Some Ohio Chicken Egg Facts...interesting

[1lpoock]

Found this on Ohiopoultry.com

Ohio Egg Facts
• Ohio is the second-largest egg producing state in the nation.
• Ohio has 30 million laying hens and 10 million pullets (hens less than one
year old).
• In 2006, Ohio chickens produced approximately 7.5 billion eggs with an
estimated value of more than $287 million a year.
• Darke and Mercer counties in western Ohio are the top two egg-producing
counties in the United States.
• Ohio is one of 10 states that has an egg quality assurance program. The
Ohio Egg Quality Assurance Program (OEQAP) is a voluntary program
that is intended to minimize the risk of Salmonella Enteritidis (SE) in eggs,
and is a cooperative effort between egg producers and farmers, the Ohio
Poultry Association and the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
• There are two egg-breaking facilities in the state of Ohio. These plants
convert shell eggs into liquid pasteurized eggs, dried eggs and frozen egg
products that are utilized in bakeries and other food products containing
eggs.
• Ohio egg producers, in partnership with United Egg Producers, have
adopted broad animal welfare guidelines, assuring customers that the
environment provided to the hens is safe, humane and disease-free.
• Ohio egg producers participate in the United Egg Producers Certified
animal care program. The guidelines place top priority on the comfort,
health and safety of the chickens and include:
• Increased cage space per hen.
• Standards for molting based on current, verified scientific studies.
• Standards for trimming of chicks’ beaks, when necessary, to avoid
pecking and cannibalism.

 

[bigredfeather]

Thanks for posting this. I am from Darke county and it doesn't surprise me we are among the leaders the country in county-wide egg production. I would guess there is several million chickens within a 7 mile radius of my house. Our annual community festival is called "Poultry Days." Every year they sell 26,000 plus chicken dinners. Not bad for a community of under 5,000. Egg production has been around here for many years. My grandma used to talk about working at the "egg auction" when she was a youngin'.

 

[tryingtohaveitall]

Very interesting! Thanks for sharing!

 

[catwalk]

When I was growing up, I won a horse throught a 4-H/ Bob Evans contest, and I had to give a presentation to the other winners, from other states, about Ohio. My pushy, overbearing mother decided that I would tell everyone about Ohio's egg production, as we lived on one of those production farms. It's very interesting to see how the stats have changed over the years (since 1988). Thanks for sharing!

And even though Poultry days sold thousands of chicken dinners, my Silkie Phyllis was the only live one there! The FFA had a hard time rounding up anything other than cats and dogs for their petting zoo.

 

[bigredfeather]

Quote:
How many birds can fit in a coop like the ones you used to have?

 

[catwalk]

The two smaller ones, which aren't being used for chickens anymore, held 10,500 each. The bigger ones held 33,000 and 66,000. The southern one is bigger. I remember when the birds per sq ft changed, but I don't remember having to change out all the pens. The smaller coops' pens were about 1'x1', and 4 birds "fit" in those. House #4, and maybe #3, had bigger cages with 7 birds in each of them. They did seem a bit roomier, but the new state-of-the-art (at the time) tech allowed the pens to be stacked 4 high, on big inverted V frames. The lower level of the coop is just manure, no birds.
I don't have any pics. They're all at my parent's house.