Have you ever heard that the yolk of an egg can tell you how much nutrition is in it? Being a chicken owner, I thought my girls were pumping out pretty healthy eggs. They are part time free ranged but I feed them a high quality organic grain free of GMOs. I feed them leftovers from the house, much of it organic. What I didn’t realize was that even though my girls’ egg yolks are orange and not a weak yellow, they could be even darker red/orange and even more nutritious.
During “The Molt” when the girls took a hiatus from laying to grow out puffy new feathers I found it necessary to buy some eggs. Weird that I haven’t had to do this for the last four years. I decided to get some eggs at a neighboring organically-managed farm.
Nancy has a farm stand where she sells produce and eggs. I picked up two dozen eggs and was shocked at how much color those yolks had. They were nearly red! I knew from talking to Nancy that her 80 (yes, EIGHTY) girls are free-ranged from sun up to sun down and that she has a local feed mill custom mix her grains for her to avoid any GMO nonsense. So, while her eggs are not organic, they still have higher nutrition than most. That has a lot to do with her girls eating a diet primarily made up of grass, bugs and being only supplemented with grains. They are also protected by a guard donkey. How cool is that?!
I wanted that – the eggs, not the donkey. That’s a few years down the road. But, I wanted my girls to gift us with dark orange yolked eggs. I wanted my girls to be happily pecking away at the ground scratching for bugs and greens. It’s my goal for this year.
Winter tends to be difficult for everyone. Chickens don’t get to eat as much grass and greens, bugs and protein as they want so grains are a primary source of nutrition. But, come this spring, this will be the chart I use to gauge my progress on getting them all to be the healthiest, most productive girls they can be.
*Note on the chart: This is a representation of what a typical egg would look like if the chickens are kept and fed as noted. There are always exceptions. Feeding battery-caged chickens some greens will affect the yolk color but it will not affect that chicken’s sad state of living. Chickens free-ranged full time in a run without grass or bugs will not have yolks with dark-orange color. In order to have the healthiest chickens possible, or source the most nutritious eggs, you must pay attention to both the living conditions and the diet the chickens are eating.