The Benefits of Backyard Eggs: Eggs Laid by Domestic Chickens

The best eggs come from happy, healthy chickens. The happiest, healthiest chickens are those kept in the most natural conditions. "Natural" to a domestic chicken is someone's backyard, or someplace very like it. Hence, "backyard eggs!"

The Numbers First

Backyard eggs have approximately twenty-five percent more vitamin E, seventy-five percent more beta carotene, and as much as twenty times the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids as do factory farmed eggs.

Perhaps best of all for those who avoid eating eggs due to worries about cholesterol, backyard eggs contain only about half as much cholesterol as factory farmed eggs.

Why?

When the idea for this article formed, I began by thinking I'd divide it into two sections: the health benefits of backyard eggs and the moral reasoning behind it. I scrapped that idea because it became clear there is no line between the two. Hens treated well produce healthier eggs. Simple as that!

Factory Farmed Eggs

The vast majority of grocery store eggs are produced by factory farmed hens. Standard procedure is to keep five to ten hens in battery cages approximately eighteen by twenty inches. (Chickens have a wingspan of about thirty inches, by the way.) These cages are kept by the hundreds in large buildings, where dust, debris and enormous piles of feces build up quickly. Some farms clean these buildings as infrequently as once per year or less. If you've ever been in or anywhere near one of these farms, you probably know the smell does not increase the appetite, for eggs or anything else.

Considering the conditions under which factory farmed hens are kept, it should be no surprise that dangerous bacteria such as E. Coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter are found in many of the hens themselves, as well as in a significant percentage of the eggs that reach supermarket shelves.

Factory farmed hens are fed a diet which is healthy neither for them nor the eggs they produce. The entirety of their diet from hatch to death consists of processed chicken feed, based on grains (mostly corn and soy) and protein sources (meat, bone and fish meal). This feed itself is dismally low in certain vitamins and Omega-3's, and high in cholesterol. It's only logical that the eggs produced by hens fed such a diet are similarly unhealthy.

The Natural Chicken

I'll be the first to admit chickens are not Einsteins among animals, but given free range (so to speak) to express themselves, they are complex, social beings with individual personalities. They're aware of themselves and their place in the "pecking order" of the flock, form friendships (often based on whom they grew up with), and have a vocabulary of sounds with distinct meanings. (See this article from Time.)

Given access to it, chickens eat large amounts of green vegetation (high in beta carotene and Omega-3's and low in cholesterol) in addition to grains and insects.

With a little room to move around and a bit of choice in what they eat, chickens are happier and healthier. The eggs they produce reflect this.

See (and Taste) the Difference

Statistics are one thing, but seeing is believing. Crack open a store bought egg -- it should be easy, the shells are thin. The yolks are pale yellow and break easily, and the whites are watery and tinted. You may not know it if supermarket eggs are all you ever eat, but this isn't the way eggs are supposed to be.

Now crack open an egg from a hen allowed room to move around and access to vegetation. The shells are thicker, the whites are firmer and whiter, but the big difference is usually seen in the yolk -- larger, much firmer and bright orange in color. (That color is the beta carotene, by the way.)

The taste is different, too. Backyard eggs have stronger flavor, and if you ask me they lack a certain aftertaste that supermarket eggs always seem to have. But if you've been raised on supermarket eggs, backyard eggs may take a little getting used to.

Finding Backyard Eggs

Assuming you can't have hens in your own backyard (they're easy to keep and 2-4 hens will provide plenty of eggs for the average family), finding them can be tricky.

- In rural areas, look for signs advertising eggs; those with backyard chickens often sell their excess eggs this way.

- Local farmer's markets may have a few sellers with eggs from their birds.

- Search eatwellguide.org and localharvest.org for listings of local, naturally raised foods.

The cost of a dozen backyard eggs varies a great deal from seller to seller, but if you buy directly from the farmer, the cost is usually not much more than that for a dozen supermarket eggs.

More Information on the Web

The Chicken and Egg Page from Mother Earth News
Chickens at Wikipedia
About Chickens from the HSUS

Related Books

Living with Chickens by Jay Rossier
Planet Chicken by Hattie Ellis