Legs lost their Yellow?

[MammaHen]

My RIR roosters and hens are now 11 months old and their legs are no longer the bright yellow that they used to be. Is this a sign of some sort of deficiency or maturity or some other problem? I'm averaging 14 eggs from 19 hens - is this considered low or normal? They look otherwise very healthy and happy to me.

 

[mypicklebird]

In the yellow skinned birds, the color bleaches out while they are in lay- you will notice it in their legs, around the eyes, and vent area. There are charts in books you can look at to figure out who is laying the most by how fast they bleach out! The yellow color will come back when they are out of lay during the winter. Feeding a good quality layer food, as well as allowing free range (eating lots of fresh green grass) will help replenish the yellow. The yellow is going into making nice yellow yolks! I am not sure why the rooster would be fading though, is he bleaching too?

 

[MammaHen]

Thanks for that. Could have sworn my roo's have pale little legs as well but maybe I'm wrong. I'll have another squizz tomorrow...about the egg average, is that ok?

 

[mypicklebird]

Sounds good to me---
RIR are good layers, and most of yours are laying an egg a day. You may have a few non layers or every other day layers in there bringing your total down. You can tell who is not laying as well by checking their vents- active layers have droopy open and moist vents, non layers are small and dry. Also the yellow legs! If you have any with bright yellow legs still, they are probably not the good layers...

 

[MammaHen]

Thank you so much for the info that i soppose I should already know! Can't wait until DH wakes up so I can casually slip all this into the conversation...