Green/Black yucky looking yolks?

[Azriel]

I've been feeding Dumor layer or Purina, which ever is in stock. About a week ago I started mixing pellets and crumble to try to get them on pellet and that was going fine. Then last Sunday I thought I made a good score and was able to get 7 bags of Big Sky all natural organic layer mash for a very reasonable price so I started mixing that with their feed as I thought it would be a plus for the winter with no free range bugs, grasses and stuff .
I sell about 6-8 doz eggs a week, and the girls had slowed down a bit for the winter so I haven't been eating too many eggs my self to keep my customers stocked, but within a few days after starting on the Big Sky feed they have almost doubled production. Yesterday I broke an egg while washing it, so I was going to feed it to the barn cats, but when I opened it the yolk was a yucky green color, and when I broke the yolk open it was almost black inside. This morning I was making pancakes for my self and both the eggs I put in the pancake mix were the same. What would do this, and are they safe to eat? I went ahead and ate the pancakes and I'm not dead yet, What do I tell my customers? Is this from the new organic feed? HELP, should I toss the feed out, or would it be safe for my cows to eat? The chickens seem to really like it, but I don't want yucky looking yolks.

 

[CluckyCharms]

A picture of these yolks whole and broken would be extremely helpful.



a) I would not eat any more of these eggs or sell any to anyone until you know the exact cause.

b) I assume these are *freshly laid* eggs?


I would venture to say that yes, it is the feed, but until you know without a doubt that's the reason I would refer to a).

Big Sky organic has organic peas, kelp and alfalfa as some of their highest listed ingredients (which means they help compose the majority of the feed). All of these are very rich in greenies.

Red peppers have been proven to turn the yolk pepper-red in color...and a hen's diet does effect the color of the yolk.


I'd also put different colors of food coloring on your hens vents to see who the culprit is in regard to which hen is laying the funky yolks. If only one of them is laying them - chances are likely it's NOT the feed, since it would most likely impact all of them if that were the case, or at least the majority of them, and not only 1 hen. If the yolks are coming from only 1 of your layers I would say she has something wrong with her reproductive system. The food coloring is 100% harmless - I asked our veterinarian who was a livestock vet for 20 years before switching to domesticated pets.

I want to reiterate though - I wouldn't eat any more or give them to other people until you know for sure what the cause is.

 

[Azriel]

If I get more eggs with yolks that color I'll get photos, I know its not just 1 hen, as the one that I broke was from my Ameraucana pen, the other 2 were from my layer pen, a brown egg and an olive egg. I did grab 3 random eggs for my pumpkin pies, 1 layed today, and the other 2 layed yesterday, and they were fine. It sure freaked me out when I saw the green yolks. I did call my customers and they have not opened any yucky ones yet.

 

[Ray_n_Debi]

Google 'green yolks' there are many reasons.
If you feed your chickens acorns, it may result in green yolks. If this happens, just discard the green yolk eggs until she starts laying normally again; don't feed chickens acorns!

Discoloration of yolks has been attributed to:
Gossypol in cottonseed meal
Prevent bluish-green yolks by limiting cottonseed meal with high gossypol content to 5% of the layer diet. New varieties and improved processing of CSM have been developed that have low levels of gossypol. If the diet contains cottonseed meal with high gossypol levels, add iron at the rate of 0.05% by weight of the diet. This can be achieved by adding ferrous sulphate powder at die rate of 0.25% by weight of the diet.
The weed shepherd’s purse
Prevent green yolks by excluding this plant from the diet.

 

[Smoochie]

I would switch them back to the "usual" feed and hopefully things return back to normal.

 

[Azriel]

So far I haven't gotten any more with the green yolks, and I did e-mail the company to see what they think. I would like to keep feeding this feed, in the short time they have been on it, egg production has more than doubled, and the molting hens are feathering back up faster than any did before I was feeding this.

 

[aart]

Any update or info back from the feed company on this?