Guest guest Posted January 23, 2007 Report Share Posted January 23, 2007 <<The eggs we get are all different colors and sizes and the shells are so much harder than supermarket shells.>> Just want to point out that my dad's neighbours (he's not a farmer, but he's surrounded by them) get their egg shells nice and hard by feeding the chickens ground up oyster shells. So, it's not a vegetarian diet for those chickens. I don't know what the Mennonites use. Liz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 23, 2007 Report Share Posted January 23, 2007 Hi Liz, Well, I can't say what *all* Mennonites use, but I am confident that ones we buy from here don't use oyster shells. The chickens are eating what they should be eating; grass and bugs. Granted, bugs would make the chickens non-vegetarians, but certainly they are part of their natural diet. I have heard of other calcium-rich supplements being added to chicken feed in order to strengthen the shells, including calcium deposits from the bottom of the ocean (which probably originated from mollusk shells originally?). As I have said before, I am no chicken farmer, but my guess is that the harder shells would be the natural condition of the egg shells. I would think that the thin ones would be a symptom of battery cages/ factory farming techniques, just as reduced nutritional profile seems to be... Funny, I was just looking on amazon for a book on raising chickens. Maybe I will soon be an expert... Best, Karen , ERB <bakwin wrote: > > <<The eggs we get are all different colors and sizes > and the shells are so much harder than supermarket > shells.>> > > Just want to point out that my dad's neighbours (he's > not a farmer, but he's surrounded by them) get their > egg shells nice and hard by feeding the chickens > ground up oyster shells. So, it's not a vegetarian > diet for those chickens. I don't know what the > Mennonites use. > > Liz > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 23, 2007 Report Share Posted January 23, 2007 To me its not what the hens eat, but if the hens are diseased or not and this is hard to know, they could be fed the best diet but like my father in law, his chickens all died of flu without even a sign!! I believe most, if not all animals are diseased and cannot be thought of as food and an egg is the embryo of an animal!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 23, 2007 Report Share Posted January 23, 2007 Hens do lay eggs even if the eggs aren't fertilized, so that's not killing anybody. Our chickens we had growing up, we didn't eat the eggs because there were roosters there. The hens never hatched any, though. Our neighbors had a million or so guineas and they ate the eggs. They were definitely fertilized eggs, too, and that was sad to hear about. Colin Hammond <nilochammond wrote: To me its not what the hens eat, but if the hens are diseased or not and this is hard to know, they could be fed the best diet but like my father in law, his chickens all died of flu without even a sign!! I believe most, if not all animals are diseased and cannot be thought of as food and an egg is the embryo of an animal!! Kadee Sedtal Build a man a fire and he'll stay warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he'll stay warm the rest of his life. " THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!!! " -Captain Picard, Next Generation, " Chain of Command part 2 " Check out my new , Classical 2 at http://launch.classical2/ Don't be flakey. Get Mail for Mobile and always stay connected to friends. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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