When Lara and I started raising our own chickens back in 2017 we were particularly taken away by the deep yellow-orange color of the egg yolks from our pastured hens. Lately, we’ve noticed some of the yolks are much more pale yellow and we thought this would be a great opportunity to talk about the factors that play into egg yolk color.
You are what you eat. The number one factor in egg yolk color is what the chickens are eating. Chickens that eat strictly a grain based ration typically have a much more pale yellow colored yolk. Chickens that are pastured and are eating at least some plants, bugs, seeds, etc usually have a much darker yolk. Chicken Feed companies have taken note of customers love of dark yolks and some are beginning to add extra ingredients that darken the yolks.
The age of the egg. Longer between when the egg is laid and when you crack it open the more pale the egg yolk.
If you’ve been following along this year then you know that back in May we suffered a mink attack on our flock that wiped out over half our flock. We decided to replace the chickens with pullets from a nearby farm. Pullets are essentially adolescent chickens on the cusp of egg laying. These pullets had been barn raised and fed a grain based feed ration their entire lives so when we introduced them to our pastures they didn’t know what to do. In addition to our chickens free-range access to pasture they are fed a grain based ration. We think our newest chickens have been basically just eating the grain ration and have been really slow to figure out all the good things for them to eat on pasture.
They have been making progress as we have witnessed them starting to eat things on the pasture. We’ve also been reducing the amount of grain ration in an effort to force them to find something to eat on pasture. In addition, we’ve been giving them vegetable scraps which they have been enjoying. We think their yolks are getting darker.
