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

[Ruthster55]

Some have suggested to scramble and feed your flock’s eggs back to them! This is a good alternative for vegans and vegetarians who don’t need or can’t give away the eggs that their chickens produce.

Cooked scrambled eggs are extremely nutritious for growing chicks aged 2-10 weeks.

I am not vegan, but I also don’t eat every egg. (especially if they are really dirty or broken). Sometimes, I cook my own breakfast, and then I do the flock’s breakfast. The chickens go crazy for the high-protein treat!

I eat meat, but not every day.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Not a vegan, but I also don't eat eggs. I give them to coworkers I like and give them to my birds that need more protein (quail, my males, broodies with chicks)

 

[ladyhand]

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.

First of all, I love this topic. I recently started eating a mostly vegan diet, but I try to view it more of “ethical eating” instead of fitting it into someone else’s view of the world. I’ve done a lot of research on egg laying in hens and have confidence that my hens will live a very happy and humane life based on my own ethics, including giving them breaks from laying (when necessary — more research needed, they’re only six weeks right now). I occasionally eat eggs from local farmers who care for their hens, but I do not buy any animal products from the store (and the only animal product I’ll consume are the local eggs, or eventually my hens eggs). I’ve wondered how people can eat their chickens once they see their personalities. I have no judgement or ill will towards anyone who eats humanely raised poultry or any other animal; but for me it would be similar to eating my dogs, I have a relationship with them and couldn’t do that. I realize every person doesn’t love animals like I do (my husband being one), but I would think most of the people on this site would have that close relationship with their flock.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

I’ve wondered how people can eat their chickens once they see their personalities.

So I'm jumping in here to add a bit of my own information at least for this quote^. It's tough to eat a bird with a personality (unless he's mean. Then it's quite easy in my experience when you realize everyone will be happier afterwards). But I also see it as "would eating this bird really be worse than it being put in a compost pile?". Tonight I had to process a /beautiful, amazing, calm/ cockerels because he dislocated a leg and had been stuck in a way that he was quite damaged from (My fault, I miscounted heads and didn't realize he was missing as long as he had been, I'll admit it.) I felt awful, like I was betraying this bird, and that feeling is what I feel each time I process one for a reason apart from the bird being a terror to other birds or me. Even then sometimes I feel bad. But he was suffering and would never get better enough to be a normal chicken again and I couldn't bare the thought of wasting him to a compost pile.

Just my personal take for that quote.



Also I love this thread and how it's so calm and patient

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Some have suggested to scramble and feed your flock’s eggs back to them! This is a good alternative for vegans and vegetarians who don’t need or can’t give away the eggs that their chickens produce.

Cooked scrambled eggs are extremely nutritious for growing chicks aged 2-10 weeks.

I am not vegan, but I also don’t eat every egg. (especially if they are really dirty or broken). Sometimes, I cook my own breakfast, and then I do the flock’s breakfast. The chickens go crazy for the high-protein treat!

I eat meat, but not every day.

I feed eggs back to my chickens, too. They love them!

 

[Ruby Rogue]

One of my Cornish cross jumped in my lap today. Thankfully he is one of 50, so when the time comes, I won't remember which one it was.

 

[ladyhand]

One of my Cornish cross jumped in my lap today. Thankfully he is one of 50, so when the time comes, I won't remember which one it was.

I definitely have trouble differentiating between my four at a quick glance sometimes, so totally valid point

Also I love this thread and how it's so calm and patient

SAME! It’s often so hard to have opposing opinions and have a calm and thoughtful conversation about it. I have a friend who is a vegan, and while he completely understands my logic in eating certain eggs, he still wouldn’t eat the eggs from my hens. I have an almost 7 year old girl and I don’t expect her to subscribe to my beliefs, when she’s older she can form her own opinion (I’ll order her things I couldn’t eat frequently).

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I want to come back to this. Good topic!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

As far as eating my own hens and/or their eggs, my reasoning goes like this: why would I eat inferior chickens or eggs from the store and waste my own good, healthy eggs and chickens? I know how my birds were raised, fed, kept and harvested. I would not eat anything less.

 

[Jory]

You do have to compartmentalize and find what ethically works for you. Only you can find that point and it usually takes a few years of experience and thought, perhaps even prayer or meditation.

I stabilized at the Pescatarian point, there's a word you don't hear often. I do make an exception when my milk ewes throw ram lambs and I do sell the lambs and kids I can't use for Ramadan. I feel that using my ethically raised livestock for a respectfully preformed religious belief is easier for me than seeing how "brush goats" are treated.
If I need the nutrients from the goat and sheep milk (and I do), it's my responsibility to make sure that the animals produced are not mistreated.
I've tried other ways and people lie... a lot.

My world views are probably different from most here. I lived through the 60's/70's and remember what real hunger is like. I also remember how minimally my father's food animals were cared for.

I can only do the best I can to live within my life, happy and healthy. I think that people forget sometimes, that everyone's life experiences are different and we can only do the best we can with what we are given.