The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: joyofchicks on June 27, 2011, 07:32:08 pm
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I know there's a wealth of information out there so I thought I'd ask a question about yolk colour. As a hen keeper of 10 years, I am used to yolks from my own hens 'the colour of a Wyoming sunset' as I once read! In recent weeks, though, the eggs my small backyard flock are producing have very pale yolks. Not all the hens are the same age:
2 are black star hybrid pullets purchased this spring
1 is a light sussex hatched under my own broody in 2009
1 is a brown hybrid in her 4th laying season
I own two others who aren't laying just now but are in good health. All receive layers pellets ad lib, have fresh greens to augment their diet and have a fair sized run with access to fresh goodies and grass clippings etc. I even tried a different feed - a Spillers one which said it had a natural yolk colourant added - but no difference. Can anyone suggest anything I might try?
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This is just a thought, but is it very hot where you are? I know when we lived down in the south our hens got very pale yolks and watery eggs because they were drinking so much. Doesn't happen up here, more likely to get frozen yolks :P
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if our quail run out of water, or it gets abit mucky and they refuse to drink it, the following day the number of eggs significantly drops... so water, to me, has a big impact on egg laying.
I like the idea that drinking more makes paler yolks,
it sounds like they are getting plenty of greenery which helps colour yolks, so maybe the heat & drinking is your answer
:)
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I am in wet, rainy, cool Aberdeenshire. I wish heat was the problem! I have four water stations, as well as that which falls from the sky, and fill each one every day. Have read a bit on the net since I first posted - anyone deliberately fed their chooks something for yolk colour and did it work?
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Maize is good for yolk colour.
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Agree with maize - I have never fed my chooks pellets - they get mixed grain only (plus healthy scraps) and it says on the bag that the maize content helps the colour of the yolks. And just in case anyone out there tells me my hens will get fat, no they're not in the slightest - some are aged 5+ and still laying and still healthy. :)
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Have you wormed them recently? You are giving them all that they should need - just wondering why they've started doing this at the same time when you haven't changed their diets & they're all different ages.
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I agree, maize and greenery make for good yolk colour. Then genetics comes into it because on that same diet, my Marans have orange yolks and the Cream Legbars much paler yellow, with the Wyandottes and Sussexes inbetween.