Chicken eggs ??

Chickens the wife got this spring are layin eggs.Why are the yolks so red,solid red too.
Whats up with that?

Thanks
Stan

What are you feeding them? The yolk color will vary substantially depending on what they are eating. If they are free range and feeding on insects and plants, the yolks will often end up being deep orangy-red and much denser, compared to store-bought eggs. The whites can also vary from transparent to cloudy, depending on the diet. But no matter what the appearance, they will all taste SO much better than the anemic, pale and watery eggs mass-produced these days.

Thems real eggs not store bought imitations

Because they are better. They are also eating a better diet than walmart hens!

OK was just wonderin.
They get somekind of chicken feed from Agway
and they run all over eatin whatever they want.

Thanks
Stan

Yep, they'll be as orange as the sun... often times darker...

Don;'t mind the occasional blood spot you'll find...

Here's a little side-by-side comparison for you. Your birds are free range, correct? Take a store purchased egg and one of yours and fry them up next to each other in a frying pan. Compare the taste. There is no comparison.

That red yolk means you have a true free range hen laying it. Those are the best, and the most flavorful. Just try to buy some that look like that, you will pay twice the grocery store price for them. Just curious, do you know what breed birds she has? I have some Production Reds that I got from Ideal Poultry, they are a cross between Rhode Island and New Hampshire Reds and lay pretty large brown eggs. Mine too get the run of the place and we get more than we can eat and whatever is left on Sunday goes to church and we never have any to bring home. The people that buy them from us just love them. You will probably get a variety of sizes and colors too as we do as shown in the pictures below.

.


Here is a quote from the July 09 Practical Poultry magazine:
"A fresh egg placed in a bowl of water will sink to the bottom and lie on it's side. An older egg will sink and stand up on one end and, if it's really old, it'll float completely. As the air cell increases with age, it affects the buoyancy of the egg, causing it to float. When broken, the yolk of a fresh egg will sit up and the white will appear thick around the yolk. An older egg has a flatter yolk, with a runny , watery white."
And here is the part that will interest most people:
"Did you know the color of the yolk will depend on the hen's diet, and will be the brightest orange if there is a lot of grass meal or maize meal in the feed. Hens that free-range on grass in spring and summer will lay eggs with a darker yolk than when ranging in the winter, when the grass has stopped growing. Some layers mash and pellets will contain a yolk enhancer, such as canthaxathin.
The white string you can see on the yolk is one of two that can be found on either side of the yolk. They are called chalazae, and are designed to hold the yolk in place in the middle of the egg. The yolk is packed full of nutrition and the last thing the chick does before hatching is to absorb it. A newly hatched chick has a little fat belly full of yolk, which provides it with the sustenance it needs for the first 48 hours of life."
Pretty interesting, don't you think?
Finally, "Eggs are one of the few foods to naturally contain Vitamin D and, if you accidentally drop and smash one, cover it in salt, leave it for 10 minutes and you'll find it much easier to clean up afterwards!"

OK, that's your egg lesson for the day.
DS

More egg trivia - commercial egg producers feed their chickens a product made from the marigold blooms called xanthophil(sp?) to make the yolks a darker yellow.

If you have to buy eggs in the grocery store, Eggland brand eggs are much tastier.

No one around us sells free-ranging chicken eggs. If they did, that's the only eggs I would buy.

Like every one said, those eggs will spoil you. You'll never want to eat a "store bought" chicken egg again.

Speakin of eggs,

If it takes a chicken and a half a day and a half to lay an egg and a half, how long would it take 3 chickens to lay 3 eggs ????????????

This is NOT a trick question, simple math

John T

Just over a tenth of a fortnight.

That dark yolk comes from the fact that the chicken has a diet that is high in protein, bugs worms and the like. We got the first 2 eggs from our new chicks just tonight, small in comparison to a older chicken egg. That means the it will not be too long before the ducks start to lay also. a couple of those fried in the morning keeps a person going until noon, or at least it does me. Bud

Give me a holler next time yall go to the farm. There is a lady right off the interstate here in Greenville that only sells free range eggs and she usually has plenty. I will get her number and you can swing by on the weekend and get some.

Sounds like you have never seen a good egg before!

A day and a half

question- my girls just bought 3 hens at the fredburg ag fair that are layers, about 9 months old. We were told one was laying already. 3 weeks and no eggs- sound like an issue? something wrong? when can we expect an egg?
Don't know nuffin' 'bout birds!

CORRECT twice as many ( 2 x 1.5 = 3) chickens can lay twice as many ( 2 x 1.5 = 3) eggs IN THE SAME TIME = 1.5 days

John T