Factory Eggs

I wonder if hens get cabin fever?  Do they get tired of being 'cooped up?'  (Pardon the pun)  Do they just want to stretch their wings?  Like William Wallace in the movie, "Braveheart," do they ever want to scream, "FREEDOM!!!!?"

I bet they do if they are factory hens raised in a metallic shed all their lives in cages.  The other day Tricia and Benjamin were driving and ran across a popular (around here) egg producer's headquarters located in a neighboring state and they took a few pictures.  Isn't this a pastoral sight?  I think not.

For the record, I'm not a "tree-hugger."  I do consider myself a conservationist.  According to Genesis 1:26, I believe that God gave mankind dominion over the animals.  I believe that our "ruling over" animals comes with great responsibility.  We are to watch over them and protect them and treat them kindly.  I think that part of that means that we should try to keep them in their natural setting as much as possible.  That's what we try to do with our hens.  Most of the time they are out on the pasture, eating bugs and worms and grass.  They also hang out in the shade on hot days under the trees, taking dust baths.  The only time some of them are "indoors" is at night.  Some of them roost in a hen house.  Others roost on top of the woodpile, in a pecan tree, or random places.

I don't think that chickens were intended to live out their lives caged in barns like this.  Although from the exterior, the chicken egg factory looks clean and tidy, I know inside the poor birds spend all their lives under bright fluorescent bulbs and are packed into small steel cages, never to see green grass and blue skies.  To avoid pecking that undoubtedly happens when animals are crowded into cages, I've read that the hens are de-beaked.  Also, it must REALLY stink in there!

I like to think our happy hens appreciate that they are allowed to roam around outside.  They are treated well and give us healthy, delicious eggs in remuneration.

The "Incredible" Vegetable Egg

I was reading an article here: BusinessInsider Link about a company from San Francisco that wants to make the egg obsolete, by making an egg substitute out of plants.  Yep, you heard that right.  I'm a big fan of freedom and if they want to do that, then more power to them.  But why?

They say that their plant based egg substitute will be 48% cheaper because a large component of the cost of the egg is chicken feed.  The CEO says, "Unless egg makers are willing to lose money, they don’t have a structure to compete with us. Unless they come up with a new way to not feed the chickens."  My respectful response is: Unless, of course, you allow the chicken to to what they were designed to do and primarily graze on pasture, eating bugs, worms, grass, seeds, all of which don't cost anything.  Chickens don't need to eat factory food and live their lives in cages, inside a big warehouse.

Reading further into the article, it appears that they have a problem with our society's food system largely hinging on animal protein.  And again, they are free to be vegans or vegetarians.  That is their choice and I respect that, but eating animals or animal products isn't a relatively new idea, nor is it the downfall of society. We've been eating animals for quite some time.

Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.  Genesis 9:3 KJV

The CEO later notes, correctly, that only a small portion of the eggs Americans consume come from free range, pastured chickens that live out under the blue sky and have a great chicken life.  Here are the steps that his company goes through to make his scrambled egg substitute called Just Scramble.

Step 1: Use the seeds of a confidential food crop.
Step 2: Grind the seeds into a powder making a paste.
Step 3: The proteins of the mash are spun to separate them from the other material.
Step 4: Liquid proteins are rinsed of bad tasting impurities.
Step 5: The proteins are then turned back into a liquid and can be cooked like a normal egg.

Interesting.  Talk about making a simple process into a complex one!  Here are the steps that we use to make our eggs:

Step 1: Sally Hennypenny leaves the pasture after foraging for bugs, worms, seeds, and grass and finds one of many nesting boxes where she sits down to lay an egg. After she's done, she'll sing a little happy song. She's proud of her creation as well she should be!

Sally lays an egg

Step 2: Benjamin collects the eggs from the nesting boxes.

The nest in the chicken tractor out on the pasture

Step 3: Benjamin will gather all the eggs in his wire basket and carefully bring them to the house.

A basket of eggs

Step 4: If they need any spot washing, he'll do that and then gently place them in egg cartons.

Fresh Country Eggs!

Step 5: We consume them or sell them to local customers!

Just before reading this article, I finished up leftovers for lunch sitting at my desk in an office at work.  It was a quiche. (I know, queue the "Real men don't eat quiche" jokes.) It was made with our delicious pastured eggs with a dark orange yolks bursting with beta carotene, vitamins, and Omega-3, along with spinach, toasted pecans, onions, garlic and chanterelle mushrooms and also milk and heavy cream from our Jersey cows.  All things either grown at Our Maker's Acres Family Farm or bartered to get.  My wife traded a friend some homemade butter for some fresh picked chanterelle mushrooms he had just picked. Yes, lunch today was a home run! I had to text my wife to tell her how good it was.

Support your local farmer and purchase some pastured eggs today.  His or her hens are happy and the eggs are healthy and delicious and your family will enjoy them. Or, consider getting some chickens and becoming a little more self sufficient.  Don't make eggs obsolete.  Don't 'reinvent the egg.'  There are much easier ways to solve this.  Simply make "factory eggs" obsolete by purchasing local pastured eggs today!