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I don't think I'll be eating eggs any more!!

130 replies

chocolateequinox · 14/06/2020 09:13

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-52838747

I'm already vegetarian so not eating eggs would be something I could do easily.

OP posts:
Pinkblueberry · 14/06/2020 11:34

I don't understand the shock here. Chickens generally live on farms with cockerels - surely it's obvious then that some of the eggs will be fertilised? It's just common sense, isn't it?

Yes is is. We’ve reached a new level of naivety on this thread. It’s pretty basic sex education...

ShadowsInTheDarkness · 14/06/2020 11:36

We keep hens and have 2 roos so all our eggs are fertilised. The only way to tell if an egg is fertilised is to crack it and you may see a faint bullseye marking in the yolk. That's it. For there to be a developing embryo that egg will need to have been sat on for days and days, so high unlikely in a commercial farm where eggs are collected daily for selling. Even we collect daily otherwise there isn't space in the egg boxes for the hens to lay or it can encourage rats.

If you think about it, it takes 21 days for an egg to go from fertile to chick. That's 21 days of the hen sitting for about 23 hours a day. We candle on day 6 and at that point you can see a few veins around the yolk, which is still yellow and yolk like. By day 12 when we candle again you can start to see some development of something embryo like. So for people freaking out about commercial eggs being fertile, they won't look any different unless they've been under a broody hen for at least 6 days, and there's no way a broody hen would go unnoticed in a commercial set up. So it's very very unlikely you will crack an egg from a supermarket and find a half developed chick inside!

We sell at the garden gate and eat a lot of eggs, in several years I've only once cracked an egg with veins and that was a suspect one I'd found under a bush and couldn't be sure how long it had been there. Ducks are a whole other matter as it's very hard to sex commercial egg laying breeds and lots they refuse to lay in nest boxes!

Cluckycluck · 14/06/2020 11:38

@SchadenfreudePersonified

I've twice cracked eggs and found a chick in (I suppose twice in 45 years isn't bad.)

It's the risk you take with free range.

Found an actual formed chick or found blood/blood clots?

A broody chicken has to sit eggs or eggs have to be placed in an incubator to start the process of a fertilised egg growing into chicks. Eggs are collected daily on farms so it just doesn't happen. Hens on commercial farms have had brooding breed out of them.

kikisparks · 14/06/2020 11:38

If you want to stop eating eggs a good reason to do so is what happens to the male chicks (most are gassed/ shredded alive at the hatchery) and the spent hens- usually slaughtered around 18 months.

midnightstar66 · 14/06/2020 11:39

Some chicken and duck breeds are harder to sex than others so cockerels are missed.

Again large commercial chicken farms won't use breeds difficult to sex, and what's advertised as free range I don't think is what people imagine. As I said if a fertilised egg is a problem then you could avoid duck and other more specialist eggs and buy the cheaper supermarket own free range (or battery but I'd never suggest that). Whilst not impossible to get one it's would be incredibly unlikely

Candyfloss99 · 14/06/2020 11:40

@Packamack

People who are so divorced from the reality of what eggs actually are shouldn't be allowed to eat eggs.

They should be restricted to food derived from petrochemicals. That should save all the ewwing and sick noises.

FFS.

Yep.
ShadowsInTheDarkness · 14/06/2020 11:42

Also just to add that if you can buy local eggs from a farm shop or garden gate seller you should do. Ours are all free range and very happy, mostly rescues. We have currently got 3 broodies hatching clutches and any males will go into a separate area where they will live in a separate flock doing happy chicken things. Some of them will be loaned out to fellow hen keepers who want to breed but don't want to keep a roo full time, some will take over when our resident chap retires and they will all be much loved.

The idea that all males are ground up as day olds is very much restricted to mass producing egg farms and not the case for smaller free range set ups. If you don't like the practice, don't support it by buying cheap eggs.

Candyfloss99 · 14/06/2020 11:44

So what if it would hatch if you kept it incubated? Keep them cold and eat them.

Ariela · 14/06/2020 11:45

Fertilised eggs will not turn into chicks unless the egg is incubated. A hen will lay a cluster of eggs in one spot and then (when the hen is ready, after perhaps a week of laying) sit on the batch of eggs. It is the heat from the hen sitting that makes the egg grow into a chicken., so all the batch will hatch around the same time, over a day or two NOT a week, Otherwise the egg will remain as an egg. ...which is why you can buy and hatch the duck eggs, or buy hatching eggs to incubate and hatch, the hatching eggs could easily be a week old when you start to incubate them..

ShadowsInTheDarkness · 14/06/2020 11:47

Also to add to a comment above about slaughter at 18 months this is a very real issue. We have had many ex battery rescue hens over the years, rescued by charities from being sent to slaughter, rehomed to us for a small fee without feathers, burnt beaks and in poor condition. On the whole they've lived several more years with us, grown back beautiful feathers and been wonderful hens which have brought great happiness to our lives. If you can, avoid supporting battery farming or caged eggs, check the pre made products such as supermarket cakes and biscuits which usually contain caged eggs, and if possible consider rehoming some.

Wonderful family pets, ex bat girls are always so friendly and love curling up on laps for a sunbathe and such a rewarding experience for children too.

Bisforbert · 14/06/2020 11:49

I have been and a cockerel, the fact that the eggs are fertiliser does not put me off, or the people who buy them. My hens are ex caged or "barn" hens, they arrive bald, stinking and terrified, this does put me off buying shop eggs.

madcatladyforever · 14/06/2020 11:49

I'm vegertarian but eggs not milk. I'm concerend about my B12 because eggs are the only place I get it from. i can't eat a lot of food as I've got a gastric band so I think i'd struggle to eat enough unless my GP agreed to prescribe supplements which I could.
But are the supplements vegan?

Bisforbert · 14/06/2020 11:49
  • hens not been.
LillianBland · 14/06/2020 11:53

@madcatladyforever

I'm vegertarian but eggs not milk. I'm concerend about my B12 because eggs are the only place I get it from. i can't eat a lot of food as I've got a gastric band so I think i'd struggle to eat enough unless my GP agreed to prescribe supplements which I could. But are the supplements vegan?
Are you able to take Engevita? It’s a yeast that you can sprinkle on food and has a lovely flavour. Many vegetarian, vegans and people who want to take natural supplements, take it.
Crinkle77 · 14/06/2020 11:54

I'm doubtful about this story anyway. Surely the eggs would have been cold for too long. One chick might have been very lucky but three? Clarence Court haven't exactly said she's lying but their response is doubtful.

ksa103 · 14/06/2020 11:54

Go vegan!

Scrowy · 14/06/2020 11:55

@NailsNeedDoing

I'm beginning think that a month on a mixed farm should be compulsory for every schoolchild.

A month seems excessive, but I’d be right behind this idea! If it happened I think we’d end up with much much higher welfare standards, and we’d end up with a lot more vegetarian children.

Why would more children become vegetarian? I don't know any farm children that are vegetarian and they are very exposed to 'life on the farm'.

Most mixed farms in the UK are pretty high welfare anyway, so not sure it would increase standards that much.

LillianBland · 14/06/2020 12:01

Why would more children become vegetarian? I don't know any farm children that are vegetarian and they are very exposed to 'life on the farm'.

Growing up on a farm is the reason I became vegan. Very difficult to eat beef, when you buy a packet of crisps for the cows, on your way home from school. The cows used to rush over to the wall, waiting for me to come up the lane, with their treat, when they heard the school bus stop. There was no way I could eat any animal and try to minimise any use of animal products.

LillianBland · 14/06/2020 12:03

Sorry, I should probably say, I follow a vegan diet, as it’s practically impossible to be totally vegan, with regard to banning animal products from your life. They are used in so many things, from furniture glue, to the chip in your phone and the plasma tv screens.

midnightstar66 · 14/06/2020 12:06

I grew up on a farm (and Aberdeen Angus one at that) and am definitely not veggie. My DC help with lambing on my friends farm and bottle feed the orphan lambs, go out on the quad and feed them when they are bigger etc. Lamb is dd1's favourite food. I can't say I know any vegan or veggie farmers or farmers dc although I'm sure there must be some - I don't think working on a farm would cause mass vegetarianism

rainbowunicorn · 14/06/2020 12:06

There are some very dim people on Mumsnet who have no idea about how the world works.

I honestly can't beleive that there are adults who don't know this.

Edwardette · 14/06/2020 12:08

The way i see it, i eat their parents, babies don't bother me.

NailsNeedDoing · 14/06/2020 12:10

Why would more children become vegetarian? I don't know any farm children that are vegetarian and they are very exposed to 'life on the farm'.

Neither do I. There are quite a few families I know whose children think nothing of naming a pig and treating it as a pet until it’s big enough to be killed and eaten, which they then will happily do. I’ve also seen children shriek in horror that their classmates can do this when they find out. It’s quite surprising how many young children don’t make the connection between the chicken/cow/pig that they have on their plate and the chicken/cow/pig that appears in their story books or the chicks they watch hatch at school.

I think if more children and adults knew the reality of what they’re eating and how it came to be there on their plates, they’d make a choice to stop.

LillianBland · 14/06/2020 12:10

@midnightstar66

I grew up on a farm (and Aberdeen Angus one at that) and am definitely not veggie. My DC help with lambing on my friends farm and bottle feed the orphan lambs, go out on the quad and feed them when they are bigger etc. Lamb is dd1's favourite food. I can't say I know any vegan or veggie farmers or farmers dc although I'm sure there must be some - I don't think working on a farm would cause mass vegetarianism
I do agree that growing up on a farm wouldn’t necessarily make someone vegan, but I think if you put a townie on a farm for a few days, they would certainly have a better appreciation of where their food comes from.
chocolateequinox · 14/06/2020 12:13

@GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman

I'm beginning think that a month on a mixed farm should be compulsory for every schoolchild.

The degree of estrangement from the countryside of the average person in the UK is staggering.

^ This. So many children I've met haven't got a clue, my own DCs have always known about where food comes from - I had a complaint from my DD's friend's Mum when she was younger when we were out somewhere and DD's friend asked what the big building was, DD told her it was the abbatoir (it was) at the beef farm nearby.

I've always been a bit weird about eating eggs, probably because I don't like things that are slimy (mushrooms, oysters - not that I eat them of course - etc).

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