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Original poster

Thoughts on eating pet chicken eggs

30 replies

HermioneKipper · 24/03/2021 15:20

I’ve been vegan a while now and obviously don’t eat eggs.

We have been thinking of rescuing some ex battery farm chickens. We’ll be keeping them as pets and don’t care if they give us any eggs and just want them to have a nice few years chilling in our back garden.

Been pondering the ethical implications of eating their eggs as my baking just isn’t the same without eggs! My children are vegetarian so they will be eaten and won’t go to waste. Does anyone else have chickens as pets and eat their eggs?

I definitely won’t be buying any eggs for my cakes!

OP posts:
Original poster
HermioneKipper · 24/03/2021 15:20

Edit - I wouldn’t call myself vegan if I did decide to eat the eggs

OP posts:
ultrababy · 24/03/2021 15:22

Yes we have chickens and their eggs cannot compare to shop bought. Our chickens have a lovely life. Originally I loved the idea of chickens roaming through the garden but they literally shit everywhere so they are in a field now.

LutherRalph1 · 24/03/2021 15:22

My brother went through a vegan stage but did eat his chickens eggs and called himself a veggan 🤣 he felt that because he knew how well they were cared for and how much freedom they had he was happy to eat their eggs

DartmoorChef · 24/03/2021 15:27

Happy hens lay eggs and it isn't harming them or hurting them so yes I would eat them. I know a few vegans who eat eggs from their own hens.

Tigerchips · 24/03/2021 15:28

Are you allowed to keep chickens? If so, then yes, obviously eat the eggs. Why waste them?

MazekeenSmith · 24/03/2021 15:30

My neighbour used to keep chickens and the eggs were delicious. If she still had them I would eat their eggs because I could see the chickens and knew they were happy and well cared for. I don't think I could eat them as eggs now though after being vegan for years but I would happily use them as ingredients

Original poster
HermioneKipper · 24/03/2021 15:31

@tigerchips Of course I’m allowed to keep chickens. Wouldn’t be planning it if I wasn’t.

And I said in my post my children would eat them so they wouldn’t be wasted. They are not vegan. I am so I wondered about whether other vegans did too

OP posts:
lunar1 · 24/03/2021 15:33

I keep hens, they are incredible pets. So funny and entertaining, they have a very happy life with the run of the garden and I love and look after them long after they finish laying.

We are not vegan or vegetarian but with the exception of eggs we eat very little from animals, we might have meat or fish 2-3 times a month or if we go out for a meal.

I can't see anything harmful to my hens from eating their eggs. One thing to consider is that ex battery hens don't generally live long after they stop laying.

Lou573 · 24/03/2021 15:33

Part of the reason we got chickens - I was uncomfortable with eating shop bought eggs but my 3 have a life of chicken luxury and we have eggs a plenty.

Fustyoldface · 02/07/2021 14:13

Crack them and feed them back to them.

Lavender24 · 05/07/2021 13:51

@Fustyoldface

Crack them and feed them back to them.
Yes this is what I'd do. The poor creatures have been selectively bred to lay more eggs than their bodies can handle so a lot of them end up with deficiencies from the constant laying. Feeding their eggs back to them can help replenish the nutrients they have lost,
1starwars2 · 05/07/2021 16:25

I am vegan.
We have 3 chickens (2 of which are rescue ex battery).
I choose not to eat the eggs (somehow I no longer fancy them, although I agree vegan cake is lacking something).

Kids and DH eat the eggs and the chickens aren't laying much these days.

I wouldn't say there's anything wrong with you eating your ethical eggs though.

When my sister was vegan she ate other people's rescue chickens eggs (I think she purchased from an animal sanctuary).

peboh · 05/07/2021 16:26

You absolutely can eat the eggs, however you would no longer be vegan.

FindingMeno · 05/07/2021 16:33

Of course it's okay to eat the eggs!
You know you are looking after them well and feeding nutritionally balanced food, so they have no need to be fed their own eggs.
If chickens needed to eat their own eggs because they're nutritionally deficient from over laying, it would be very hard to stop them.
If you are feeding quality food and they have ample space and they free range to supplement their diet, they do not choose to eat their own eggs.
They'll either sit on them if broody or leave them to go rotten.
If you are able, and neighbours/ bylaws allow, I would also encourage homing a cockerel.

Summerleaves · 06/07/2021 18:23

@Fustyoldface

Crack them and feed them back to them.
Agree with this

It's their nutrients, if you eat them you're exploiting them no matter how well they're looked after.

Itllbeaninterestingchristmas · 06/07/2021 18:30

I'd eat them, they won't lay one every day. Mostly happy hens lay two or three a week and spend the rest of the time wrecking the garden!
I wouldn't feed them the eggs back. They do like strawberries, tomatoes, lettuce, good quality corn and sunflower seeds. We've got an ex battery hen who is 6 and lays about 3 eggs a year!

MildredPuppy · 06/07/2021 18:32

Im not vegan and my chickens are very happy but i think only ex battery ones as you suggest could be vaguely ethical for you as otherwise where have all the cockeralls gone?

RedLemon · 06/07/2021 18:38

Totally eat their eggs!

We have 6 lovely ladies roaming about our garden. They have a coop for laying and sleeping in but spend most of their days scratching around the grasses and flowers, having dust baths, lazing under trees and bushes in a nice sociable group, and cheering each other on when one is laying.

I like to imagine them knitting and having a good natter when I’m not lookingGrin

I quite envy them some days!

RedLemon · 06/07/2021 18:39

They’re ex-battery too but still quite good layers all things considered. They’re a lovely active retirement group 😊

Wombat36 · 06/07/2021 18:44

Nothing beats seeing a chicken sunbathing!

We eat the eggs but my hens eat everything, including copious worms, definitely not undernourished. Think they killed a mouse too a bit back.

Love them to bits, never alone with chooks chatting away to you in the garden.

scully29 · 06/07/2021 18:53

Yes ex battery chickens are amazing. see www.bhwt.org.uk/ as you can register to sign up for a waiting list to rehome ones about to be slaughtered. Its just incredible to bring them home and see the transformation. When we collected our 3 in a cardboard box they were featherless, terrified and pecking each other. Now they are covered in feathers properly, absolutely wonderful friends and have an extreme life of free range luxury, and no pecking each other atall, just so happy. We were happy to eat the eggs as I see no ethical concerns with it. In an ideal world no chickens should be treated like they had been for the first 18 months of their lives (at which point they would have been killed if not taken home, and literally its that often the farms kill them off so there are hundreds and hundreds always needing a home so your few that you take in will get a really good retirement and be happy - its not like by taking them you are supporting the egg industry or anything). They are amazing pets, really social and really keen for human attention. They spend all their day eating and pooping and do lovely things like sunbathing and mudbathing, they are really wonderful. I think if getting exbattery hens as pets and they lay eggs it is fair to eat them, its not like you are going to kill them when they stop laying. You can feed back plenty of your waste foods to them like carrot peelings etc so it is such an eco friendly way, I think ethical definitely.

MrsAvocet · 06/07/2021 19:02

We're not vegan, but we do have chickens and love their eggs. If you are vegan because you are opposed to farming practices then I think eating your own chickens eggs is quite different. You know what they're eating, what conditions they live in, that they are well cared for etc. If you don't eat them you'll just be throwing them out surely? They're going to lay whether you eat the eggs or not.

linerforlife · 06/07/2021 19:39

Those advising cracking the eggs and feeding them back to the hens have obviously never kept chickens. You should not crack the eggs and allow the hens to eat it, as it will then encourage all the hens to go into a frenzy when they see the eggs / lay one, in order to break the egg and eat it. This will cause fighting and nest raiding while others are trying to lay eggs. Hens may become distressed at this and then egg bound which is potentially life threatening. Hens will also not be able to entirely clean up the cracked egg off the floor as it's a liquid (not like they can lap it up) and so the remains will become a vermin attraction. If you do start to keep hens I would advise reading a poultry guide first.

FlipFlops4Me · 31/07/2021 16:25

I don't think I could eat an egg, whether I'd raised the hen or not. The thought revolts me - eating the eggs of another species just seems truly sick to me now. Didn't used to - I used to think I'd eat free range eggs if I'd raised the hens and loved them, but now I can't even imagine eating an actual egg from another being.

Peacocking · 20/08/2021 10:48

I eat occasional eggs from my free range gang. Mostly I toss them into a bowl in the garden, they break and the girls demolish them. The above poster who said it teaches hens to eat eggs...we've had up to 60 birds at a time fir 6 years now and they've never started eating their eggs except for those I've fed back to them.

It's still bad to eat eggs, for every hen at least one rooster has been killed. The longer we use eggs the longer there will be demand. If we buy egg alternatives more money will be directed into developing egg alternatives by companies.

Also chickens are meant to lay about a dozen eggs per year, but are bred so that some lay 350 and have very short lives as a result plus lots of premature death when the laying system goes wonky. I'm a hypocrite- I keep hens, and I eat eggs (rarely, I find the idea less and less appealing as time passes). I do buy egg alternatives though to support the industry.