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Comment by Digit-Al | Hacker News Reader

Wow! That's crazy. Here in the UK, the most expensive eggs in my local supermarket - which are Clarence Court Burdord Brown eggs - are only the equivalent of $5.08 per dozen. Those are the posh, expensive, eggs that only those with a bit of extra cash in their pocket, and a desire to eat more healthily, would buy.

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Here is Australia I like the most expensive eggs you can buy, 150 birds per hectare, 800g, $15 a dozen. https://www.hilltopsfreerange.com/

I love how British eggs have deep, amber yolks. Are they force-feeding the hens Earl Grey?

So hens don't usually have to be force-fed. Some of that color can come from having a diverse source of proteins--like the bugs and insects that pasture-raised hens get access to--but farmers "in the know" will also add paprika and marigold to the usual soy-and-grain supplemental feed, to try to encourage it to come out a bit more.

A few years back I briefly thought that a rich yolk color was a quality signal, until I found that additives could produce that color cheaply. The color comes from dietary carotenoids [1]. Companies like BASF sell carotenoid feed additives that producers can employ to get a yolk color as rich as desired:

https://nutrition.basf.com/global/en/animal-nutrition/our-pr...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carotenoid

I wouldn't be surprised if you were correct in your belief and that this became a case of Goodhart's Law when implemented in the egg industry.

a lot of farmers feed them marigold and other color enhancers to try and boost the color - because it is also a sign of the hen having a good diet

something about metrics becomes a target it fails to be a good metric springs to mind.

Food additive manufacturers sell farmers aditives to produce yolks with specific hues[1]. There are regional/cultural variations in color preferences, so regional farmers will target different sades.

[1] https://www.dsm-firmenich.com/anh/products-and-services/prod...

It's slightly disingenuous to call carotenoids "additives". Although it might technically be true, carotenoids are naturally present in tons of vegetables (hence carrots) and are a good antioxidant with other known health benefits.

Once we fed goose with carrot waste - the fat and skin was more orange than yellow!

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