Happy Chickens

Here’s some great insights from Mike Biltonen (my darling husband), about chicken eggs and production. Mike is a passionate fruit farmer and serious about local food security.

Eggs, specifically chicken eggs, are one of Mother Nature’s great creations. Sublime in their simplicity and benevolence, it is mind boggling how one species (Homo sapien) could bastardize not only the creation itself, but its creator, as well: the mighty chicken.

Eggs are pretty straightforward: shell, albumen (white), and yolk. The female (hen) “creates” the egg and if it is fertilized by the male (rooster), then little baby chicks usually emerge a few short weeks later and the process begins all over again. If not, then the eggs can be collected and used as a food source by an endless supply of Nature’s creatures, including you and me, dear reader. They can be scrambled, poached, fried, over easy, hard or soft boiled, or baked. They are a gift and yet we treat them as if they are the devil’s own sometimes.

First off, eggs should never be washed until right before they are used. Why? Well, the egg is covered with a protective coating called a bloom. This bloom protects the egg from invading pathogens (like salmonella) and when the egg is washed, so is the coating, exposing the egg to those nefarious little things trying to get at the egg, too. A clean egg is the first sign of an industrial egg…shit and feathers is where it’s at when evaluating the external quality of the almighty egg.

Second, the nutritional value of the egg is only as good as what the hen eats and puts into it. Kind of like any other living organism, you put crap in, you get crap out. Nutritionally speaking most industrially raised chickens are fed a combination of grains and drugs so they can produce a maximum amount of eggs in the shortest period of time before the spent hens are taken to the slaughterhouse. Humanely fed chickens get a wide variety of food including insects, grass, weeds, and vegetables and fruits. A nutritionally diverse diet makes the chicken healthier and happier and the eggs more nutrient dense and, therefore, better for you to eat. When you crack open an egg look for a dense dark orange yolk that stands tall as the sign of a well-laid egg.

Third, stress kills! We all know that for ourselves, but rarely think about it for other creatures (because they’re not human, you know), especially those that “work” for us. If you think about it, it really makes sense. As workers ourselves, we all do better work when we’re well-fed, rested, physically fit, and in an environment that encourages good (if not great) productive work. Anytime we’re put in to a situation where stress levels are high (for whatever reason) we generally do less and poorer work. That’s not to say that stress isn’t good at some times to push ourselves to higher levels. But constant stress, and especially bad stress, ratchets up angst, free radicals, cortisol, and other things that bring us down, eventually driving us into the ground to where we are totally useless. The same is true with chickens. Lower stress levels correlate (I believe) with happier, healthier chickens, better eggs, and higher quality meat (if you’re into that).

When I was growing up, there were two types of eggs: store-bought and farm-raised.  As consumers became focused on natural products and organic food, eggs starting being marketed differently. Instead of your standard white egg, you could now find brown eggs. Brown eggs projected a different perception to the consumer: healthier, farm-raised, better for you, better for the chicken. But as time rolled on, consumers became even more aware and health conscious. They could now choose from conventional or organic eggs, in addition to white or brown ones. Even further up the road, as local and ethics affected consumer buying practices, you had cage free, pasture raised, and conventional.

Conventional eggs are made by cramming a bunch of hens into a single large house, fed vast quantities of grain, given no room to move or fresh air to breathe, and forced to lay eggs…lots and lots of eggs. Their wings and beaks are clipped to eliminate injuries to the birds. And because of how close these chickens live to each other and that the air is filled with dried chicken manure, they are also given (fed) vast quantities of antibiotics to prevent infections. Basically, if the companies that raise hens/eggs this way could get the same thing from a machine, they would. There is little interest in the welfare of chicken, the nutrition of the egg, or you. Conventional eggs are produced by stress-filled chickens; little tiny feathered factories..

In response to ethical out crying, the next step was for egg producers to go cage free. “Let my chickens go,” they said. “Give them fresh air and sunshine,” they said. Sounded like a great idea. And it was for a while. That is, until the conventional egg producers realized that if they just let the chickens out of their indoor cages, opened the doors to the barn, but kept all the other practices the same, that the chickens would actually just stay inside where the food and water was. Technically cage free, yes, but without the elements that give the chickens the ability to live happy, healthy lives, producing copious quantities of the best eggs you’ll ever eat.

So, we end up at pastured, the way all farm animals should live. At least with pastured, you could be assured that the chickens lived outside part of the time and actually received fresh air, sunshine, water, and a diverse food source. Right? Well, again, technically yes, until you put those chickens in a single pasture with thousands of other chickens, jammed together just like they were when they were inside. Kind of like the Truman Show for chickens, what they didn’t know wouldn’t kill them, right? Almost all forms of large chicken farms are just CAFOs (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) for our little feathered friends, just like the ones used for milk cows and beef cattle. If you want great eggs produced by happy hens, go outside and go small.

So, how do you get the best eggs? First you start with the right breed. Common industrial breeds are designed to produce a lot of eggs. Yet, even in better conditions that’s what they’re designed to do. So you have to turn back the pages of time and raise some heirloom breeds. Not only will the flock look like a Monet with wings, but your eggs will be all different sizes, colors, and shapes. The one thing they’ll all be is nutritious. Second, keep the total number of chickens per flock low—say, like around 40-50: the smaller the flock, the lower the stress, the happier the chicken, the better the eggs. Third, put them outside in an area with a diverse food source and keep them there, giving them access to a henhouse for protection at night and from the elements, of course. Grass, weeds, insects, fruit and vegetables all comprise a veritable smorgasbord for them that results in great eggs. Fourth, don’t force them to lay eggs. Chickens like all creatures have life cycles. There are times of the year where they’ll produce more and better eggs, and times when they won’t. If you don’t force the issue, then the eggs you do get will make the ones you used to buy at the grocery store like, well, something from a factory…which is exactly what they are.

The next time you’re on the hunt for some great eggs try your local farmers market. Talk to the farmer, ask them about how they raise their chickens and about the quality of the eggs. Compare that to the drivel you’ll get from the grocery store stock clerk and you’ll never go back. Once you crack that egg in a bowl, you immediately see the difference. Most importantly you’ll know that somewhere in the neighborhood is a hen house full of happy chickens. And what this world needs is more happy chickens.

Isn’t that beautiful? That egg came from a happy chicken.