Egg yolks

[Melistos]

Hello all
My son just found his chicken's nest in the yard, she was sitting on 16 eggs! I didn't know she was laying again, so my son was rapt with his "presents", lol. We brought 13 of them in, I did the float test and they were all good, so I scrambled some up for lunch. The yolks were a deep orange colour, I was just wondering if the colour of the yolk is an indicator of the health of the hen at all. She's fed layer pellets, kitchen scraps and whatever she can forage in the yard. Earlier in the year, her first clutch were more yellow, This is only the second lot she has laid. The shells were nice and hard, too, which I'm sure is a good sign. I'm interested to know if you can tell much about the hen from her eggs.

 

[Kelsie2290]

Sounds like you had an early Easter! Congratulations on all the eggs! Orange/Yellow Egg yolk color is mostly due to Oxycarotenoids in the hen diet, your girls are probably so dark since she gets to forage and most Layer foods are formulated to give the yolks some color. Here is a nice article about things affecting egg yolk color. http://www.lohmann-information.com/content/l_i_24_article_4.pdf

 

[evemfoster]

Hello all
My son just found his chicken's nest in the yard, she was sitting on 16 eggs! I didn't know she was laying again, so my son was rapt with his "presents", lol. We brought 13 of them in, I did the float test and they were all good, so I scrambled some up for lunch. The yolks were a deep orange colour, I was just wondering if the colour of the yolk is an indicator of the health of the hen at all. She's fed layer pellets, kitchen scraps and whatever she can forage in the yard. Earlier in the year, her first clutch were more yellow, This is only the second lot she has laid. The shells were nice and hard, too, which I'm sure is a good sign. I'm interested to know if you can tell much about the hen from her eggs.

The food the hen forages in the yard mostly help with the color and the flavor of the eggs. The greens helps the yolk have the darker yellow color. And the bugs they consume helps give the eggs a stronger egg flavor.