Egg Color ....is it effected by feed?

[CountryMom]

I have some Welsummers that started laying a few months ago. They are approaching a year old now here in December. At first the eggs were nice a dark and speckled so pretty. Well, then I went through a few weeks of no eggs from any hen in my flock. I switched to Flockraiser because I have one pen with baby silkies and adults. I went ahead and tried it out on all my coops. WOW, egg production just sky rocketed. However, my Welsummer eggs are lighter? I read somewhere on here a while back that some people believe corn can lighten egg shell color. Any ideas or experience in this would really be helpful. Not sure what is up with Layenna in my area, but it hasn't been wonderful for egg production.

 

[crazyhen]

The length of time between laying an egg can influence the shade of egg they lay. Shorter is lighter. Also I know that food does correspond to egg yolk color. Other than that I don,t know. Maybe someone with more knowledge will chime in. gloria Jean

 

[trilyn]

Quote:
I'm curious about this also, I just switched my girls to a higher protein food-not entirely sure how much corn is in it, but if it is a factor I want to know. My EE that was laying a beautiful mint green is now laying more of a khaki colored egg, hopefully it is a new layer and not her, but this is still worth knowing!

 

[CountryMom]

I can honestly say that I noticed a difference in the Welsummers when they were fed scratch as a treat. They seemed to lay a bit lighter egg shell color. So I am wondering and need to look at my feed ingredients on this flockraiser. I was just curious if anyone had had similar happenings with their Marans or Welsummers. I am a bit frustrated after trying hard to get a decent line and now they faded out.

Could it be weather also? Temps are not freezing down here, but have been down in the 50's and 40's over night.