Yolk color thread

Hey everyone. I thought it might be fun to start a yolk color thread where we compare our yolks and share what we are feeding our birds to get the color.

My first pic is from when I completely cut off my birds from feed and they were gathering 100% of their food on their own. I have mostly clovers, docks, other weeds and grasses in my yard and they had full access to woods as well.

My second pic has one of the eggs from the time above on the right, but the egg on the left is what happens when I go back to layer pellets. Stupid fox!

compelling pics for sure. what time of year did you cut the hens off from pellets? where are you located? how did their production drop when you cut them off and how many eggs/hen/week are you getting now? anything else you supplement their diet with? i want to go this route with the hens, but am uneasy, hence the questions. good for you to go for it, those are some beautiful yolks.

I am in Western New York. I stopped feeding them in the beginning of July. Production stayed the same... 1 egg from each bird per day, every now and then skipping a day. The shells were stronger after I stopped the feed. I haven't needed any supplements, even in the winter with the pellets. I had 6 hens, but the fox left me with three and I am back to pellets and yellow yolks until I can come up with some better protection. I'm picking up a goose this weekend.

Jesse, Cool Thread. I've been observing the same with my chicken eggs. My interest is not just color but the difference in flavor. During the winter, I feed them a variety of different foods, such as shelled sun flower seed, nuts, yogurt, super worms and grains in the hope of tweeking the flavor of the eggs. Jesse, have you noticed a flavor difference from pellet to free range fodder?

What are "super worms"?

Hi Nancy, Super worms are like Mealworms, just much larger. Both species are larvae of the Darkling beetle. They are raised commercially to feed reptiles or fish and can be purchased at most pet stores. I buy the Super Worms during the winter as treats for my small flock of chickens... they love them. You can raise Super Worms, but the life cycle takes a long time (close to a year).

The darker yolks were more flavorful. I have noticed this even more since I have been cut off from them. It's like having to go from organic craft beer back to sheeple beer. Or like buying a tomato from the grocery store after having feasted on CSA tomatoes all summer.

OOO... I want some super worms too. I also thought about breeding crickets or something. My raw milk farmer uses some sort of fermented clover hay for the cows to help preserve some of the richness of the free range milk over the winter. I was thinking of trying that once I get some more land cleared.

My birds are free ranged and supplemented each evening with a little fermented layer feed from the local feed mill/co-op. Fermenting the feed caused the yolks to increase in size after about the 2nd week in. The fermentation also keeps the flavor very mild, much like when adding ACV to the water...reduces the sulfur taste and smell and the eggs have a sweet, nutty flavor.

This is a pic of my very smallest egg next to two large Grade A eggs from the store:



And here's a pic~not of my eggs, but still interesting to see~of a comparison of eggs taken from the same bird. One egg was laid while the bird was on regular dry feed and the larger one is her egg laid 10 days after starting fermented feeds.

Jay, really interesting! How do you make the fermented feed? I'd like to try it on my own birds.

...Su
www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Thanks Jay. I've heard so many great things about fermented feed here on permies, but don't remember hearing anything about its effect on egg flavor. Gotta try it.

Su Ba wrote:Jay, really interesting! How do you make the fermented feed? I'd like to try it on my own birds.

...Su
www.kaufarmer.blogspot.com

Here's a thread on BYC about it......there are a couple of them there. This thread was started when I was researching better ways to feed meat birds and it sort of evolved from there. I've learned a few things since starting it, so the whole thing is a good read as others have experimented and found their own revelations about FF:

BYC Fermented Feed Experiment thread

I'll never go back to just feeding dry feeds any longer..the benefits have been myriad and all good. There's a thread on here about them also wherein I describe the list of benefits of this type of feeding.

Rick Roman wrote:Thanks Jay. I've heard so many great things about fermented feed here on permies, but don't remember hearing anything about its effect on egg flavor. Gotta try it.

It has more benefits than that, even! But, you can also improve the taste of your eggs in that manner by simply adding ACV to the water on a continual basis...but that doesn't yield the same benefits as the FF, so I no longer have to do that to get the better flavor of eggs. Now I just feed the FF.

Jay Green wrote:My birds are free ranged and supplemented each evening with a little fermented layer feed from the local feed mill/co-op. Fermenting the feed caused the yolks to increase in size after about the 2nd week in. The fermentation also keeps the flavor very mild, much like when adding ACV to the water...reduces the sulfur taste and smell and the eggs have a sweet, nutty flavor.

This is a pic of my very smallest egg next to two large Grade A eggs from the store:

And here's a pic~not of my eggs, but still interesting to see~of a comparison of eggs taken from the same bird. One egg was laid while the bird was on regular dry feed and the larger one is her egg laid 10 days after starting fermented feeds.

Wow! The amount of yolk to white is impressive on the lower pic!

I've had the same results with fermented feed, bigger, orange yolks. I went from the high end organic non gmo feed at 30$ a 50lb bag, to 50 lb each of scratch and 5 grain bird seed mixed and fermented for about 22$. I went from a 100$ 150lb feed bill to a 22$ 100lb bill. The eggs and general health are the same as the free rangers I had eating 80 percent bugs and grass, and the 100percent organic. While researching fermented food for people I found that fermentation increases available protein as well as the vitamin content and mineral availability of grains. There was also mention of the fermentation breaking down some pesticide residues. The specifics weren't there but I believe I read it in Sandor Katz's the art of fermentation. I'll add in whey or kombucha vinegar to the mix when available. I also use the deep litter technique which adds nutrient to the general mix. I'm moving toward growing my own grains for feed this year....

We've still got lots of snow on the ground but my egg layers are in the hoop house. What I can't understand is why they give me much darker yolks than store bought. I'm they're scratching around in the dirt but I don't think there is anything to eat but the layer pellets I'm feeding them. Thoughts?

If the microbial life in the soil is really good they will get additional nutrients from that alone, if you add compost to the hoop house the decomposing veggies will also provide this. That's pretty cool that you notice no difference between summer forage eggs and winter layer pellet eggs. What brand of feed? I lost the orange yolks with non organic or non fermented feed. Is there soy in your layer feed? I have been hearing that more soy is being added to feed as a cheaper source of protein and have wondered what difference that made- if any. That would be one thing that is absent from both feeds I have been using.
This photo below shows an egg from a friend laid on regular ole blue seal layer feed (right) and the other from mine on the organic non gmo feed, both had access to a run over winter. I do the composting deep litter in the barn she does shavings in a linoleum floored hen house. The vital thing may be the microbes alone....
This photo was taken before I had begun the fermented feed. I have noticed some bigger yolks but the color is just crazy, the eggs seem to GLOW they are so orange. I really had my doubts about the fermented thing till I did the research and did it. Cutting my feed weight by a third every month was benefit enough without the egg quality, being able to go off the organic and keep the quality as well was a huge bonus! You should try it for a month, buy a bag of scratch and bring a third of a bucketful inside where its warm with enough water to cover and a capful of ACV leave it a couple of days till it bubbles and give it to your chooks. It may be a pain in the beginning even though I have to haul the water and feed To do it. Would love to to see tests like Joel Salatin does, on fermented eggs.

Eva Taylor wrote:If the microbial life in the soil is really good they will get additional nutrients from that alone, if you add compost to the hoop house the decomposing veggies will also provide this. That's pretty cool that you notice no difference between summer forage eggs and winter layer pellet eggs.

It's not that there's no difference, in the winter on crappy feed they look like your egg on the left. In the summer, on no feed, they look like the top pic.

My bad, I misread your post. To be honest I think store bought eggs are produced in an environment that doesn't encourage good microbial flora in the chickens. Flora that create certain nutrients (from the feed) in the gut get destroyed with antibiotic feed- so even though the chickens get food with the same nutrient profile they can't utilize those nutrients. Free rangers get more exposer to a variety of microbes, more so on range and with fermented feed. I've also noticed I don't have to supplement oyster shell when using fermented feed- vitamin k2 is produced during fermentation, it tells the body where to put calcium that is absorbed..
I am very interested in what feed you are giving them, getting the bright orange yolks in the winter for me was impossible on the layer feed I had that wasn't organic.

Eva Taylor wrote:
I am very interested in what feed you are giving them, getting the bright orange yolks in the winter for me was impossible on the layer feed I had that wasn't organic.

I don't think it's the feed, it's that they have access to dirt and maybe bugs. I use half whole corn that a nearby farm grows and half tractor supply brand. I hadn't thought about the fact that most store bought eggs are fed anti-biotics too, that could affect their gut flora.

Thanks Jay, I've been spending the morning looking up info. on fermented food for chickens and other animals! Since we already soak whole grains for our pigs, I think we'll just rework our method a little bit and ferment a larger amount for both chickens and pigs instead.

Do you ever put pellets like timothy or alfalfa in the ferment? I'm wondering if fermented Timothy pellets would offer the same benefits to the goats as chaffhaye. Also wondering how well chickens would eat them in winter when they can't get any grass, since the grass does make the yolks better. When we had full snow cover the yolks were still large and orange compared to store eggs, but once the snow started receding the hens scoured the yard for bits of greens to eat and the yolks got much better.

I have rabbits as well as chickens. I didn't believe it at first, but to minimize feed costs and, make for easy clean up, I fed the rabbit droppings to the chickens after reading they would eat them and, get nutrition form them.

It works, nice orange yolks year round. I take enough rabbit manure for the garden and, the rest goes to the chickens for their winter time grass. Free chicken feed and great eggs.

I have a neighbor that feeds horse manure for winter chicken grass, that works too and, that's free around here too so, you might give it a try.

When we had chickens and rabbits, here in our village home, the rabbits cages were hung from the rafters and the chickens ran underneath. I had no idea how well the chickens cleaned up after the rabbits, until the zoning officer made me get rid of our chickens. I ended up getting rid of the rabbits, very shortly there after, they were that messy. My birds yokes were way bigger and more richer in color than anything I have ever gotten from the store. I seriously can't wait to be on our hill and having chickens again. Will spring EVER GET HERE ??

Hmm. I bet this would work with sheep poo too as it's similar to rabbit. I've read that the Inuit ate reindeer poo as a vegetable so why not chickens?

Hi everyone,

I never make it over to premies as often as I'd like, but I'm always glad when I do. Thanks for sharing all this great information.

I'm curious what breeds of egg-layers you've had success with the fermented feeds and with the rabbit poo.

Many thanks,
Julie

I started all my chickens on fermented feed and they all did great. I stopped feeding it to them when the weather got cold because it would freeze. It's also harder to feed fermented food. You can't just throw it in an automatic feeder. It won't feed. I am getting a batch of new chicks soon and they will be on fermented feed.

I have heard about sprouting grains and seeds for chickens and other animals. one lady drilled holes in the bottom of a bucket and hung it on a nail. her rinsing consisted of dipping the bucket with the sprouts into a bucket of water for a few minuets and pulled it out hang it and went on to the next one. that is one way to get green in winter. or mico-greens.

what is CVC or the stuff you put in water and why? also i noticed someone said to put it into the fermenting feed. Could you explain please?

I think you mean ACV - Apple Cider Vinegar.

thanks. every subject has its own language. makes sence

Apple cider vinegar or ACV is something I add to the fermented feed. Usually to lacto ferment things (like sauerkraut)you add salt or whey or vinegar to discourage putrifing bacteria from growing. The yeasts and bacteria needed to ferment the grains are naturally on the grain and in the air, the apple cinder vinegar raises the ph giving them the better environment to take hold and grow while suppressing the bad stuff (including nasties like ecoli). I suspect that the raising of ph is a big reason for the benefits people see in animals who consume ACV. This isn't vital for short term ferments like chicken feed but I like to add it in since it's good for animals in general and it helps to get things going if I'm starting a fresh bucket of feed. For a better more thorough explanation of ferments read anything by Sandor Katz- the art of fermentation or wild fermentation, I know he has a blog as well. I had no idea just how important and valuable ferments were to ourselves and the animals and plants that feed us before reading these resources. You could also check out cultures for health the free ebooks they have are really good and match up with Sandors work.
Love the idea of sprouting buckets!

I am sorry I do not have pictures to show. When I lived in Louisiana and we would have a crawfish boil or eat a lot of shrimp, I would give the shells and heads to the chickens, The next few days the yolks would come out swirled with darker and lighter oranges. The darker was almost red. It was the most interesting anomaly that I had ever seen. I wish I had taken photographs. My chickens were pretty much free range and the eggs were quite yummy the swirled ones had no discernible difference from the others.

We sometimes feed shrimp shells too but I have never noticed a difference in the eggs - maybe we don't have enough shrimp to matter, since it's a rare imported treat for us.
That kind of seafood / plankton coloring is supposed to be where the pink in flamingos and salmon meat comes from, too.

These are my chickens-in-law, so I might not have noticed since we only get part of the eggs.

We don't control their habitat either; they have a covered run (in the shade) and then a big wooded open run, but they tend to stay inside all the time when the snow is deep. We feed kitchen scraps and winter vegetables for variety; not much growing, and liquids freeze fast.

My big triumph recently was making a path of bedding over the snow, so they could get out and enjoy the sunshine a bit sooner. Excited to see they used it! It's thawing now, so pretty soon they will be foraging again.

-Erica

Julie, The chickens I had under my rabbits were the easter egg group, I ordered from Cackle. There was 2 to 3 each of 6 or 7 varieties. Couldn't tell you what exactly. If I can get it to work I'm going to try and post the only pic I took of some of the eggs. I don't think any particular breed would clean up the mess any better than another, though. But I'm hardly an expert.lol.

On the topic of yolk color, I noticed when I first started with chickens, on conventional feed, that the package bragged about including marigold as an ingredient to make the yolks yellower. Does anyone know if this is a common practice and whether it is included in most types of feed? We have fantastic orange yolks in the fall and spring when the chickens are on green grass (in the PNW... our grass dies by July and revives in November), but they are never as pale as store-bought eggs, even when they're eating mostly bagged feed. Could that be because of marigold added to our feed that is not present in what the commercially-raised chickens are eating?

I'm sorry to go a tad off topic, but ....

Why does everyone always recommend ACV for a 'lactic acid starter'?

Vinegar is mainly an acetic acid fermentation, which is different than lactic acid. Wouldn't one want to use something like EM-1 as a starter for fermenting? I know some LAB are in the mother from vinegar, but why not start with something much, much higher in LAB, such as EM-1?

I've done a bit of research and experimenting with making my own EM-1. I believe lactic acid formation is what we want to promote for 'probiotics'; not acetic acid bacteria.

Johnny Niamert wrote:

Why does everyone always recommend ACV for a 'lactic acid starter'?

Vinegar is mainly an acetic acid fermentation, which is different than lactic acid. Wouldn't one want to use something like EM-1 as a starter for fermenting?

As I understand it, the ACV is mainly useful because it provides a sufficiently acidic environment to prevent the growth of undesirable bacteria/fungi while you are waiting for the good bacteria to proliferate. At least that's how it works with fermenting kombucha: you have to "innoculate" a new batch of sugar tea with some old kombucha to provide high enough acidity for the good bacteria/yeast in the SCOBY to get a chance to grow. Or when making sauerkraut, you just salt the cabbage to keep putrifying bacteria at bay until the good critters from the environment have a chance. The good bacteria are everywhere anyway, in the air/water/feed, so you don't necessarily need to introduce them to the feed, just provide proper conditions for them to take over. I don't think lactic acid, per se, is the goal of fermenting feed, it is just a convenient, spoilage-reducing by-product of the good bacteria that we're really after.

However, maybe a mixture of ACV and your EM-1 would be even better? Is the EM-1 also acidic?

Dayna Williams wrote:I don't think lactic acid, per se, is the goal of fermenting feed, it is just a convenient, spoilage-reducing by-product of the good bacteria that we're really after.

However, maybe a mixture of ACV and your EM-1 would be even better? Is the EM-1 also acidic?

Thanks for the reply, Dayna. I'm actually just starting on fermenting some chick starter, to which I added a lot of EM and just a tiny bit of ACV to.


My question had a bit of rhetorical nature to it, because it is something I have read in every article about fermenting feed which I have read over the past few. Yes, EM-1 is a lactic acid dominant fermentation which is acidic. I've gotten my batches down to about 2.5 pH, which is even lower than a good ACV.

I understand the point of a mother or inoculum. I buy a 'mother' of EM-1, similar to what you describe about kombucha for making my 'food grade' EM. Then use this mother to start my own ferments, which in turn get used to start future ferments, etc...
But I still don't understand the point of adding a mainly acetic acid producing bacteria (AAB) culture to a fermentation that is supposed to be a lactic acid producing bacteria (LAB) dominant ferment? To me, that's like wanting a field of winter squash and planting zucchini instead. If LAB is what we want, why not start with LAB instead of AAB?

Sorry to give a serious answer to your rhetorical question, Johnny Niamert - it is hard to decipher sarcasm and tone from typed text. But as a newbie, I am much more likely to ferment with ACV instead of EM-1 because ACV is sitting in my kitchen cabinet and I don't have to special order it online or harvest it from moldy rice... So I guess I'm glad the ACV suggestions are out there for the less bacteria-literate among us, since they seem to give fine results. Will you post an update on how your EM-1 chick feed progressed and whether you feel it was worth the extra effort? Or have you used it successfully in the past?