White egg yolk

I was rather shocked on Sunday morning when I cracked an egg open to reveal a white egg yolk. I have never seen or heard of a white egg yolk before and needless to say the fear of the unknown kicked in and it was promptly removed and eventually binned. I wish now that I had taken a picture of it.
Has any one else come across a white egg yolk before and does any one know why they are white?

Here is a Pic of a White Egg Yolk :-

http://i33.tinypic.com/111jhv5.jpg

Think it depends on the feed that the hen was eating.

Must have been eating too much White Chocolate, [lol] [lol] [lol]

I have read about diet making a difference in colour. However these eggs were from a local producer and I assume that all hens were given the same type of feed. If it is down to the feed then the hen that laid that egg was not getting fed and therefore i don't want to eat and egg from a malnourished hen. The other yolks were a deep rich orange.

I tried to follow all the stuff below, but got a bit bogged down in the sciency stuff, but it does seem that yolk colour is dependent on the quality of grain/feed.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/public.../31/pale-yolks

Our hens are free range and live on a wonderful diet of left-over kitchen scraps, grain, feed and warm porridge mixed with shell grit. Our yolks tend to be bright, deep yellow but I've noticed that if any of the hens get frightened, they can "drop" a kind of egg which is soft-shelled and often the yolk is quite pale. It just falls on the grass or wherever they are at the time and the others rush in and eat it. So it's kind of like a "left-over" egg and the hen just pops it out because of stress (ie any loud noise or a dog/bairn rushing through the flock).

But apparently pale yolks are fine to eat and usually clear up with a bit of tweaking of the feed or once the hen's over her little episode.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mister Squiggle

I tried to follow all the stuff below, but got a bit bogged down in the sciency stuff, but it does seem that yolk colour is dependent on the quality of grain/feed.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/public.../31/pale-yolks

Our hens are free range and live on a wonderful diet of left-over kitchen scraps, grain, feed and warm porridge mixed with shell grit. Our yolks tend to be bright, deep yellow but I've noticed that if any of the hens get frightened, they can "drop" a kind of egg which is soft-shelled and often the yolk is quite pale. It just falls on the grass or wherever they are at the time and the others rush in and eat it. So it's kind of like a "left-over" egg and the hen just pops it out because of stress (ie any loud noise or a dog/bairn rushing through the flock).

But apparently pale yolks are fine to eat and usually clear up with a bit of tweaking of the feed or once the hen's over her little episode.

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I would try and pick up any eggs like this before your hens eat it as once they have a taste for eggs it's a devil of a job to get them to stop it. I would have no hesitation in eating a white yolk.

A couple of ine laid these for a few days when they first arrived, but now with good feed and freerange they are laying lovely eggs with golden yolks.Infact at times too many eggs:)
Think its down to feed/stress.