Recently in May, a bizarre thing happened in a village in Kerala. Some hens at a small poultry farm unexpectedly started laying eggs with green-colored yolks in them.
The story was first picked up by some mainstream media, and then in a couple of days, it went viral. Social media was flooded with pictures and videos of these strange-looking eggs.
Everyone had so many questions surrounding this phenomenon, yet it seemed like no one had an answer. When I first saw a video on youtube, I went straight to my computer and started searching on the internet.
Upon the research, what I’ve found is very interesting.
The First Discovery Of Green-Colored Yolks
Even though the news of this strange phenomenon had gone viral in May of 2021, the first discovery of these eggs happened way before in early 2020. Exactly one year before the outbreak of the event.
So, let’s start from the beginning. There’s a village called Othukkungal which is located in the Malappuram district in Kerala, where this entire incident happened in a small poultry farm.
Eggs with green yolks.The owner of the poultry farm, Shihabudheen said in an interview that he’s been observing his hens laying these strange green eggs since the early may of 2020. The poultry farm he mentioned was built just behind the backyard of his house.
He also added by saying that he was very conscious about the color of the yolk, and didn’t consume them until he found the eggs edible. Later having eaten the eggs they found out the taste to be exactly like a regular egg, and there was no difference at all.
Beginning of The Scientific Research
After he shared some images & videos of this rare occurrence on his Facebook account, it quickly went viral like a wildfire. Eventually, the news got into the limelight.
The mysterious event reached the scientists from the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU). They visited the farm and took a couple of eggs and one such hen with them for the further investigation of this strange phenomenon.
One week later when asked, the assistant professor in the Poultry Science Department of KVASU said that the phenomenon was not because of any genetic aberration, but the feed that was given to those hens.
Two-three weeks after the investigation the officials from the University supplied a few bags of regular poultry feed to Shihabudheen. They asked him to give his hens the provided feeds from the lab. Within a few weeks, he confirmed his hens to have started laying normal eggs just like before.
Shihabudheen with his green yolk eggs. In the meanwhile the hens from the eggs scientists took to the lab for investigation also started giving eggs with normal yellow-colored yolks. With that, finally, all the mysteries have been solved except one particular thing.
What did the hens eat in the first place that caused the yolk to change its color? It still remains a mystery.
Are His Hens The First To Lay Green Eggs?
His hens are not the first to lay green-colored yolk eggs. Actually, there are some species of chicken that are intentionally cross-breed to lay eggs of different color yolks.
There are more than 60 breeds of chickens recognized by the American Poultry Association, and possibly hundreds of others that have been developed worldwide to lay eggs with different colored yolks.
However, the case of his hens is totally different as he didn’t crossbreed his chicken.
