Egg-Sactly What You Need to Know

Many people are squawking about animals and what's happening with them. We've heard many different sides ranging from industrializing more to stopping the use altogether. I stand somewhere in the middle. As you can see by my bio, I am a farmer. I grew up on a production farm for Tyson's and saw everything that happened—and exactly how it happened. I have to say, a lot of the stories are huge exaggerations. The houses aren't as crowded as they make it out to be, chickens aren't filled with steroids, and they certainly aren't brutally hurt at that stage. However, I am still against it. I can imagine some of you are surprised at that after me standing up for it. Let's think about chickens though. The chickens used for meat don't lay eggs. They don't do much, actually. I've experimented a bit, and put some in an outside lifestyle to see what they did. They really just sat around and walked to food and water as they needed then laid back down, even in the event of predators. Within recent years I bought some laying chickens. The difference was phenomenal.

These guys are nuts! Watching them chase each other trying to steal "food" when one picks up a leaf could win any funny video contest! They always seem to be up to something, including terrorizing the poor dogs. They're curious and they like to poke their heads into everything you do. Once one of the chickens jumped on my back to watch me garden. I was then assaulted by six others wanting their own perch on me (who is definitely not a perch post). They're also really handy for keeping snakes away. We used to have dozens of copperheads show up each year, but since I got the chickens, I've only seen one at the neighbor's place! The downside to these chickens and their constant antics is that they know when you're sleeping and know where your bedroom window is. Goodbye sleeping past 5 AM... now we move on from the chicken to the egg.

These eggs are the best eggs you'll ever eat. They're rich in color and taste, and they cook so much better. This specific breed of chicken is a Hyline Brown (the one pictured above is a Japanese Black Tailed Bantam). They're a medium-sized chicken that lay medium-large eggs. We get more eggs than we could ever eat from our 13 hens and we're a family of six! My favorite part about the eggs is that you don't have to refrigerate them.

Yep, you heard me!

Those in Europe probably aren't surprised! Kudos to you guys! Here in the U.S. the FDA allows our eggs to go through a cleaning process that includes some rather potent chemicals. This chemical erases a natural coating around the shell of the egg. The shell of an egg is almost like layers of mesh made into a "solid" outer surface. There's still holes that allow bacteria to travel to the yolk and white of the egg. The coating around the egg clogs those pores and keeps bacteria out for a sterile environment inside. I have yet to meet a farmer who gets rid of this coating because we all agree, the egg tastes better when you don't. I'm sure most of you have a local farmers market around. Show some support and grab some eggs from them. It might be a little more expensive but you can store them like bread and typically have a natural shelf life of about a month. Now, I'm going to go have an egg sandwich. You should have some too!

The Ornery Rooster