i have chickens at my allotment, the yokes are a nice rich yellow colour but they are not orange,
my hens have plenty of greens which improves the yoke colour, is it because they are also fed layers pellets,
i was advised a long time ago that there is something in the pellets to lighten the colour of the yoke, as we brits like a yellow yoke not an orange one,
how do i get the yokes orange

cheers
dawn

Yolks are not normally orange unless they are eating something that makes them orange, the colour comes from carotene from plants being concentrated in the yolk, layers pellets have lots of corn in them which does make the yolks naturally yellow. In battery farms they actually feed them a yellow dye to get the right colour yolks! I think if you feed them hens bane plant I think the yolks go green, some plants will even turn yolks black! I did one year have ducks that laid tomatoe red yolks simply because they were eating tons of tiny water snails that were feeding on algae, but it really makes no difference to the taste as to what colour they are - if you really wanted the novelty of it you could stick some carrots in the blender and mix them with their food to see if that works, or I know if you feed them red peppers they turn red!!!!!

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