Vegans of BYC, do you eat your poultry's eggs? (Genuinely curious)

[Geckolady]

I stopped eating meat in the 1980's after seeing the effects of the hormones and stuff they inject into cows first hand. It's a long story, but anyway, I decided not to put that garbage into my body. I eat hormone-free cheese & butter, eggs from my flock, and wild caught salmon maybe a half dozen times a year. I use olive oil only, and avoid margarine.

After you haven't eaten meat for a very long time, you get to the point where it upsets your stomach, so you don't want to eat it.

I have not processed any of my own birds. I am trying to grow my flock at this point. If I ever get too many chickens, I plan to process them and use the meat to feed my dogs.

I'm not a vegan, but don't really care about fitting into any definition. I eat the way I do because I'm concerned about health, and before I retired, my employer gave us free yearly health checks and blood tests if we were interested. Mine always came back excellent, and more than one doctor told me it was due to how I eat.

 

[Isadora]

Just wanted to add that people can have different reasons behind wanting to be vegan. There are ethical vegans, which are very concerned about cruelty to animals as far as factory farming goes and that's why they don't eat them or wear leather products, etc. Then there are the vegans who believe any animal product is unhealthy and detrimental to put in your body, so they don't eat animal products.
So with that in mind, ethical vegans may not mind eating eggs from their own chickens that were raised humanely in their own backyard. (But I'll confess, ethical vegans confuse me, because the word vegan means no animal products... It should probably be called something else to avoid confusion) But a vegan who believes any animal product is unhealthy for you wouldn't want to eat an egg, even from their own flock.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

To my understanding, a vegan by definition eats no animal products of any kind, regardless of motive.

Someone who abstains from eating meat but uses eggs and dairy would be called a vegetarian or a lacto-ovo vegetarian.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[LadiesAndJane]

To my understanding, a vegan by definition eats no animal products of any kind, regardless of motive.

Someone who abstains from eating meat but uses eggs and dairy would be called a vegetarian or a lacto-ovo vegetarian.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

You are correct!
There are different names depending on what, if any, animal products a vegetarian eats.

 

[LostBoi73]

Being gay, vegetarian & bordering on vegan ( started off for health reasons as struggle to digest meat and slightly intolerant to dairy, but like the no harm reason aswell) i don't think I'd get on with you vegan antagonist, as for myself I do eat honey but real vegan (lol) friends don't but I have asked the egg question and some say yes and some say no way, I think the controversy is due to you view ecologically because if you do keep chickens (or even family or friens) and they are kept to give them a good life and as pets then the eggs are a byproduct and most would otherwise be discarded as it would be damaging & unhealthy to the flock if you let them hatch all those eggs and besides the chickens wouldn't even sit them all, so ethically there is an argument for using what nature provides us with where we do no harm taking it. And let's face it vegans who grow their own food tend to try to find natural fertiliser eg horse manure wich it's self is a byproduct of an animal. Ok your not eating the poop yourself but you are using it to feed something your going to eat, to my mind there is little difference except I'd consider it wrong to throw away something useful.

 

[Araucana Nest]

Vegetarian here, often siding with vegan commercial products if they contain eggs but not always. I use veganaise instead of Mayo for instance; could easily make my own Mayo… My hens provide plenty of eggs for us plus the fertile egg side of things is a little income boost. We’re a team. They get room and board, medical care and retirement benefits. We get protein. That said- I’ve some strong spiritual hesitation about selling live embryos and the lack of options for cockerels and have stopped hatching (I edited this to remove the word breeding. My hens are still breeding, laying or brooding but I have stopped hatching for my own projects) . Fortunately, the break coincides with the summer break from shipping eggs. Have until September to figure out how to proceed.

 

[Iluveggers]

Former vegan, switched to pescatarian as I felt I was lacking key nutrients, then went back to eating animal products, but only ethically raised. I order grass fed beef from free-ranging cows, free-range chickens & pork, and raw milk dairy products, all from local farmers I’ve come across over the last few years. I REFUSE to support any factory farm, whether it be for meat or eggs, and I drink almond milk or Oat milk after hearing horror stories of babies being taken away from lactating moms who cry for them for days. I’ve come to the concensus that my body needs animal protein, but I can get it from animals who have lived fulfilled and happy lives outside where they can roam. If we are at a restaurant or someone else’s house I usually eat vegan (unless it’s one of the farm-to-table ones that have popped up & tell you where their meat is from). Great topic for a post!

 

[BelovedBirds]

Is there anyone here that eats a vegan diet but still eats their poultry's eggs? Is it considered OK if you're not propping up/supporting commercial egg farms, or is it still bad? Does anyone have conditions like they'll only buy birds from breeders to not support hatcheries? Or is it completely about eating the eggs? This is coming from a place of genuine curiosity, not criticism of anyone or their eating choices.

my ducks are youngsters- BUT when they do lay, my plan is to feed the eggs back to them, or give them away to family members to reduce the amount they would buy from commercial farms....
I think it's fine for a vegans to eat their hens eggs, if that's what they wanna do, but technically that would then make them a vegetarian.... just with vegan beliefs, lol.