Raising Chickens! Yikes!

[Hala401]

I was raised on a farm until I was 10, and then my Husband and I had a small farm for 5 years, and both times we had farm animals.

Now, over 30 years later, my roomates got chickens, but no rooster, and we have been getting about 3 eggs a day from 4 chickens! I am surprised that a chicken can lay close to an egg a day!

So, we have had them a couple weeks and the taste of a real egg, rather than those other kind, is well, really different. Wow! So, today I decided to make french toast and one of the eggs had a spot of red stuff in it! I don't even want to think of what that could be! Being very against abortion, the idea just makes me feel icky.

So, I used a lot of cinnamon to get my mind off IT! And now, sitting here eating my french toast ... not sure I can finish it.

Can someone tell me how THAT could happen to the egg with no rooster? We have no rooster. Did I just kill a baby chicken? How was I to know?

I don't know if I can eat another egg, EVER !

[Wingnut]

Every 28(ish) days, an adult female human produces one egg -- sometimes two. If it it not fertilized by sperm from an adult male human, it will never become a little human. Never ever ever. It is expelled by the body in a gross mix of blood and other bodily fluids. A hen's egg is much the same -- without fertilization from a male rooster, it will never ever ever become a baby chick. It shouldn't be surprising that there was a little touch of blood in it.

[Wingnut]

(Not sure if it helps with the "ewww" factor that I just pointed out that eating eggs is basically eating a chicken's period.)

[pam]

Originally Posted by Wingnut

(Not sure if it helps with the "ewww" factor that I just pointed out that eating eggs is basically eating a chicken's period.)

I could have gone all day..possibly all year without reading that.

[Hala401]

Originally Posted by Wingnut

(Not sure if it helps with the "ewww" factor that I just pointed out that eating eggs is basically eating a chicken's period.)

Ewwwww!!!

[Loudmouth_Mormon]

Hala, can I just say that I really look forward to reading your posts? You are a breath of fresh air, and you bring up such different but relevant subjects.

Short response: I think you're fine. No rooster = no abortion.

Long response: I thought many of the things you are thinking at one time, but without being triggered by blood. As I was keeping a daily diet log, it dawned on me that on one day, no fewer than four different critters had to die so I could eat what I did. It made me reflect on where our food came from, and it reinforced something that I already knew - we humans are given stewardship over the earth and everything that lives on it - and we WILL be held accountable as individuals for how we have used that stewardship.

As a result of this experience, I did several things:
* I went hunting, so I could see firsthand what I had always paid someone else to do for me - kill a living animal.
* I gained a very healthy respect for how the notion of halal in Islam expressed itself in dhabiha slaughter (and how there are some notable similarities with the jewish shechita slaughter, and even some similarities with the word of wisdom).
* I started tracking my food back to the source, and decided that a handful of things were no longer on my menu, like veal, due to how the animals were treated.

My hunting experience was very powerful and singular. I'm not sure if you ever did any slaughtering when you lived on farms, but if not, I recommend the experience. Nothing did as much to help me foster the proper attitude and respect for the whole process of eating things that used to be alive. That experience resolved things for me - I'm no longer a clueless person hiding from guilt behind walls of denial about killing animals. I'm a steward of the earth, and through God's design, feeding my family sometimes means animals die.

[BenRaines]

Eggs that are mass produced are "candled" it is the process of passing an egg in front of a bright light. Usually if the egg has blood in it the blood will show up and those eggs are discarded. That is why you do not often find them in the eggs you buy in the store. It is not common but does happen. You can do the same with the eggs produced by your chickens. Hold the eggs close to a lit light bulb and look through the eggshell. Something interesting to try.

Ben Raines

[dahlia]

Originally Posted by Wingnut

(Not sure if it helps with the "ewww" factor that I just pointed out that eating eggs is basically eating a chicken's period.)

That's a common statement made by militant vegans in an attempt to gross people out of eating eggs. I was vegan for 3 yrs and you should read some of the stuff they write, none of which would make a thinking, ethical being become a vegan. I'm surprised to see it on a non-vegan board; I didn't think other people thought that way.

[Dravin]

Originally Posted by dahlia

That's a common statement made by militant vegans in an attempt to gross people out of eating eggs.

I highly doubt Wingnut was trying to convince anyone to become a vegan by stating the poultry equivalent of "Honey is bee vomit!" Heck, I'll use that phrasing fairly often, but it's to make people squirm a little not to convince them to become vegans. Also fun is pointing out FDA acceptable contaminates in various foods, but if I point out cranberry sauce is allowed to contain mold it's to tease them not get them to forswear cranberry sauce. *shrug*

I'm surprised to see it on a non-vegan board; I didn't think other people thought that way.

What thinking? The understanding of the biological function of a chicken's egg albeit phrased in an unappetizing manner? Or the idea that, "I can phrase something you eat in an 'icky' manner and you should therefore avoid all animal products (aka be vegan)?" I've seen the former demonstrated in the thread not so much the latter.

Sometimes people have a dietary agenda, sometimes they're just messin' with ya.

Being very against abortion, the idea just makes me feel icky.

Why does it matter if you eat the chicken 21 days before it hatches, 1 day after it hatches, or 12 weeks after it hatches? Ignoring culinary distinctions of course, and possible efficiency and nutritional aspects. As pointed out, no rooster, no fertilization, but even if there was fertilization If you've deemed it moral to eat the chicken after it hatched why would it be an issue to eat it before it hatched? It's not like the issue with abortion is we're not waiting a couple months to years until after a child is born to kill it.

Now, eating a half formed chicken from the shell being icky because of cultural bias (or religious reasons) about what is proper food I can fully understand. For instance trying to eat Balut (egg) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia would probably result in some gastrointestinal gymnastics assuming you could even convince me to try it but not because of any moral issues with the practice.

[Vort]

Originally Posted by Wingnut

(Not sure if it helps with the "ewww" factor that I just pointed out that eating eggs is basically eating a chicken's period.)

Just to be clear: Menstruation is a characteristic of placental mammals. Birds, along with non-placental mammals (monotremes and marsupials), reptiles, amphibians, fish, and invertebrates, do not have periods.