Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

When egg-laying hens get to run around and eat bugs - well I will definitely eat their eggs.

Posted on 09/17/2021 3:53:23 PM PDT by SamAdams76

I've been eating about three eggs a day on average for decades now. My cholesterol profile is perfect (well under 200) and even though I approach my 60s (scary), I have never once had a prescription drug.

People like to say "don't eat eggs or only eat egg whites or you will get too much cholesterol" but they are clueless.

Your human body (and I presume only humans are reading this) will make far more cholesterol than you will get from eggs each day in the absence of dietary cholesterol. So you are better off eating your eggs.

Now most supermarket eggs, they advertise that the hens that lay them are "free range" and all that other stuff but reality is that they typically are cooped up in cages or have maybe a 68 inch square space to "run" around in which is basically the size of an Apple iPad.

Now that really sucks.

I like my hens to run around in all kinds of open space and have access to peck the ground and eat grasses, bugs, and all that other stuff. Their eggs have a clearer egg white and a more yellowish yolk. You fry that up in a little Kerrygold butter each morning, sunnyside up, or over easy and you got yourself a host of vitamins including a bunch of Vitamin D.

Now the roosters can really screw this situation up. They come on to the hens and suddenly those eggs you were about to have for breakfast become fertilized and little chickens are now in these eggs and we cannot, and should not, be eating those eggs.

But I suppose that is necessary from time to time or otherwise we would not have the unfertilized eggs to eat. Those chickens must have the ability to sometimes reproduce instead of just feeding us our breakfast.


TOPICS: Pets/Animals
KEYWORDS: chickens; eggs; food
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-99 last
To: be-baw

I love this thread. Please keep the posts up. I am learning.

I think you’re just being a smartass. Note how many replies this thread has received. A lot of FReepers like these threads. When was the last time you posted something that has gotten 50+ replies?


81 posted on 09/17/2021 5:40:29 PM PDT by Dacula
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

82 posted on 09/17/2021 5:51:16 PM PDT by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> --- )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: smokingfrog

That is great!

I would like to have it as a refrigerator magnet.


83 posted on 09/17/2021 5:56:10 PM PDT by SamAdams76 (I am 296 days away from outliving Andrew Gold)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

Bug fed chicken eggs; you haven’t eaten real eggs until you eat them.


84 posted on 09/17/2021 6:01:36 PM PDT by Born to Conserve
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

A well done, Godly dissertation on the efficacy of eating scrambled eggs for breakfast at the messhall, Sir Knight.

Semper Fi, grunt.


85 posted on 09/17/2021 6:06:45 PM PDT by sergeantdave (Federal courts no longer have any standing in America. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: varyouga

“Homegrown food isn’t about cost effective.”

If one is preparing for emergencies or have a tight budget and wish to reduce the food bill, it is.

I strive to get maximum return for investment of time and money. An example is my vegetable garden. As my goal is to raise as much food as possible in the given amount of area the garden takes to help sustain my family during bad times, I plant that which produces well, vegetables that can be preserved in various manners for long shelf life.

Corn is an example of a vegetable that doesn’t give me enough return. A block of corn takes up a good size area if one wants enough for a few meals. An area that could be used for bush beans, rutabaga, beets, tomatoes and such. Veggies that would produce more in the same area and can be preserved for sometime for later use. I’d be better off buying canned corn at the local DG for $.50 a can then to raise my own. And that canned corn has a shelf life of years.

For protein, I’m further ahead buying inexpensive pinto beans in bulk and going down to the river to fish instead of raising chickens.

Your priority is different then mine as you stress quality and taste and that’s fine. My priority is to produce as much as possible within the confines of what land I have and my physical and financial ability.


86 posted on 09/17/2021 6:10:32 PM PDT by Armscor38
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 78 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76
Now the roosters can really screw this situation up. They come on to the hens and suddenly those eggs you were about to have for breakfast become fertilized and little chickens are now in these eggs and we cannot, and should not, be eating those eggs.

Negatory, good buddy.

Chicks in eggs don't grow that fast. It takes 21 days for the chicks to grow in the eggs. As long as you harvest the eggs within a week of being fertilized and put it into the fridge, you'll be fine.

I've eaten fertilized duck eggs. They were harvested within a day or so of being laid. I put it into the fridge and there was no embryo.

Candle the eggs before cracking and if you don't see blood spots, it's fine to eat.

See: Is It Safe To Eat Fertilized Eggs?

87 posted on 09/17/2021 6:56:03 PM PDT by Ol' Dan Tucker (For 'tis the sport to have the engineer hoist with his own petard., -- Hamlet, Act 3, Scene 4)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: varyouga

Varies by breed and individual chicken disposition. For both the rooster and the hens.

I maintain about a dozen to a eighteen hens of various types and age and a single, but very assertive rooster. Every egg is fertile, though most eggs are refrigerated the evening of, or the morning after they are laid.

Twice a year I allow a brooding chicken to sit on a clutch of eggs for chicks, though with the level of effort I put into keeping up the bug eating brood, most don’t make it to egg laying age. I replace the rooster every third year or so, by allowing natural selection by challenges from younger rivals.

Nature at the zenith...... the eggs are a great perk.


88 posted on 09/17/2021 7:12:34 PM PDT by Oil Object Insp
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: varyouga

I keep one rooster per 12-15 hens. When the rooster gets to the aggressive age, we hatch out a few of the eggs and raise another rooster. The older goes to the freezer.

I usually only incubate 5-10 at a time and only a few are quitters so most are getting fertilized.

There’s nothing different about fertilized eggs, they look and taste the same. They do not incubate unless under a hen or in an incubator.


89 posted on 09/17/2021 7:20:08 PM PDT by LilFarmer
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: Armscor38

Did you ever watch ducks play football with a frog? Even better.


90 posted on 09/17/2021 8:00:27 PM PDT by gnarledmaw (Hive minded liberals worship leaders, sovereign conservatives elect servants.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: gnarledmaw

I trained my Red Heeler, to herd the chickens and watch over them. I only had 1/2 an acre for them to roam in, but they laid amazing eggs. I had an ornery rooster, and the dog learned that he only had to “kennel him” and the “girls” would follow to bed. It kept the critters from killing my ladies. I only lost one, and that was the trigger to the Dog guarding chicken experiment.


91 posted on 09/17/2021 8:32:23 PM PDT by Glad2bnuts ((“If there are no absolutes by which to judge society, then society is absolute.” Francis Schaeffer,)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

Free advice:

Store bought commercialized eggs which have ‘vegetarian-fed’ on the package are almost always fed SOY.

Furthermore, don’t buy into the omega-3 BS for eggs: It’s just marketing. Omega-3 is the biggest marketing/label scam of the century.

And if you refuse to believe that, I bet that you believe that you get ample omega-3 from flax or chia seed, too.


92 posted on 09/17/2021 10:09:10 PM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Olog-hai

Re we need more Capons anyway. We’ve got enough Capons, chickens and chickenshits in Congress and the White House as it is.


93 posted on 09/18/2021 12:15:38 AM PDT by MadMax, the Grinning Reaper
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: MadMax, the Grinning Reaper

Well yes; they’re overdue for the smoker.


94 posted on 09/18/2021 12:37:03 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: Ol' Dan Tucker

Love duck eggs.


95 posted on 09/18/2021 12:38:37 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: logi_cal869
When I was buying supermarket eggs, I typically just got the cheapest ones. "Vegetarian-fed" eggs have zero appeal to me as I'm a big meat eater anyhow. The omega-3 fortified eggs had no appeal either, especially as I eat a tin of sardines or oysters just about every day so my omega-3 needs are satisfied in a natural way.

The eggs I've been getting directly from local farms are pretty incredible however, which was the point of this post. You can definitely tell the difference in the taste and there is a much richer nutritional profile. Probably because the small farm chickens run around the yard all day eating bugs and whatever else they can find including their own feces. That doesn't bother me.

96 posted on 09/18/2021 5:18:22 AM PDT by SamAdams76 (I am 295 days away from outliving Andrew Gold)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: Shery

“When I was in nursing school in the 60s.”

Yes the federal government’s “low fat, low cholesterol” diet advise was wrong. For 5 decades they gave us wrong dietary guidelines.

I have used that fact as argument for not allowing them to run our health care.


97 posted on 09/18/2021 5:26:17 AM PDT by Neverlift (When someone says "you just can't make this stuff up" odds are good, somebody did.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

Exactly. Even though soy/corn free local farm eggs can go for $7/dozen in this state, I’ve justified the almost $5/dozen expense for the same reasons, health being top...but just one of many.


98 posted on 09/18/2021 6:04:29 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: SamAdams76

Sugar is apparently worse for your cholesterol and blood fat levels as the liver will convert it into lipids.


99 posted on 09/18/2021 8:40:48 AM PDT by Republican Wildcat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081-99 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Bloggers & Personal
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson