Don't fear feeding eggs to chicks

[arosenzweig]

I had a mental aversion to feeding eggs to chicks. Some people say to hard boil them and crumble the yolk to feed them. Other people say you can scramble them and add some olive oil. Either way... I refrained from doing it until today... I wish I had tried this earlier.

In my mind it felt like cannibalism. Chicken eating chicken, how cruel. It felt the same as how Jews keep kosher... they separate "meat" from "dairy." Even separate the plates that touch these food products. All because of the fear of "cooking a baby in its mother's milk" was so revolting. With that line of reasoning wouldn't feeding a baby to another baby be just as absurd?

So, after reading so much advice from people about feeding eggs and having a bird that was not doing well... I gave the notion further scrutiny which revealed a sweater truth.

An egg is not a chicken. If conditions are right and it is fertilized it could become a chicken but it is NOT a chicken. What is the egg yolk? It is all the nourishment a little cell needs to develop into a chicken and even sustain it for a few days after hatch. The yolk is every nutrient an embryo, even a baby chick needs for life.

Therefore an egg is nothing more than the perfect baby chicken food. If you cook an egg and feed it to your growing chick you are doing nothing different than giving milk to a mammal (human, bovine, or otherwise). Eggs are milk for chicks!

Before today I had chicks chirping in a painful pleading way. I could not console them. After feeding them scrambled eggs with olive oil they are very content and making soft chirping noises. It was also fun to watch their excitement as they grabbed little egg bits and ran away with them because they would try to eat from each other's mouths.

 

[tattie t]

they love it, it is advised to cook them as to not encourage egg eating in the coop.
my little gang love it when i get my egg and tomotoe sarnies out as i dont eat crusts and they get whats left...

 

[happyhens1972]

I had a mental aversion to feeding eggs to chicks. Some people say to hard boil them and crumble the yolk to feed them. Other people say you can scramble them and add some olive oil. Either way... I refrained from doing it until today... I wish I had tried this earlier.

In my mind it felt like cannibalism. Chicken eating chicken, how cruel. It felt the same as how Jews keep kosher... they separate "meat" from "dairy." Even separate the plates that touch these food products. All because of the fear of "cooking a baby in its mother's milk" was so revolting. With that line of reasoning wouldn't feeding a baby to another baby be just as absurd?

So, after reading so much advice from people about feeding eggs and having a bird that was not doing well... I gave the notion further scrutiny which revealed a sweater truth.

An egg is not a chicken. If conditions are right and it is fertilized it could become a chicken but it is NOT a chicken. What is the egg yolk? It is all the nourishment a little cell needs to develop into a chicken and even sustain it for a few days after hatch. The yolk is every nutrient an embryo, even a baby chick needs for life.

Therefore an egg is nothing more than the perfect baby chicken food. If you cook an egg and feed it to your growing chick you are doing nothing different than giving milk to a mammal (human, bovine, or otherwise). Eggs are milk for chicks!

Before today I had chicks chirping in a painful pleading way. I could not console them. After feeding them scrambled eggs with olive oil they are very content and making soft chirping noises. It was also fun to watch their excitement as they grabbed little egg bits and ran away with them because they would try to eat from each other's mouths.

I have had to explain this one to so many people as I am a frequent egg feeder! At no point does a yolk 'turn into a chicken', as you said, it merely provides it with nutrition. That yolk remains in the egg until the last few days when it is then absorbed to feed the chick in its first days after hatching. It has not been transformed into a lifeform, it is not the embryo, it is not a foetus and it is most certainly not a chicken abortion....all terms I have had suggested to me when I have fed scrambled eggs to my chicks!!