Artifical Food colouring in Egg Yolks

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Cotswold Legbar and Burford Brown.
 
morning glory said:
Is the Burford brown the slightly paler one? I have one Cotswold Legbar left which I'm about to use so I will snap it next to a marmite lid just for comparison.
Where are you getting the Burford's from?
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The one on the left is the Burford Brown, the other two are Legbars. There's not much difference between the two, I think they are all part of the same flock so have the same diet. My butcher supplies them, but is cagey about his supplier, other than that they come from a local farm that also supplies Waitrose. Given that he is really into supply chain transparency (all for his cuts of meat practically come with an autographed photo of the donor beast) I can only assume that secretive commercial arrangements are in place.
 
epicuric said:
The one on the left is the Burford Brown, the other two are Legbars. There's not much difference between the two, I think they are all part of the same flock so have the same diet. My butcher supplies them, but is cagey about his supplier, other than that they come from a local farm that also supplies Waitrose. Given that he is really into supply chain transparency (all for his cuts of meat practically come with an autographed photo of the donor beast) I can only assume that secretive commercial arrangements are in place.
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There isn't much in it then. Its been too dark and gloomy to photograph my egg today. Tomorrow..
 
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Clockwise yolks from the top: The Black Farmer's, Cotswold Legbar, Burford Brown. Shells, from the top: The Black Farmer, Burford Brown, Cotswold Legbar. You can see that the Cotswold Legbar is a shade lighter than the other two - but to the naked eye the Burford Brown is very, very slightly less orange than the Black Farmer's. In the second image you can see that a bit more clearly. In comparison with the Marmite lid, they are all very orange!

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Many years ago Mum used to keep chickens and, as far as I recall, the eggs were usually a bright yellow. They were fed mainly on bran and vegetable leftovers but would peck around in their runs. Occasionally we used to get darker eggs; perhaps this was from when they had a bit of "meat" in their diet (worms and insects). The eggs I get now are organic eggs from Riverford, and the colour of the yolks seems to vary according to which of their farms they come from. The eggs from their own farms in Buckfastleigh often had darker yolks, whereas the ones we get now from Winchester area are pale. It states on the box that the yolks vary from pale yellow to orange but all the ones I've had have been pale. We've only been getting these eggs over the winter, so perhaps the rest of the year they have more to forage on. Time will tell.
 
Elawin said:
We've only been getting these eggs over the winter, so perhaps the rest of the year they have more to forage on. Time will tell.
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A lot of plants contains a colouring in their leaves which is obscured by chlorophyll but chickens who eat more of these plants have yellower or darker yolks. Right now coming out of a UK winter, egg yolks will be at their palest. As the season progresses yolks get paler and paler naturally because producing eggs takes so much out of a hen. Birds actually store the plant 'dye' in their bodies, often showing in their leg colour. Pale skinned legs are yellower the younger a bird is (or if it's male) and as they age and can't consume enough of these plants their legs will also get paler!
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
A lot of plants contains a colouring in their leaves which is obscured by chlorophyll but chickens who eat more of these plants have yellower or darker yolks. Right now coming out of a UK winter, egg yolks will be at their palest. As the season progresses yolks get paler and paler naturally because producing eggs takes so much out of a hen. Birds actually store the plant 'dye' in their bodies, often showing in their leg colour. Pale skinned legs are yellower the younger a bird is (or if it's male) and as they age and can't consume enough of these plants their legs will also get paler!
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It's over 50 years since we kept chickens, but I seem to remember most of them had lovely yellow legs. Can't remember about the rooster, except that he was a gorgeous colour. He was noisy too and ended up on the dinner plate.
 
Elawin said:
It's over 50 years since we kept chickens, but I seem to remember most of them had lovely yellow legs. Can't remember about the rooster, except that he was a gorgeous colour. He was noisy too and ended up on the dinner plate.
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ironically most of my girls don't have yellow legs or even pink legs. most have black or grey legs for some reason! or did until Wednesday at least. We will have to see what we end up with the from eggs of theirs we are trying to hatch. we thought we may as well try! Our rooster and his son both have amazingly yellow legs though and the other cockerel that CC hatched last December has pale pink legs.
 
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