Red yolk

[Cindilou]

Howdy and happy holidays to all of you!

One of the ladies who buys eggs from us said she had a rusty red colored yolk. I have looked it up and it seems like it was probably just a blood vessel that popped or possibly something she ate that aided in the red coloring. Mostly, the girls have been eating the new Purina plus with omega 3 and they also get a variety of greens from the gardens including radish, beet and carrots. They get to walk around outside the run and eat bugs and plants a couple times a week. I haven't seen any other red ones and there have been no other complaints. We only sell a few dozen a week at most to pay for the feed for the back yard girls.
Let me know if you agree with the blood vessel popping hypothesis or if you think it may be something else.

Thanks,
Cindilou

 

[Harli50]

my sister had this hapen and she said that when the hen was making it she got scared and it tuened out red i dont know for sure though

 

[Cindilou]

It is possible that a hen could get scared in a way that would pop a blood vessel internally.

 

[hollyk]

In the 4 years that I have had hens, I have gotten one of those eggs. It was this summer during the hottest summer in Texas history. I chalked it up to the heat, but we had a terrible time with predators this summer with food being so scarce in the wild. I guess my girl could have gotten scared by something. Since I haven't had another egg like that I really didn't give it much thought. If your birds are healthy, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

 

[Ariel301]

I've seen quite a few deep red-orange yolks when my birds were eating a lot of alfalfa. I sold some to a lady who came back and told me all the eggs she had bought were spoiled because the yolks were not yellow.

 

[Illia]

How red-orange are we talking here?



Free ranging (and I mean truly, on more than just plain 1" tall grass) can really boost the egg color, same with getting rid of commercial hen feed, and especially boosting the amount of greens (good stuff like chard, bok choy, kale, broccoli) you give your chickens as well as, yes, deep colored carotene based foods like carrots and beets.

 

[Cindilou]

I am not sure. She said rusty red. She threw it away so I have no visual reference.
I know that variety in diet and greens will prove an overall healthier flock so we plant extra food for them such as Jamaican sorrel, lettuces, choys. They sure do like their greens. I keep leaning toward a blood vessel popping internally since the red happened only once so far and all the eggs I crack open are a nice sunny yellow-orange.


Thanks for your reply.



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