There's a lot of concern about eggs, and some confusion about what the terminology means.
Here is some basic biology for those who are new to chicken talk. A chick is a baby, and if she's a girl, she's referred to as a "pullet." A male chicken is called a "rooster," or a "cock," but if you see the term "capon" it's a neutered rooster. They grow slower and their meat is more tender and supposedly less bony than a rooster, though I'm no expert there. Caponizing is a separate step from raising chickens, and because of that individual handling, raises the price of a chicken carcass. Pullets grow up into hens, which are the heavier bodied birds we usually see in pictures.
Pullets do nothing but grow and learn to be chickens until they are 5 to 6 months old. If they are lucky enough to live with their mother, they learn early on to scratch in the ground, seek out seeds and hide from danger. There's nothing more charming than watching a mother hen teach her "class of chicks," as they wander around the farm.
Once the pullet gets to be around 5 or 6 months old, she'll start to lay eggs. But until that time, she hasn't really pulled any of her own weight in the farmer's till. After that though, she should lay an egg every 26 hours for several months. Hens that are older than two years old slow down their egg production, and are not usually kept on commercial farms. These are usually sold as "stew birds," because their meat is tougher and has a stronger flavor. However, other cultures treasure these older birds, so it's a matter of personal choice.
There is a lot of talk about "free range," and "cage free," birds. These terms mean nothing most of the time. A truly free range bird is one that is never kept confined, which means they excavate all over the farm, fertilizing as they go. Finding their eggs, or nests, is a treasure hunt. They are also more open to predators if they free range. However, they are allowed to be chickens. Scratching allows them to find the grit they use to grind their food in their crop. It also aerates the soil. They will also eat ticks, worms, and insects, and find their own balanced diet, if allowed to. Chickens love a good roll in the dust, as it gets rid of their own mite problems, and this is impossible in a commercial confinement system.
"Cage free," means, usually, that the hens are not kept in commercial battery systems. This is an improvement over cages, but the birds may still not have access to bare ground, fresh air or sunlight. Battery cages are the industrial standard, where birds live in wire cages where they cannot stand up and can barely turn around. I won't go into much detail except to say that the only natural thing they do in those cages is drop eggs and manure. Industry has created a very economical and efficient system for harvesting eggs, with absolutely no regard for a chicken's natural behavior or requirements.
Many people keep the birds in good sized cages, called coops. These allow the flock to stretch and be natural, but keeps their impact within a set area and protects them from most predators. There are modifications of these coops which use electric netting that can be moved around a pasture, so effectively the birds have free range, but they and the farm, are safer than roaming free. Birds raised with exercise, freedom and fresh food access provide a flavorful meat which may or may not be a little tougher than caged-raised meat, but it's a better life.
Meat birds themselves, such as Rock crosses, are huge birds that grow at such a rate that they are usually harvested for meat by the time they are 8 weeks old. This is truly a gift for many of these birds, as they are so breast heavy they can't stand up. Their hearts are often not strong enough to support such a large bird and give out with any type of stress.
A lot of people are like me, raising heritage, dual purpose birds. There are even a few, especially the miniature breeds called bantams (or banties) that still know how to "go broody." This means that most of the other breeds have lost their natural instinct to collect eggs, sit on them and raise up a brood of chicks. This is not necessary in battery operations and on most farms, roosters are culled so the only way to fertilize a hen is artificial insemination.
Hens will lay eggs even without a rooster around. Roosters can be wonderful, or aggressive. They are beautiful, but noisy. That morning crow is a television creation. A real rooster may crow every 20 minutes for most of the day. Sharing a farm with a rooster means just tuning it out, but new neighbors may grow impatient with the racket. Rather than ban roosters, which m any towns are doing, I think it's better that people just wait a few weeks. Eventually they won't even notice. At the same time though, they may notice fewer ticks and chiggers, as roosters eat a lot for their size and help with these country challenges. They will also protect the hens, but car should be taken to cull or rehome any rooster that is aggressive. They can be very scary if they are "attack birds."
Grading of eggs, ie. small, medium, large etc. is simply a weight measure. It has nothing to do with the quality of the egg. The different sizes are usually laid by younger or older birds, or by different breeds. White egg birds, such as the leghorn, are usually smaller boned and produce smaller eggs while brown egg birds are often heritage dual purpose birds, who's eggs will be larger because they are bigger chickens. But it's amazing to see the size of the egg that comes out of a bantam hen. It may grade out as small, but for the size of these little girls their eggs are huge!
The last thing that comes up in conversation is a debate of fertile vs. infertile eggs. That is a matter of personal choice. I don't know any farmer who would sell a fertile egg that they didn't know when it was hatched, or hadn't "candled" it. Candling is a simple process of holding the egg up to a strong light bulb and looking through translucent shell. A fertile developing egg will have a denser section where the embryo is developing. The air sac at the top of the egg will be different too, as it is exchanging gases. If no embryo is developing, there is no specific difference between fertile and infertile eggs. Some cultures believe that the only egg to eat is fertile, but that's not been adopted worldwide.
There is a lot of "buzz" in the media about salmonella and the dangers of eggs. I think that chickens are amazing for their adaptation to keep eggs safe. When an egg is laid the hen's reproductive tract deposits a preservative layer on the shell's outside. This allows the moisture and gases to be exchanged for any developing chick, but protect bacteria from getting to the baby inside. Hens lay their eggs every 26 hours, remember. They won't "go broody," for just a single egg, in most cases. When they do brood, they stop laying eggs, so nature has designed it to be very effective. They stop laying eggs once they have collected enough eggs to worry about. This means that the eggs were laid over subsequent days, yet they don't start growing until she starts to sit on them. She broods them for 21 days, in the case of chickens, and during that time she gets off the nest about 1 hour a day. It's a quick trip to the water bowl, the feed dish, the poop corner, and then back to work. She turns the eggs regularly to make sure they stay warm, and during this time, the eggs all develop at roughly the same rate. It's quite the system for making life easier for the hen. Can you imagine having 8 kids all 6 months apart in age? This system keeps that from happening.
Because of this layer, when eggs are harvested, if they are not washed immediately, they can sit at room temperature for some time. They should be washed before using, because of the biology of the bird. But once they are washed they need to be refrigerated until use. I love how nature "thinks" of these things!
Well that's a lot about chickens. If you got this far, you probably enjoyed it. I'll write more about some of our chickens at a later date. But it's quite easy for a family to keep a couple of hens for their own use, and many cities are making that possible. There' are some wonderful books about "urban chickens". These include coop construction and some very innovative approaches to chicken housing. Just a couple of these are "Chicken Coops" by Pangman, "Chickens in Your Backyard," by Luttman and "Keep Chickens" by Kilarski. If you are interested in urban farming at all, give these a look!
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