My husband has been recently diagnosed with diabetes and omega 3 eggs are recommended. Does anyone know how to produce eggs with high omega 3? Is it a type of laying hen or is it the food they are fed? We have laying hens now. The omega 3 eggs in the market are quite expensive.
Producing Omega 3 Eggs
Omega 3 is obtained by including as much greenery as possible in your chickens diet, consider letting them free range around your property for a few hours every day, or having alternating pens to keep them on fresh pasture. You know your eggs are high in omega 3 when the yolk is a much deeper yellow or even orange that a normal egg. hope this helps
hunterboy that is good info. I wasn't aware greenery was the key. We have an Ameraucana that lays eggs with a really dark almost orange yolk. I guess she has a lot of omega 3 then.
What about lettuce? Will that up the omega 3. We have lettuce in the garden that is in abundance right now and I throw extras to the chickens.
One of the things they use to boost Omega 3's in eggs is powdered kelp. If you google Omega 3 and chicken eggs, there is more info on the kind of diet that can boost it--but yes hunterboy is right about the grazing on green plants that raises it in general. I think lettuce would help--unless it is iceberg:0).
another great omega rich treat is flax seeds, o rflax seed oil. i found flas seeds at the grocery store, and give some to the chickens occasionally in the winter. you could make it a part of their regular diet.
i threw out some old canned sradines for the cats and the chickens loved them. so, if DH goes fishing, you might consider processing the scraps and throwing it to your chickens!
good luck with DH diet. just the fact that he is eating fresh eggs will be beneficial!
tf
Flax seeds are the best way to increase the Omega 3 in eggs quickly. Anything green surely doesn't hurt either, but Flax Seeds are the easiest.
Yep, flax seeds are what I give mine. I've mixed some into their layer pellets and some in with their scratch so they get it every day. I purchased mine from the supermarket bulk bins.
No not iceburg, green leaf and red leaf. I also throw over a couple of spinach leaves to them sometimes. I'll also check into getting the flax seed. They always get table scraps that have a variety of stuff so I'll just throw the flax in that mix.
This probably would never cause a problem with chickens--but my friend started sprinkling flax seed on her cereal.
A few weeks later she started having terrible abdominal pains--really scary. Lots of hospital tests. Turned out she was having gall bladder attacks because of the high fat content in the flax seeds! Once she stopped the flax seeds the problem went away. Shows they are pretty powerful. Only problem I can think of they could cause with chickens is making them fat if they are inclined that way. I am thinking of trying them myself when my pullets approach laying.
I seem to remember my father making a tea from flax seed for arthritis. Don't know if it helped, but I guess it didn't hurt. Will be looking into it myself for the chicks, but not making tea from it.
GG
♦^_^♦
Just an FYI in case anyone here has thyroid problems.......Certain types of flax are bad if you have thyroid problems. Like whole flaxseed or ground flaxseed. I think certain flax oils are okay though. Don't know about the tea. I've read flaxseed has a nutty taste so I suppose the tea would taste nutty. If it helps arthritis, it might not be too bad tasting.