Marigolds flowers for Chickens?

[tsiecz]

I read somewhere about adding marigold flowers to your chicken feed. It is supposed to make yolks darker orange. Has anyone done this? Is there any nutritional value? Do the chickens like it?

 

[sourland]

No personal experience, but some claims this works. Purdue also used to say they added marigold petals to their broiler rations to increase carcass quality.

 

[Percheron chick]

I don't but marigolds are high in caroteniods. Caroteniods help product orange yolks. You can prove this by deadheading your marigolds next fall and tossing them to your hens. Marigold flowers are used in commercial layer feeds. The eggs are not going to be more nutritious as it's just a pigment but if you are selling them, there is the perception that they are more nutritious.

 

[jonadue]

I plant mariglolds in my vegetable garden and when I feed my birds greens from the garden, I grab a few handfuls of mariglold leaves and flowers. They eat it when its mixed with the other greens, but when I let them loose in the garden later in the season they tend to mostly ignore them.
I havent paid enough attention to know if it affects their eggs or not, though.