Hi! I am doing a science project for my school and my testable question is "how does the diet of a chicken affect the color of the yolk" and I was wondering if anyone knows about how long it takes a chicken to get a type of food, like chicken feed, kale or other veggies out of their system? We let our chickens free-range usually but for this expirement we were going to coop them up and feed them one specific food so if anyone knows how long it takes different foods to get out of their system and also if anyone knows how long it takes for the food to change the color of the yolk? Thanks!
I believe it takes an egg approximately 25 hours, once it leaves the ovary, to pass through the system and get layed. As far as digestion, Chickens are typically fasted overnight to empty their digestive systems. So, my uneducated, unscientific guess is that you'd be safe with a day, but for the sake of science, I'd give it 3 days. Any other non-scientific, uneducated or educated input out there? How bout keeping them penned and on chicken feed for a week. Then look at the egg yolks and egg size on day 7. Take pics, weigh the eggs. Then give them your enhanced diet for the next 7 days, and record egg size, and photograph the yolks each of those 7 days. When you take pics, be sure to keep the camera a prescribed distance from the eggs so that you have no variation of distance between camera lens and egg. Be sure to post your results.
Well, that's the experiment is for..... ......you tell us how long it takes after your experiment is completed.