Great points Fred! I really enjoy reading your Posts!
Nate
Nate
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Thank you all for the kind words. Musings. Precisely.
When's the last time you saw medium sized brown eggs sold in the grocery or market? Not very often, if ever. Most brown eggs marketed (either expressly organic or "cage free") are almost always very large brown eggs. Why? Because the poultry farmers who produce these eggs predominately buy their layers from hatcheries, commercial hatcheries, that sell them a commercial red sex link pullet. There are about 8 different "models" of a red/brown/gold sex link being produced by the poultry genetics conglomerates Read about the various "versions" of them here:
http://www.isapoultry.com/en/Products.aspx
The producers of brown market eggs are medium to large producers, having anywhere from 3000 layers to 20,000 layers at the farm. The genetics companies sell the commercial hatcheries parent stock and the hatcheries in turn sell either day old chicks or POL pullets to the farms.
Bottom line? The farms that are producing the large brown eggs for the supermarkets are NOT buying Barred Rocks, RIR, Australorps, Buff Orpintons, etc from Ideal, Myers, Cackle hatcheries that the retail consumer favors. The homesteader and back yard keeper enjoys these various breeds, but they simple do not lay the size nor quantity of eggs required. The traditional breeds don't have the feed conversion necessary either. The physical size of a more traditional breed is not seen as a plus to a commercial egg operation. The commercial hen begins laying profusely at 16 weeks, while other traditional breeds may take up to 6 months to come into lay. The farms are using commercial brown/red/gold Shavers, ISA, Babcocks, Hendrix, DeKalbs, Bovans, HiSex birds.
Chickens Don't Really Lay For Us Anyhow
I recently read someone here on BYC who said, in effect, "God made the Jungle Fowl, man made the chicken."
That is good insight to the process of domestication. This truism also provides insight as to the purpose of a chicken laying eggs. It is good to remember that chickens do not lay eggs for us. Actually, the egg is not particularly intended as food at all, except for the embryonic chick being formed. The reason a hen lays an egg is to reproduce. We need to realize, I suppose, that a chicken's urge and need to reproduce would only require it to lay one successful clutch per year. If a hen laid a dozen eggs, of which she succeeded in bring forth 8 viable chicks, she would likely have done her biological duty to her species.
If she laid two clutches per year, climate permitting, and hatched out 16 or 18 of her kind, she would be doing so because her species required her to be just that prolific. Since the chicken is nowhere near the top of the food chain, nature no doubt requires a hen to lay somewhere around two dozen eggs per year, for propagation of the species. It is unlikely that many more than that is required. Some "breeds" of chicken obviously inherited the capacity to do far more, however.
Enter the domestication process. A process that in some degree has been going on for almost 4000 years. Through the keeping of chickens, and through selective breeding, the explosion of poultry science in the 19th century, and the discovery of dietary requirements, the domesticated chicken began to be bred to produce more and more eggs. Cross breeding, poultry association contests, and the establishment of breed standards all served to push the chicken to higher levels. The discovery of Vitamin D and its function in the early 1920's was huge. Poultry science was coming of age. The use of technology, including massive artificial incubators and brooders changed the nature of chicken reproduction and the production of chickens for the first time in 3900 years. Breeding was achieving lay rates of astounding success. The world wide poultry industry was exploding. The discovery by Thomas Edison in how to harness electricity allowed for new found studies in the photo reactive nature of a hen, how it is production could be ramped up, even during winter, through the introduction of artificial lighting, things never before done. The world's population was exploding, life expectancy was growing and the need for more food was ever increasing.
Still, there would be more to come in the fields of genetics and further knowledge of dietary requirements. The modern "meat bird" varieties almost spelled doom of the dual purpose bird. What with hyper layers on one hand and hyper growing meat breeds on the other, what would become of the old standby, dual purpose chicken?
When I was a young man, keeping flocks, a meat bird meant a standard White Rock or that new Delaware bird and a "layer" meant you kept Leghorns. There was no CornishX. I had heard of barnyard mixes and mutts, but had never heard of a specialty hybrid. Who could have imagined that birds would be "patented" and seen as a genetic commodity? I had never heard of the Institut de Selection Animale, nor Hubbard, Hi-Sex, Bovan, Shaver, DeKalb, Babcock or any other of the "genetics" conglomerate.
Which brings us full circle to what we enjoy in our "backyard" flocks. If all we genuinely cared about was eggs, eggs and more eggs, then we would stack up cages in our garages and fill them with Leghorns or other commercial layers. I suspect we have other goals in mind, whether we are interested in chickens as part of a natural, organic, sustainable agriculture endeavor or whether some of us just like the chicken as a pet. After all these years, the lowly chicken still amazes me. I am in awe of their abilities and attributes. There is something about husbandry that can bring out the best in us. A wise old guy once told me, "Never trust a guy that dogs don't like".
Although I have a few earned degrees in human behavioral sciences, I suspect that old guy was on to something, at least. For many of the same reasons I garden and enjoy growing plants and harvesting the produce of those labors, husbandry adds an important dimension to life. It's about caring for a flock. I suspect it helps bring out the best in me. It challenges me. It is earthy and basic and human. Some things not easily experienced in our modern, techno world any other way. I reflect on these things and do not take them for granted.