Full disclosure: I have been stewing a bit about a comment about eggs and laying hens I read on Facebook for at least a week now. If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know I’ve written about eggs and the misconceptions about egg farming before – in fact, my post “Can We Chat About Eggs?” is still one of my most popular posts. I will admit I get frustrated by the sheer volumes of crazy, so-called information about eggs that I’m seeing nearly every day, and it’s also quite maddening to listen to all the untrue assumptions being made.

Here’s the Facebook post:

Factory Egg Farms

The right side is a post that a personal trainer shared, listing what she felt was a good shopping guide to healthy food choices – and there are certainly some good choices on this list. On the right, is part of a comment I made, in response to the idea that brown eggs are somehow superior to white eggs from a nutrition and health standpoint. I disagree – and the science behind the egg disagrees. White eggs and brown eggs are nutritionally the same – unless, of course, you buy eggs where the hen’s feed has been enhanced with flaxseed or some other feed ingredient to give it enhanced nutritional values above and beyond what is already a pretty perfect source of protein, vitamins and minerals.

Someone on Facebook obviously didn’t agree and instead, claimed that chickens that lay white eggs are “cranked out of egg farms where birds are bred to lay much earlier than normal, and filled with hormones and antibiotics.”

Sigh. Here we go again.

So … in response, let me just say this:

1) The time to make an egg and lay it is equal amongst all breeds – this information comes verbatim from a poultry expert I know at the University of Nebraska. The white chicken that lays white eggs in a backyard and the white chicken that lays white eggs in a barn on a large egg farm both lay about one egg every 26 hours or so. Ditto for a brown chicken laying brown eggs. There are no super-mega-pumped-up chicken breeds that lay eggs faster than that because an egg company wants them to. Seriously.

2) There are NO hormones given to chickens in the U.S. It is illegal to feed hormones to all poultry in this country – whether you raise a small flock or have thousands of birds on a farm. No hormones. None. Nada.

3) And as I have mentioned in previous posts, antibiotics by poultry farmers are used sparingly and as just one tool in the toolbox for ensuring bird health. We’re talking FDA-approved antibiotics, with strict veterinary oversight, to treat and prevent disease.

The truth is, food choices are personal – they are for you and they are for me, too. And what kind of eggs you buy (and why you buy them) is totally your business. Do you love brown eggs and think their yolks are a deeper yellow and more flavorful? The farmers I know who raise brown hens (who lay those brown eggs) love you for that! Are you on a budget and appreciate the $1.49 cents/dozen white eggs that come from any number of egg farmers across this country? Guess what – those farmers appreciate your love of eggs, too! I just ask that you please consider some of these common sense facts – and in some cases, basic physiological chicken truths – when you are in the supermarket, looking at the many amazing egg choices you have.

This is Brian Asmus, a Minnesota egg farmer, who raises laying hens with his father and sons.
I know this guy! This is Brian, a Minnesota egg farmer, who raises laying hens with his father and sons. Together, they make sure you have super fresh eggs to buy in the grocery store every day. You can view more about his farming operation here!

17 Comments on Common Sense Chicken Truths

  1. Hey – we must know the same personal trainer! Actually, a personal trainer I know shared that same picture, and I just replied “too radical for me.”

    Anyway – thank you for clarifying about the eggs! Even my little Adam (4) now knows that brown eggs from my friend Nicole are “the same” as the white eggs from the grocery store….we just get them in different places!

    • I am sure that graphic has made the FB rounds among all the trainers out there – ha! Glad I can help set the record straight on this … and kudos to your little boy for learning this true egg fact at his age – that’s awesome! 🙂

  2. Keep it up. I share the same madness, as I talk to people about chicken and turkey and get some of the same statements. They do not seem to want to learn or understand. It is like talking to a wall. Although I must add that some companies (Foster Farms and Perdue) that advertise hormone free and doing as much damage as some of those who fail to do the research.

    John

    • John, you must have read my mind … I just watched a Perdue chicken TV ad this morning that was all marketing hype about hormones/steroids … it’s frustrating that advertising like that does just as much to perpetuate these myths!

  3. I’m surprised you didn’t also mention that if you don’t eat the whole egg, you don’t get the complete nutrient potential of an egg.

    • Very true, Jeremie! I was thinking of that yesterday … there are so many key nutrients in the yolk. I will definitely keep touting that as well. Thanks for reading!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.