Eggs continued...

With my ongoing belief that we should only be eating pastured chickens, I listened to an August NPR segment by Anna Vigran as she presented information about healthy chickens and how they have natural antibodies that fight bacteria that could make us sick.

First I will clarify that pastured is not the same as cage-free.

Pastured means running around outside in the sunshine, eating bugs and grass and soaking up vitamin D. This would not be a “cage-free” chicken, which only means running around - not in a cage. Big Ag is taking advantage of the name “cage free” and “organic”. While the words might bring about visions of happy chickens, it does not guarantee any such life, and it is quite likely the chicken is living in a structure with up to 3000 other chickens in a small, compact building that has one 2’x2’ door to the outside.

When I recently called an egg farmer, I was told that his chickens “don’t like to go outside”. I compare that comment to the turkey farmer who told me that his turkeys don’t go outside because they would fly away.

Eggs from chickens that are pastured are naturally germ-free, due to bacteria-fighting proteins found within the egg white. Bacteria can invade an egg through a crack in the shell, but when it gets to the egg white, three proteins work together to provide effective protection against contamination. But this only happens in eggs that come from healthy chickens.

Everywhere I go I see signs of cheap food. Signs like these make me angry that everyone can't have eggs from chickens who have a happy life!

According to the NPR report, Lysozyme in effect explodes illness-causing bacteria. There are two other proteins that prevent bacteria form growing.

Vigran stated:

“...one protein called lysozyme which is also in tears, saliva and the drippy stuff that comes out of your nose. In fact, that's how it was discovered by Alexander Fleming (who also discovered penicillin) — Fleming happened to notice that when drips from his nose fell onto certain bacteria, they died.”

John Ingraham, a microbiologist and author of March of the Microbes (Harvard University Press), says that salmonella-infected hens are likely to lay salmonella-infected eggs.

Ingraham states:

“If the egg comes from healthy chickens, like his, there’s no problem. But, as the current egg recall shows, chickens are notoriously susceptible to infection with salmonella. And if the chicken that's laying the egg is infected with salmonella, it’s likely its eggs will be infected, too. That’s why we’re told to cook eggs and keep them cold — cooking kills the bacteria and cool temperatures slows microbial growth and helps the eggs last longer.”

And…

If you're into chickens and you're into apps on your iPhone, here is something that will bring some great entertainment:

Pickin' Chicken will guide you through selecting breeds that are right for your needs. They list 75 breeds in alphabetical order. You can browse heritage and endangered breeds, learn about chicken growth and production.

It’s very entertaining!

I’m trying to figure out what we call our cross-breed chickens that were hatched this past Spring. First I need to identify the mother and her breed. I suspect she too is a cross-breed

~What do we call mutts in chicken terms?