Orange yolks

[Happy Chooks]

I searched and found a thread about making your yolks more orange. It said you need to give the chickens beta carotene.

It's not the time of year here that I can grow spinach, but I have italian parsley in my garden. I've been giving them some every night and my yolks are darkening to a more orange color.

And the chickens love it.

Thought I'd share for those of you with parsley in your garden.

 

[gritsar]

Cool. Glad you found that thread. My chickens free range and so get plenty of beta carotene. Their yolks are bright orange, sometimes neon orange. That's what my egg customers like to see.

 

[lotzahenz]

My chickens love clover. That little white kind that grows in the yard. I bought a small package of the seeds and planted it for them, though it grows wild everywhere around here. It makes the nicest dark yellow yolks. HenZ

 

[twentynine]

A hand full of cracked corn can do the same thing.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Well then, maybe it's the corn and not the parsley. I do give some scratch every evening too. Oh well, I'll spoil them anyway.

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
A hand full per chicken? I give a couple hand fulls to 6 chickens.

 

[gritsar]

Here are the amounts of beta carotene in some common fruits and vegetables:

Amount Food Item Beta Carotene (mg)
1/2 cup Broccoli-Boiled-Drained 645.84
1/2 cup Carrots-Slices-Frozen-Boiled-Drained 6,279.46
1/2 cup Spinach-Frozen-Boiled 4,386.15
1 cup Spinach-Raw-Chopped 1,196.40
1/2 cup Broccoli Florets-Raw 634.38
1/2 cup Collards-Frozen-Boiled 3,049.80
1/2 cup Sweet Potato-Peeled after Baking 13,092.00
1/2 cup Acorn Winter Squash-Boiled-Mashed 189.51
1/2 cup Butternut Winter Squash-Baked Cubes 4,270.15
1/2 cup Hubbard Winter Squash-Raw Cubes 1,864.12
1/4 cup Dried Apricot Halves-Uncooked 1,403.35
1/2 cup Apricots-Raw-Halves 1,206.68
1/2 cup Apricots w/ Skin-in Juice-Canned Halves 1,229.76
1/2 cup Cantaloupe/Muskmelon-Cubes

Corn is not listed there, so I found another source - (edited) The link won't work for some reason, so here is the website where you can check out corn:
http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodco...SRE_NO=11167xyzxyzCorn, sweet, yellow, rawxyz

 

[Maryallison]

That is interesting. I didn't know feeding carotene could change the yoke color. Now I will know if I ever get a orange one what my feathered friends have been eating.

 

[faykokoWV]

on topic, but a different color. somebody was telling me that if they eat acorns it can turn the egg yolk green???? Is this true

 

[Happy Chooks]

Quote:
Very interesting thanks. Not much beta carotene in corn. My chickens LOVE cantalope, so when it's ready in my garden, I'll share with them.