging.

A couple of problems with manufactured feeds... first, they typically contain corn and soy. So far not so bad, but soy and corn are big GMO products, altered so that they can survive large, repeated applications of glycosides (aka “Round-Up Ready” varieties). These herbicides are very durable in the environment and in the edible (and other) parts of the treated crops. Glycosides are (in addition to acting as antibiotics) extremely toxic, but not in an acute way... rather, in a chronic, accumulative way (like nicotine). Second, even though you pay for organic, non-GMO, you can’t know (nor even can the manufacturer truly know) that what is in that bag is really organic, non-GMO.

Bottom line, if it’s an option at all, I give my girls table scraps (including meats), hay and fresh veggies. I’m still feeding manufactured feed, but the goal is to find a way to cut it down as much as possible. Come summer, they’ll be on pasture, and I think/hope that’ll help a lot.

 

[Rebecca M]

I have a mix of different chickens. I feed them organic layer pellets, a good deal of mealworms, and some organic scratch on occasion. They also free range daily. Their yolks are always a nice medium orange. I’m thinking the free ranging is the key.

 

[Kris5902]

@Wee Farmer Sarah
I didn't intend for them to eat the tree, but they did! I didn't notice any taste problem. The tree was actually a douglas fir, so fir needles as opposed to pine, LOL.

Lots of vitamins in pine and fir needles. Our cows also go for them after every big windstorm... the cows also love rosehips, anyone know how they affect chickens & eggs?

 

[centrarchid]

Lots of vitamins in pine and fir needles. Our cows also go for them after every big windstorm... the cows also love rosehips, anyone know how they affect chickens & eggs?

I have rose hips here but not enough consumed to color eggs for any length of time. Surely, since red they contain lost of carotenoids. We have lots of sumac and buckbrush fruit but chickens have troubles reaching those even though fruit set can be very heavy.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

I read through a couple pages and as far as I can tell ya'll are missing a great supplement for dark yolks... winter squash! Acron and butternut squash really enhance the yolk color, and it's rather easy to grow, store, and feed all year. My friend who is an organic farmer feeds his hens (250-300) a couple squash a day and his customers are astounded that that is all it is. He feeds other scraps as well, but he only gives extra to the birds and harvested a couple tons of squash this year.

I don't believe this changes the color of the yolks. I too feed my little flock butternut squash, grown organically from my own garden. They don't get this all the time and still the yolk colors remain pretty much the same. I'm not going for dark yolks, the chickens like the squash and I know there's nothing harmful to them in it.

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

Ive been reading this thread and it’s made me think... so for what it’s worth (pretty much what you paid lol), my musings:

The color in the yolks probably actually is at least slightly healthier. The pigments are themselves often antioxidants and/or characteristic of vitamins or vitamin precursors (which become the vitamin in your body if your body needs and is calling for that vitamin.) I’m just extrapolating from general knowledge, but I would be surprised if I was wrong about this one.

As to the bagged foods... (excluding small manufacturers who may be free to be more dedicated to quality)... On the one hand the manufacturer is in the business to make money and also has an obligation to stockholders to turn the highest profits possible. OTOH, if their food isn’t of reasonable quality and flocks noticeably suffer, they’ll lose customers and market share and the stockholders will move on to fairer horizons. Just because “studies show” their foods are the best option for feeding poultry doesn’t mean we should take those studies uncritically as gospel truth.

Birds in the wild live shorter lives because of predators, scarcity, stress, predators, disease, predators... not necessarily simply because they lack manufactured feed. Our chickens are descended from long lines of chickens who lived productive lives mostly on whatever the family had left over from the table and the fields, and on their own free ranging.

A couple of problems with manufactured feeds... first, they typically contain corn and soy. So far not so bad, but soy and corn are big GMO products, altered so that they can survive large, repeated applications of glycosides (aka “Round-Up Ready” varieties). These herbicides are very durable in the environment and in the edible (and other) parts of the treated crops. Glycosides are (in addition to acting as antibiotics) extremely toxic, but not in an acute way... rather, in a chronic, accumulative way (like nicotine). Second, even though you pay for organic, non-GMO, you can’t know (nor even can the manufacturer truly know) that what is in that bag is really organic, non-GMO.

Bottom line, if it’s an option at all, I give my girls table scraps (including meats), hay and fresh veggies. I’m still feeding manufactured feed, but the goal is to find a way to cut it down as much as possible. Come summer, they’ll be on pasture, and I think/hope that’ll help a lot.

This post just reminded me of the other reason I have not fee ranged my chickens yet. I purchased this property in March of last year. The previous owner was very much into fertilizers and weed killers etc., for the "beautiful" grass. I thought it would be best to let the chemicals dissipate for a year before I let the chickens free range. Sorry if I got off topic.

 

[PouleChick]

I thought it would be best to let the chemicals dissipate for a year before I let the chickens free range.

Wow a year is a long time, I think that they would have gone from the plants well before that! Glyphosphate (round up) has a 3 week time to be gone.

ETA Just thinking in terms of the benefits of free ranging - I'd be looking into the life of the chemicals used and get them out as soon as I could.