There’s this idea that factory farmed poor quality egg yolks are light yellow and pasture raised well-fed chicken yolks are dark. I’m here to put an end to that myth.
Have a look at my eggs yolks. Eight yolks from my chickens. They all live in the same coop. They all run in fresh grass. They eat the same non-GMO feed. Two of these chickens out of six can fly out of their run and they forage all over our property. But it’s not the ones you think it is…
See, the dark yellow yolks are actually from our OLDER chickens that were rescued and in bad shape when we got them. They are the chickens that cannot fly out of the enclosure so they have less access to bugs and well, whatever else the naughtier chickens find on the property to snack on. The light yellow yolks are all from our younger chickens, two of which are the escape artists. The only difference I see here that makes sense is the breeds–the dark yolks are all from brown eggs and those brown eggs come from a breed called Highlines. The light yolks are from blue or green eggs and are from my Easter Eggers.
It’s a mystery as to why they’re different colors, but I recall when I had my 12 chickens two years ago that my Silkies laid light yellow yolks while all the other breeds we had had dark yellow yolks. Point is…the answers aren’t always what you see online. Sometimes color of yolk may just be genetic.
