Aussie Finch Forum

Know a lady who has Chooks and they are free to roam her yard yet one of them lays eggs with very pale yolks...she is thinking it is sick and feeding it more grass??? the people on the forum are telling her to feed it STYROFOAM??? changes yolk colour and hardens shell??? Sounds like a lot of BS to me, but quite a few are agreeing is this correct? I would feed it more of a corn mash if it were mine..... here is a couple of replies......

Helen Dxxxxxn greens is good, but would you believe styrofoam too? lol. strange I know, but they love it, the yokes are yellower, whites whiter and also hardens the shell of the egg as well.

Cheryl Cxxxxh yep that is true

Well, apart from health risks to bird and egg eater (polystyrene is very inert and very slow to break down), it kinda makes sense coz styrene is made from liquid amber sap.

natamambo wrote:Well, apart from health risks to bird and egg eater (polystyrene is very inert and very slow to break down), it kinda makes sense coz styrene is made from liquid amber sap.

Well there you go who would have thought that....

natamambo wrote:Well, apart from health risks to bird and egg eater (polystyrene is very inert and very slow to break down), it kinda makes sense coz styrene is made from liquid amber sap.

Methadone is made from petrochemicals, but that doesn't mean your car will run on it; vodka is made from potatoes, but I wouldn't deep-fry it if I were you....
I could go on, but you get the point.
I suspect they would pass it unchanged in their poo, as it is very inert. Even so, I'm sure that the space occupied in the hen's gut by polystyrene would be better filled with food.
If the hen is crook, say they have liver disease, then polystyrene probably won't help much.

However, if the hen has, say, a transient viral illness from which it recovers fully, then the poor soul who fed it polystyrene would be convinced that it had been cured by the random, coincidental food additive. They would then propagate this piffle on poultry forums, and the urban myth would spread.

In my opinion, the same phenomenon has occurred many times in human medicine, as well, with paracetamol for the febrile child or most antidepressants being good examples.

So, with polystyrene the yolks should come good in two weeks, but without it might take up to fourteen days....
If she's worried it is sick, perhaps she could take it to a vet.

Thanks Matty

Personally I dont think it is sick...as I googled it and some chooks just lay eggs with pale yolks...apparently depending in the world where are you some people like pale yolks others prefer dark yolks...something to do with how hen stores the carotenoids..

natamambo wrote:Well, apart from health risks to bird and egg eater (polystyrene is very inert and very slow to break down), it kinda makes sense coz styrene is made from liquid amber sap.

Ahhh, Matty.. Did I really need the ? .

What breed of chook is it ?

Some have different coloured egg shell and yolk colouring and low fat

Styro is often given to chooks, helps with boredom, & with feather picking, don't think it serves any other purpose. Show chook breeders have been useing it here for year.

VR1Ton wrote:Styro is often given to chooks, helps with boredom, & with feather picking, don't think it serves any other purpose. Show chook breeders have been useing it here for year.

I'm amazed at people feeding styro to their chooks....goes beyond what I would do to help bird problems

finches247 wrote:What breed of chook is it ?

Some have different coloured egg shell and yolk colouring and low fat

Just looks like any other white chook

VP, I share your skepticism.

Matty's post is spot on.

There is no biological basis why styrofoam would do anything to yolk colour.

Most yolk colour comes from carotenoids derived from red, yellow & green vegetables, but genetics and individual variation can affect how well these carotenoids are converted into yolk colour in individual hens.

Leave the styrofoam for packaging. Your chooks deserve something better.

PS>: some forums are dominated by a small group of people operating under many different names who seemingly just want to cause mischief- don't believe everything you read!!!!