Eggs of Many Colors

It is not hard to find supporters for farm fresh eggs. Everyone loves the idea their eggs are coming from happy healthy chickens, who are lovingly cared for by a farmer.  The dark yolks and clean taste that only a truly fresh egg can provide is seen by many as reason enough to source local fresh eggs.

Today, as I was washing the eggs I had collected from my eclectic free range hens, I was reminded of another powerful reason to support backyard poultry flocks, using all and wasting none.

All of a sudden, when the birds are yours, every egg they produce becomes a gift to cherish and marvel. The demand for perfect, identical eggs disintegrates, as you feel the satisfaction of collecting what your hens have provided for you and your family to eat.

In commercial production, eggs are graded. Only a perfect egg, inside and out, can be sold as Grade AA. Eggs are also sized. Only the eggs that make the “grade” are found in the supermarket.

Any eggs that do not meet the strict requirements for egg grading are often used for non-food applications, thus technically not wasted, but, that only works well in huge commercial operations where it makes sense to source a volume buyer of the “wasted” eggs. For small egg producers this is not practicable.

Many local farmers’ markets have a requirement that eggs must be graded in order to sell. This sounds good, right? We all want to know that what we are buying is good, safe and will work in our baking recipes. However, the unintended consequence to this is it discourages flock diversity and results in waste, often making it impossible for a small scale chicken operation to exist.

 I cannot sell most of my eggs at one of these restricted markets. Even though my family and neighbors love and enjoy the eggs my chickens produce, I could never have enough of one size and grade to practically sell dozens each week.

Case in point, this morning, my eggs were blue, green, chocolate and white and all varied in size. The eggs from my bantam hens were small, the egg from my old hen was wrinkly, and the egg from my Copper Maran was 1/3 larger than the one she laid yesterday. One had some freckle spots and one was long and narrow compared to another one laid by the same breed.

Now you might be quietly thinking to yourself, wow, she has reject chickens, but that is just not true! Each hen in her own right is a beautiful representation of her breed. However, some are 2 or 3 years old and Misty, my girl who lays wrinkly eggs 2 or 3 times a week, is over 7. Some lay perfect eggs 5 days a week and one day, it just comes out a bit funky. This is the reality of backyard chickens.

Those perfectly sized eggs, in completely uniform color are the result of young birds, with a close generic makeup and still represent only a fraction of what was originally laid in the factory.  Those birds that lay perfect eggs for a year are killed to make room for a new batch. Even though they might lay strong for another couple of years, a factory can’t suffer the loss of productivity as the hens go through their annual molt. Plus, when you consider these factories are housing millions of birds, the loss in productivity of even 10 or 20 eggs a years is significant and ensures a death sentence for all hens over 12 months in age.

Perfect uniform eggs might be what people want, and what the government demands, but that is not what happens on a healthy, bio-genetically diverse farm.

I, for one, love my mixed basket. Each egg tastes delicious in my breakfast or in my custard for dessert.  I smile when I crack open Misty’s egg, although wrinkled and ugly on the outside, inside it has a bright yolk that reminds me of how she is enjoying her later years, foraging for a variety of delicacies in my garden and the nearby fields, living her life fully, and contently, while still providing, albeit a bit less, for my family.