Abstract The red yeast Phaffia rhodozyma was tested as a dietary pigment source for egg yolks of laying hens and Japanese quail. It was found that astaxanthin from broken yeast or prepared yeast oil but not from intact yeast cells was deposited in egg yolks. The efficiency of carotenoid deposition was approximately 4%, and it was only slightly dependent of the astaxanthin concentration in the diet. Astaxanthin was probably deposited without metabolic alteration in egg yolks. When P. rhodozyma was fed to laying hens at several concentrations and in combination with marigold flower pigments or yellow corn, a wide range of colors was achieved; depending on the yeast concentration in the feed, the dominant wavelength of chicken egg yolks ranged from 571 nm to 593 nm.