Since having our own chickens, every time I see photos like the one attached, I get a little irritated. The colour of an egg yolk does NOT determine the healthiness of the egg nor the chicken - neither does the shell colour. When you are eating food that is grown naturally there are always going to be variations in colour, shape, size, texture, taste....
Unfortunately most of what we eat today is standardised (read human intervention) so that it fits the parameters of nutrition labels. There's no nutrition panel on free-range, organic eggs or on raw dairy. Raw milk drinkers will know that the colour of the milk and the amount of cream at the top of the milk changes throughout the year as does the flavour. This is due to the changes in season and thus the changes in the different greens the cow is eating. So the more carotenoids in the particular greens they are eating at a particular time of year, the yellower the milk and cream may be.
Similar story for hens.
While hens are supplemented with feed, hopefully a high quality organic feed, their natural diet is bugs, insects and worms and availability of these are going to vary throughout the year.
Hens are foragers so need to predominantly be free ranging, which brings us to the issue of free range and stocking numbers.
In Australia the law states that labeling eggs free range, means the hens that laid them;
- had meaningful and regular access to an outdoor range during daylight hours during the laying cycle
- were able to roam and forage on the outdoor range
- were subject to a stocking density of 10,000 hens per hectare or less.
The first two of these laws are very arbitrary for example one persons idea of meaningful and regular can be vastly different to another persons. For this reason it is important to know who is producing your eggs and be able to have a chat with them about their perspective.
As for the permitted stocking density of 10,00 per hectare, a number of concerns arise for me as shared here and here.
As a result I choose eggs with a hen stocking density no greater than 1500 per hectare, preferably less.
Unfortunately today many factory farms are including synthetic colour in their feed to create a bright yellow/orange yolk so we really can’t judge the healthiness of an egg or the hen that laid it by the colour of the yolk.
To me eggs are little orbs packed full of diverse nutrient goodness. It is one of the reasons I recommend runny egg yolks as a first food for babies HOWEVER the quality of the egg is of paramount importance. Poor quality eggs provide poor quality nutrition and can even contribute to health issues like allergies, inflammation, autoimmune conditions and digestive issues. Often people think they have an egg allergy however their issue is more to do with the quality of the egg. People often experience this with gluten and dairy food too. As Robyn Wright says “Are we allergic to food or are we increasingly allergic to what’s been done to it.”
As an aside, there is also some talk that if the white runs when you crack the egg then that is a sign of an unhealthy egg as the whites should be tight. Again this was dispelled for me with having our own chickens. On the whole this was true, however there was a number of times when the white of an egg that had just been laid did run. ....
Finally, just a tip to keep in mind - eggs have a natural 'bloom' to protect the contents so if there is some dirt on your eggs, don't wash your eggs until you are about to use them or you will wash off the protective bloom leaving the eggs and their now very porous shell open to absorbing smells and unhealthy microbes. I don't wash mine at all unless there is a significant amount of crap on them. Remember the more organic farm type bacteria we are exposed to the better!
So how do we know how healthy our eggs are? It ultimately comes down to knowing the source of our food and having as much direct communication with the grower/farmer as possible.