Back Yard Eggs Nutrition . . . ???

[fiberart57]

I'm chiming in. Yes, my girls get Purina Flock Raiser, a commercial feed I consider to be a bit premium, that factory egg plants don't feed to their birds. These operations give the bare minimum of nutrition per egg. Remember, they're not concerned with the hens' health because they'll be killed in a few months. I watched a video about egg production from somewhere and it showed caged hens with combs so pale that they were barely pink. It was sad.

Also remember that any caged animal is stressed and stress does weird things to the body. These caged hens, usually Leghorns, are unable to do anything but eat, sleep and lay eggs, and Leghorns tend to be an active bird. I can't image that the stress takes it toll on the eggs as well.

Whitewater, it sounds like you have a great plan for your chickens but I'm slightly confused on the dimensions of the housing. The minimum requirements for a run for standard chickens is 10 sq ft per bird and that's just a minimum. If your run is 6.5 ft on each side that gives you a little over 42 sq ft which is a minimum. If the area is 6.5 sq ft, that's not really enough.

I keep my six contained in a 160 sq ft run until I get home from work and then they have about three hours a day on weekdays and longer on the weekend to romp. The more play time, the healthier.

Good luck, Mary

 

[alicefelldown]

Don't forget the Vitamin D from being in the sun - something mass produced hens are not allowed to do.

Bagged feed is all well and fine - but their don't go outside, don't eat greens, don't eat insects, and def. don't get treats!

 

[Whitewater]

Mary -- you are correct, total square footage is 42 square feet. I am terrible at math! Hence why I'm having family members who happen to be actually working as professional carpenters come and help me build the coop. 3 hens, 42 square feet, that should be enough, yah? Given that they're going to get free-range time too, each day that they can leave their run (obviously, if it's a bajillion degrees below zero and a storm's whipping up, *nobody* is leaving their house! LOL!), I think it will work out all right, everything I've read and seen online agrees. Yeah, it's minimal, but they aren't going to be squished, either.


Whitewater

 

[tswb]

There is no nutrtional diff btween a free range back yard egg then a cage raised chicken. that myth has been proven false tons of times. I am a major in Animal science and a minor in poultry science. we have gone over this many times in my classes. there is no diff between the eggs.

 

[Whitewater]

How did they disprove the 'myth'? And what is the myth in the first place? I suppose to define that you'll have to define 'healthy', first. . . but just because I'm genuinely curious, what does the deeper orange yolk color and the more firm white mean, if anything?

(but lemme tell you, the difference between an organic egg and a standard egg is definitely noticeable, apparently the gap is just as huge between organic and backyard eggs in terms of taste. And I am all for taste!)

Are backyard chickens more or less healthy than caged factory birds? At least, according to the standards of education that allowed you to receive a degree? Please note that I am generally against formal education, as it doesn't teach people to think, it teaches people to memorize and regurgitate facts, and how to survive in an antiquated hierarch-type, authoritative society. Nothing against you, but I tend not to depend on anybody's degree as proof of their credibility. Sorry. Your degree just means that you were more successful at working within the university system.

Is there any empirical evidence somewhere? Where did the studies come from, and who paid for them? Where is the bias? And no, in my opinion you can't come out with a blanket statement like that without providing your facts to back you up.

So.

Your facts, please?


Whitewater

 

[Gypsi]

I'm still learning. Going to throw some handfuls of chickweed in the run this morning, and I'll rake up the lawn clippings when I mow. There isn't a weed left alive in the run - they've been in it since about March 20th (except for a couple of cold nights in the house in a rubbermaid tub because their house isn't built yet.) Good questions - good answers. They can only free range when I'm home, and I've been working 7 days plus.

 

[Equus5O]

I go with the theory that my chickens are healthier than the "supermarket" chickens. For one thing, they're actually getting to be chickens, and do what chickens do. Even if you don't get to free-range, they're free to move and stretch. Yes, they get store-bought pellets, but they're also eating fresh greens and bugs. I'm convinced that makes a difference in the nutritional quality of the eggs that we produce.

 

[alicefelldown]

Quote:
You're partly right. But not in the way you think. OUR backyard chickens are not "free range/cage free" in the same way that the dozen at the local grocery store is. Ours qualify as Pastured eggs - birds that are able to go outside and eat grasses and insects - as was the style in the '30s with chicken tractors that followed the cow or crop rotations.

I'm quoting myself from the thread about the Modern Marvels: Eggs - where they showed eggs from a few different sources, battery cages, "free range/cage free" and actual pastured eggs (ours):
Quote:
She is comparing category 1, the caged birds, to category 2, the 'free range/cage free' birds. These birds both consume the same type of feed, in the same type of environment, although category 2 is much better off. This is further reinforced as the footage in the episode cuts from the caged birds at Rose Acre to the 'cage free' barn birds (again at Rose Acre or Peteluma Farms) and not the pastured birds shown at Eatwell Farms who are scratching in the grass. (Not to mention that Eatwell feds theirs on actual grains in addition to natural foraging, whereas both Rose Acre and Peteluma freed powdered all purpose 'vegeterian' mixes.)

It's easy to assume that large scale producers of 'cage free' eggs are claiming they have better eggs than actual pastured or backyard eggs, but you have to look at their exact wording. They know they can't compare with the lovely golden yolks we get - taste or nutrition wise. So they stick with being *better* than the caged birds in category 1 and prey on the same philosophical reasons that Francine Bradley mentioned:

I know people who pay several dollars more a dozen for the eggs because they don't want to buy eggs from hens who were kept in cages; that's a philosophical decision, and they have the ability to pay more for it, and I think that great.


Also,

tswb!​

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Quote:
As a man of science you would be well-served to read the articles I linked back at the beginning of this thread.

......Alan.

 

[WoodlandWoman]

Tswb, if you are being taught that, then you are being taught by people that have not been keeping up with the times and reading the latest test results. It does take time for information to work it's way through the system.

The environment a chicken lives in makes very little impact on the nutritional quality of the egg. It's diet makes a huge difference. While you are looking at more current information on the effect of a pastured diet on layers and meat animals, you should also look at the studies on the effects of adding flax to the diet of commercial layers.