Help me get the coveted orange yolk!

heiditam

Chirping
5 Years
Aug 8, 2014
274
10
73
My sweet girls are laying. :) But, I cannot tell their eggs apart from my store bought pasture raised eggs...the color is a deep yellow-maybe you can say realllly light orange, but really yellow. They are a shade darker than conventional eggs but not by much...

They need to free range more, but with no leaf cover, and hawks everywhere, I am letting them out for a scant 2-3 hours. Here is what I am feeding-any advice on what else I can supplement is appreciated. I have already tried alfalfa pellets, and they HATE them.

I have 8 hens.

They have free choice to manna pro organic layer pellets.

In morning, I give them a big bowl of greens(turnip, spinach, any soft leafy greens as they shun the harder leaves of kale or collard even if cut up). About 3-4 cups.

Scratch in small amounts 2-3x a day-red lentils, boss, millet, hard red wheat.

Thanks!
 
Feed them a bushel of non saleable red peppers and see what color yolks you get....
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Buy a small bale of fine stem alfalfa. You can put it in the run for them to scratch and peck at or you can give them a section at a time. You can try wetting the pellets. Make a mash out of it. They are probably too large and too hard for them to eat. The carotene is what gives your yolks the orange color. Commercial feeds usually have marigold petals added.
 
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Buy a small bale of fine stem alfalfa. You can put it in the run for them to scratch and peck at or you can give them a section at a time. You can try wetting the pellets. Make a mash out of it. They are probably too large and too hard for them to eat. The carotene is what gives your yolks the orange color. Commercial feeds usually have marigold petals added.
I can get an alfalfa bale-they are 18.99 here though! :/

I have tried soaking, mixing in yogurt and even grinding-these girls just don't love the taste-I think I am going to use the rest of the bag in my compost.
 

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