I often joke that happy chickens taste better. I’m not sure I would be able to taste the difference but it’s true that consuming animals that were well cared for is healthier for you. It’s also easier on my conscience.
Factory egg chickens live in horrible conditions. We have all heard this but few of us give it much thought. To fully understand what’s wrong with factory egg farms, we must first understand what it is to be a wild hen.
Wild hens or chickens who live in a natural environment can live 10 to 15 years. They lay only 10 to 15 eggs per year and only during breeding season.
The life of a factory egg chicken starts out one of two ways. If you are a male chick, you are suffocated or ground up in an industrial macerator because you serve no purpose. Male chicks born to egg-laying hens are not used for meat and are therefore a waste. If you are a female chick you are sent to an egg farm and placed into what is called a “battery cage.” A battery cage is a small wire cage that holds between 5 and 10 birds. You will not be able to stretch your wings and you will stand on wire that will cut your feet. Because these conditions are stressful and you are likely to peck at your fellow cage companion, your beak will have a portion cut off with a hot blade. You are the product of selective breeding and genetic manipulation, so you are expected to lay between 250 and 300 eggs per year. Since this is unnatural and hard on your body, at around the age of 12 to 18 months, your egg production will decline and you will be sent to slaughter. You have spent the entirety of your life in a cage and then you are stuffed into a slaughter cone and your throat is cut which causes you to bleed out.
“Cage-free” or “free range” chickens are not kept in cages but in sheds and usually do not have access to the outdoors. Farmers are allowed to keep thousands of birds in crowded barns and still call it “cage-free” or “free range.” These birds are also stressed and have a high rate of disease and mortality.
Vital Farms is outstanding. Their chickens are pasture raised and have plenty of space, 108 square feet per bird, to be exact. The “ladies” as they call them, go out of their barn in the morning and are able to graze and peck all day long. They can be in the sun or the shade and have access to fresh water at all times. They rotate pastures to make sure they have access to fresh healthy food.
I’m guilty of grabbing the cheaper eggs because of the price. It’s easy to put things out of your mind and go about your day. It’s when you stop and think about what is really going on and how we got to this point that you really want to make a change. Science proves that eggs from healthy chickens are healthier for us. I’m not okay with how factory egg chickens are treated and I’m only going to buy pasture raised, certified humane eggs from now on. It costs more but when all things are considered, it’s worth it.
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