Part of any Self Sufficient lifestyle, if at all possible, should be the keeping of Chickens.
They are cheap to keep and you have the advantage of having the freshest, most fantastic tasting eggs imaginable.
Many of us feed our Chickens on a mixed feed that is readily available and fairly cheap, but with added greens their yolks turn an amazing deep Orange.
We have three Dogs and it is just not practical to let our Chickens roam free. Our Dogs would be pestering them, or a stray would most certainly be picking up a free snack at our expense. They have a home built Chicken Coop and a fenced in compound for them to roam around in.
I am sure many of you have a similar setup.
Super Orange Egg Yolks taste quite a bit better than the normal Eggs we get when our Chickens are fed on only a generic all in one feed. We have found that we need to supplement their diet when we can and even in Spain with a lot of parched barren land in the Summer there is always a way to get very Orange and super tasty Eggs.
The following are a few tips to get a dazzlingly Orange Egg Yolk that tastes unbelievably good.
- Grass fed Chickens would be ideal but the next best thing is to cut some grass and feed to them daily, keep the grass cuttings whenever you can and feed a bit every day before it spoils
- Make two compounds and rotate the Chickens. Grass is quickly decimated in a small space but this way you can give the Grass a chance to grow back
- Feed the Chickens Cabbages on a regular basis. It keeps them occupied and the colour of the Yolks is amazing
- Give all weeds and any greens you do not eat to the Chickens. They eat what they want and prepare the rest for the Compost Heap
Don’t forget to wear your shades when you crack those Eggs. Chickens that get supplied with regular greens will be happy for the extras, will stay occupied rooting around in the lovely freshness and will return the favour with dazzlingly Orange Egg Yolks.
For a more self sufficient future
We recently tended to our neighbor’s chickens (and during an ice storm with no power yet!) for a week. We’ve been buying eggs from them for several months now and that was the first thing I noticed when I cracked the eggs – those deep golden yolks! These eggs taste much richer than the ones from the store.
Hi Kylee,
It is amazing the diference in the colour of the yolks from more naturally fed Chickens. When our Hens stopped laying for a while I just couldn’t bring myself to buy any other eggs, even if they were free range.
I realy like to know exactly where the Eggs come from nowadays.
Hope to see you back here again.
All the best.
We had 3 chickens we bought about 4 years ago, they all had names & were pets as well as good egg layers. They stopped laying in Winter then started again when the daylight was longer. Yesterday one of them (Blonde) died, she had been quieter than normal (they have the run of the garden until late Spring) she was fluffing up her feathers & standing still with her eyes closed, & she seemed to be breathing deeply as I could see her chest rise & fall, we put her in the shed where it was warmer and covered her with ahold curtain as we thought she was dying & didn’t know what to do. ( we found her still covered this morning & she had passed away) One of the other chicks (ASBO) has been standing with her eyes closed today, can you enlightenment as to what the problem might be? Could it be contagious our 3rd chicken is looking very healthy with a beautiful red comb & looks very well