Silky Fowl chickens put more eye-healthy nutrients into their egg yolks than Rhode Island Reds when they eat certain colorful plant supplements — it’s in their genes!

Giving certain plant and bacterial supplements to two types of chickens—Rhode Island Reds and Silkies—makes their egg yolks richer in colorful nutrients called carotenoids after a month, and Silkies seem to absorb more of these nutrients than the other chickens.

Giving older laying hens paprika extract in their food makes their egg yolks more colorful, especially in Rhode Island Reds — they respond more than Silky Fowl hens when given a higher dose.

If you store eggs from hens fed paprika at room temperature for three weeks, their yolks lose color and important nutrients faster than if you keep them in the fridge.

Silky Fowl chickens naturally have eggs with better antioxidant power than Rhode Island Red chickens, even without any special diet — and it gets even stronger when they eat carotenoids.

Feeding Silky Fowl hens a paprika supplement for a month raises their 'good' cholesterol and improves their overall cholesterol balance, but the same doesn’t happen in Rhode Island Red hens — so the effect depends on the chicken breed.