Backyard Chicken Keeping!!!

So to start this off lets talk about what is happening at chicken farms..  Battery hens live in highly automated, windowless sheds containing up to 100,000 hens; they are cramped in long rows of stacked "battery cages."  Up to 10 hens may inhabit an area of 2.33 ft sq.  That is less than half the size of a sheet of A4 (8.5x11) paper per hen; they have a wingspan of 30-32 inches.  Battery cages have sloping wire floors that prevent a hen from sitting, sometimes causing a hen's feet to grow around the bars leaving her immobile and starving to death.  Battery cages have wire walls in which hens often get their head stuck, leading to a slow death of starvation.  

K so with that said, shall I go into more details?

Just a few more for good measures!!  Were you aware that what a chicken eats, directly goes into what you eat i.e the egg!!  Battery hens are fed hormones and antibiotics; they are prone to bacterial infections and exposed to pesticides.  "The egg industry adds antioxidants to chicken feed to lengthen hens' laying cycles.  These chemicals inhibit the formation of peroxides during the birds' metabolic activities, which can damage and age hens' egg-producing calls and tissues.  Poultry producers use arsenical compounds to speed growth, raise feed efficiency, and boost egg production..  And guess what you are totally eating all that nastiness!!  Not eating eggs at all is the only way to rid yourself of potentially getting any of these treats into your body!!   Even the said organic food that all natural chickens eat have hormones, even the free range happy hippie chickens are often eating medicated chicken food!!  This is how the chicken keepers make sure they are not getting sick with out having to vaccinate them..  They just eat the medicines in the food!!

So besides the cruelty and the awful things they are eating, which sometimes includes other chickens body parts Ummm gross!!  Did I mention that sometimes the eggs that you are buying in the grocery store are sometimes up to 3 weeks old..  Sometimes they are even frozen in transit and sold!  In addition to that those so called seriously coveted protein bombs (Eggs) are not as good for your body as you think!!


Chicken eggs are high in cholesterol, and a diet high in cholesterol can contribute to high blood cholesterol levels. Although how much the cholesterol in your diet can increase your blood cholesterol varies from person to person.  But regardless why mess with it, if you need the iron that is found in yolks, eat more spinach...  If you are needing the protein eat more beans, it is truly unnecessary to eat eggs..

To sum it all up, unless you actually know where the eggs are coming from, witnessed it first hand you just really never know!!  The only way you know that happy healthy non- medicated chickens are laying happy healthy eggs is to have chickens and to be doing it all yourself..  Enter, backyard chickens.. !!!;)

I still have not eaten one of the eggs that my rescued hens have laid..  My family has for sure and I have also baked with the eggs for other people..  I just have a weird not into eggs thing..  The taste of fresh eggs as opposed to 3 week old sometimes frozen store bought eggs I hear from my husband is not comparable.  He said that that funky egg smell is not there and they taste way creamier!!  Here are a few links that you should look into when buying eggs, as well as some information about how to do it yourself.  This will be an updated post, I have more to share I am only 2 months deep into my chicken keeping adventure and once I get a hang of things I will for sure share..  But to further reading here is the goods..   Tread lightly!!!

More links to consider!!

Did you know?  More info on chicken farming!!
http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/chickens.aspx

A place where you can go to look into rescuing chickens
 http://animalplace.org/

Information to read about the backyard chicken keeping movement
http://www.backyardchickens.com/

For finding non- medicated chicken foods!!
http://www.waldeneffect.org/blog/Finding_non-medicated_chicken_feed/

Seeing is believing:  Check this documentary out!!
http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/wegmans-cruelty/



 http://www.wesleyan.edu/wsa/warn/eon/batteryfarming/hens.html