Egg whoa's = from fried to the dog bowl

[4BeautifulBRATs]

so I feel like a dummie! First time hen mama here: so just for some details we have 2 Delawares, 2 Rhode Island Reds & 2 cCinnamon Queens! They are pets, egg producers, and yard chickens. They get high quality laying pellets, scratch, and tons of fresh and cooked veggies, plus bugs and whatever they eat out of the yard, They are fantastic in the yard for bug and weed control and of course fertilizer! We've lived here a year and haven't had grass, let's just say in the last 3 months the yard is filling in!

So... We got our first egg Friday October 21st this year (2011) The second egg came yesterday (Monday) so this morning I got excited to cook them for breakfast. Well I crack them open and to my surprise the yoke and whites are much thicker than even store bought cagefree/organic eggs and I noticed the yoke was much darker! I started to worry and decided to quickly turn my fried egg into scrambled eggs. Even more shocked, that's when I realized something wasn't right my eggs were orange and white (mostly orange) I figured maybe somthing wasn't right, maybe cause they're small and the first of her eggs?! So I let them cool and fed them to the dog. Still discombobulated Over my orange eggs I proceeded to reasearch the one thing I haven't come across in my hobby farm venture, the color of yard chicken eggs!

My sister has had chickens for years , which i have enjoyed and I have personally distinguished the difference between store bought and down home farm eggs. However her chickens are in a large hen house with a large enclosed "run" , they don't get out and about.

For the well seasoned chicken farmer pardon my pun, your all probably fully aware I feel like an idiot! Here I learned happy, healthy, free roaming chickens who are only cooped at night produce happy healthy Eggs! not that others arent , I've just never experienced the color or texture of 2 day old raw eggs with such thickness and dark coloring in a yolk.

As you can imagine, I feel ridiculous! I am very disappointed that I was ignorant to the matter.

So will the 6 hens all be dark or should I expect this to be changing through the seasons or with age?!

Thanks for the info and advice everyone!
Title: Fried to scrambled to dog

 

[mandelyn]

Hhahahaha! Yeah... diet changes a lot about an egg. If you thought that was weird, try cracking open a free range duck egg!

 

[Farm_Maven]

your eggs most likely will change color with the diet your chickens have available by the season. My eggs are nice and thick, but the yolks are not dark as they would be if my flock could free range more often. I live on a state highway, and the traffic is my big concern over predators. We have people here that will swerve to hit an animal. I work nights, so I am not at home every evening to let them out every day. They do have a large coop and run and I provide them with foods that should be making the yolks darker, (as in soaked alfalfa pellets, etc.) but it really just ain't happening, lol. They are darker than store bought tho.
They have almost seven acres to roam on, but seem to always want to head towards the road if they are out for long periods of time. I have plans to get some welded wire fence put up along that fence line to discourage them from going that direction.

 

[moetrout]

I have noticed the yolks are much darker (more orange) during summer months when the hens can free range and get more fresh greens. During winter the yolks are more yellow, but the eggs are still above and beyond any store bought egg. If you could afford to feed your hens lots of good greens in the winter it would probably last year around.

 

[4BeautifulBRATs]

Quote:
We thought about getting ducks! Can you or Do you eat them? I want to know about them now

it was quite strange! I'm now looking forward to my next batch of orange scrambled eggs!

 

[4BeautifulBRATs]

Quote:
Very good to know! Thanks so much for the reply! Spinach, broccoli, zucchini, cucumber type greens for winter? Because we will have an abundance again this winter from the fall garden! They also have gotten the same much of the summer. .... Well since we got them. What can I say we love them!

 

[Pharm Girl]

I recently took a picture of two eggs in a bowl. One was from my ladies and the other store bought. They were going into banana bread, so I didn't care where they came from. They look a bit different.

 

[anderson8505]

It could happen to anyone.

 

[Marcymom3]

You know we are all interested in learning something new everyday or we wouldn't be on here. So don't feel bad about not knowing that the egg yolks are dark. Once you have those beautiful dark eggs, it's hard to go back to anemic looking supermarket eggs! My pullets have just recently started laying and their yolks are a rich yellow and they taste sooo good!! Enjoy!

 

[Minniechickmama]

Quote:
I have both and none of the chickens can match my ducks for orange yolks.
Yes, you do see a difference in the color of the yolk throughout the different seasons. I find my girls lay a darker yolk when it is late summer/fall when more seeds are available for them as they range. Sadly, their ranging days are coming to nearly a halt. I will be separating all mine for breeding pens and will have to rotate them on pasture. The pasture is big, but they won't get to peck and scratch all over every day. They will have outdoor runs though. I expect the yolks won't be as rich, but there are trade-offs to everything.

Enjoy eating your fresh orange yolks, your dogs did