So, we have basic categories of egg farming: “torture” eggs, where the hens are stuck in a cage (which I don’t think is allowed any more, but I may be wrong), “cage free,” “free range,” and “pasture raised”.  Cage free means the hens are still crowded inside a building, but able to walk around.  They have to be fed bird feed. “Free range” means they have access to sunshine/outside, but still have to be fed since they have no access to natural diet sources.

“Pasture raised” means the chickens are free to roam and eat greens, weeds, bugs, etc.  They may get supplemental feed as well, but for the most part they get their nutrients as nature intended.

As much as our government would like to support the large egg producers, the truth is that small farms and “backyard” (at least from those hens that have access to pasture and better food) chicken eggs are healthier.

Recent peer review papers support this:

Dr. Malone goes on to discuss they use of pesticides in the chicken feed, including glycophosphate.  Bad juju.

These, and many more such studies with very similar results document that this is a serious issue that goes beyond the nutrients of egg composition.

Tips:

• Buy organic eggs. That is, eggs from hens fed an organic diet.
• Buy from a local producer, where you know the chickens have access to forage and sunlight.
• Start your own flock, where you can ensure organic feed, a mixed diet and access to sunlight, forage, bugs and space.

RESULTS: Three hundred and sixty Ancona hens were randomly assigned to three groups: a control group (C), with the hens kept in cages under standard housing conditions; the organic group (O), with the hens kept under an organic production system (4 m² per hen) and the organic-plus group (OP), with the hens maintained under organic conditions but with a larger grass paddock availability (10 m² per hen). The estimated intake of forage, carotenoids and flavonoids of the OP hens was very high as the amounts deposited in eggs, mainly in the spring season. The fatty acid composition of the yolk was significantly affected by pasture. The OP eggs showed lower concentrations of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) n-6 and a higher percentage of PUFA n-3.

So a forage diet increased omega-3 fatty acids, but also significantly other nutrients such as carotenoids and flavonoids.

After reading through many studies on avian nutrition, I come back to the conclusion that the best eggs come from small farms and backyards. That if one does choose to have chickens, then using organic feeds, healthy organic leftovers (including meat) and pasture are the way to ensure that the eggs produced are superior to store bought…

If you do have to coop-keep your chickens, it is a good ideas to supplement with greens. These can be bought, grown (both purpose grown – such as kale or chard or just the left over from a harvest). One can also gather greens, such as dandelions or weeds from the garden. We have never had a chicken get sick from ingesting weeds. They seem to be pretty good at figuring out what is edible. During the winter, we sometimes will throw a flake of alfalfa into the chicken coop.

/snip

The link between pre-pregnancy maternal hen glyphosate levels and obesity in the hen’s progeny begs the question. Is there such a link in humans?

A December 2023 study documents that individuals with higher levels of glyphosate have a higher likelihood of having type 2 diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease and obesity.

The article goes on to discuss the impact on reproductive health and other health impacts. It does remind me that I should make a trip to the eggery, probably tomorrow.  His hens are pasture raised and moved to new pastures every week.

The conclusions of this paper are pretty serious, and everyone of reproductive age or younger should take note.

For the sake of future generations, we all have to clean up our diets.