Gimme the dirt on factory farm eggs!

[ksacres]

Quote:
No, no hormones-not FDA approved. No antibiotics (if they were fed antibiotics, there wouldn't be chickens with what appeared to be coryza). Not in layers anyway. Does it happen at all? Probably, but it's not common practice.

Meat chickens and turkeys are often fed antibiotics to keep them alive long enough to keep eating and growing to slaughter size. So long as the withdrawl time for slaughter is followed, it's not a problem.

The difference? Layers produce a DAILY product. You can't follow a "withdrawl" period-you take the product every day. Meat animals are weaned off before they are slaughtered. You can't sell a product with antibiotic residue.

ETA: Layers are very specifically bred for maximum production-they don't NEED hormones, they are suped up on genetics to be super productive anyway.

 

[Chickenmaven]

Thank you, ksacres!

An old college chum told me that the hormones in our meat products are making girls get their periods early. I was, like, duh...

 

[eschwaderer]

Watch the Dirty Jobs episode where Mike Rowe works at a rendering facility that makes low cost (the owners words) hog and chicken feed. It will make you look at that bag of feed from the feed store in a whole new way! Then you'll want to mix your own. I'm not kidding.