Strange orange ring in my hens yolks

[Chickie Baby]

One of my faithful customers sent me this picture this morning as she boiled several eggs. These eggs were laid last week. It is very strange that all but one had this strange dark orange ring in the yolk.

Any suggestions of what this could be? My hens are not sick that I'm aware. The only odd thing I've fed them a couple plus weeks ago was boiled crawfish. Whole crawfish that were leftover from a party.
Could this have caused the ring?
Any help is appreciated!

 

[NorthTexasWink]

Are all the eggs the same age or collected over a period of time? Were the eggs all laid at or soon after feeding the crawdads? You say they were boiled, did you use crab boil or cayenne/chili spices? Just a guess, but I'm betting the combo of the natural things is crawdads that turn them red when cooked and the spices in your boil added pigment to the yolks. Since this was a "one of" occurrence, you just got a layer of these pigments that settled into a ring when cooked.

I've never seen rings, but we have fed shrimp and crawdads often before and noted a marked increase in yolk color intensity. Matter of fact, I fed my chicks shrimp tails at least twice the last month. We have a friend that drives in from the Beaumont area frequently and brings us our fresh gulf seafood fix.

 

[Chickie Baby]

Are all the eggs the same age or collected over a period of time? Were the eggs all laid at or soon after feeding the crawdads? You say they were boiled, did you use crab boil or cayenne/chili spices? Just a guess, but I'm betting the combo of the natural things is crawdads that turn them red when cooked and the spices in your boil added pigment to the yolks. Since this was a "one of" occurrence, you just got a layer of these pigments that settled into a ring when cooked.

I've never seen rings, but we have fed shrimp and crawdads often before and noted a marked increase in yolk color intensity. Matter of fact, I fed my chicks shrimp tails at least twice the last month. We have a friend that drives in from the Beaumont area frequently and brings us our fresh gulf seafood fix.

Thank you for responding... I was beginning to think no one had input, so thank you!
The eggs are the same age and were all collected last week. When the crawfish was boiled, we used crab boil.

I have fed my chickens shrimp peelings before and this didn't happen. This was the first time I had fed them crawfish (whole). The ring is really throwing me off. It just seems as, like you mentioned, I could expect to see a slight increase in the yolk color as a whole. I was just very concerned about this distinct ring and the picture really doesn't do it justice, it is very bright orange.

I'm going to boil some tonight that are laid today or yesterday and see if all is back to normal. If not, I'll be back to the drawing board.

 

[aart]

Thank you for responding... I was beginning to think no one had input

Don't be too impatient ...sometimes it takes a full day to get a response.
Looks like thread had a lot of views but no one had the experience to answer.

Am following along, very interesting situation, curious to see if you figure it out.
Might be just a funky glitch, never to be replicated.

 

[NorthTexasWink]

Looking at the photo closely I can see the center not very done and several colored rings. I wonder if the eggs were cooked in a way not typical? For instance started in hot water, or slowly simmered versus the usual of starting in cool water, bring to boil quickly, shut off heat and let set covered 10 minutes before cooling under running cool water and peeling. Might that cause some pigments to precipitate into a ring? I'm just guessing here. I'm interested to see if it can be replicated.

 

[NorthTexasWink]

Meant to ask, could the eggs be fertile? Could be a very very early embryo.

 

[Chickie Baby]

So, I did my experiment and take a look at my last weeks eggs vs this weeks eggs. I do feel the crawfish was the culprit, but?
Top 2 last week with the yolk from my customer. I work with her and she has one of those little egg steamers that she uses at work. This way I was able to get my hands on the exact egg she sent the picture of...
Bottom are this week.

Very interesting! Thoughts of the crawfish causing this?

 

[Chickie Baby]

Meant to ask, could the eggs be fertile? Could be a very very early embryo.

I have a rooster, but I haven't seen a fertilized egg in a very long time. His spurs are too long and he has difficulty with mating. I think his spurs are digging into his behind.
I know I need to cut them, but he's huge so I just leave him be.

 

[Chickie Baby]

Looking at the photo closely I can see the center not very done and several colored rings. I wonder if the eggs were cooked in a way not typical? For instance started in hot water, or slowly simmered versus the usual of starting in cool water, bring to boil quickly, shut off heat and let set covered 10 minutes before cooling under running cool water and peeling. Might that cause some pigments to precipitate into a ring? I'm just guessing here. I'm interested to see if it can be replicated.

Maybe I should steam a couple of last week eggs and see if the same thing happens for me. From my pic below, it looks like the color congregates in a ring. Very odd.

 

[Chickie Baby]

Don't be too impatient ...sometimes it takes a full day to get a response.
Looks like thread had a lot of views but no one had the experience to answer.

Am following along, very interesting situation, curious to see if you figure it out.
Might be just a funky glitch, never to be replicated.

Aart, what's your thoughts on my picture? Do you think crawfish could have caused this?