im doing well.. heres what im doing =)

[jessica]

"My main concern is that chickens come from birds with a mutated gene that got them to lay eggs all year round, instead of annually for a few weeks like most birds. So I don't view even eating raw, pastured eggs as ideal."

Forgive me, but aren't you a darwinian evolutionaut?

pretty much all you have to do is use artificial light to lengthen days for chickens, like light up their coop in the winter months, and they will lay all year round regardless of tempurature, they lay all year round in equador...no mutant genes required

[TylerDurden]

I think that if chickens are allowed to lay all year round that this is too massive an effort for the chicken so that, inevitably, it is in an unhealthy, weakened state, thus not providing the best possible levels of nutrients to its eggs.

[CitrusHigh]

That is good theory, but not what we really see in practice with a good wholesome diet of meat scraps, vegetables, grains, fruits, etc. Since it is unnatural to raise chickens, it's not that big of a deal to feed them an artificially rich diet of whole, organic, clean food so that they can lay ridiculous vermillion colored eggs all winter long! Of course, if you're not doing it right, your theory holds.

[TylerDurden]

I can only speak for myself. When I eat raw chicken eggs, even raw , pastured ones, I usually get a food-intolerance issue whereby I don't digest them as well. However, when I eat raw goose eggs, which are only very seasonal, I get this problem only if I overeat them.

[Projectile Vomit]

I was at a Nourishing Traditions workshop this weekend, and Sally Fallon noted that chickens fed soy will pass the antinutrients in soy into their eggs. I wonder what percent of egg intolerance issues are actually due to soy antinutrient contamination? Most chicken feeds contain soy in varying amounts, and all chicken farms I've found always feed their chickens at least some commercial feed, even if organic.

[CitrusHigh]

Soy free eggs are a pretty big deal in my circle around here. Most farmers do feed soy, but we have a pretty good list of WAPF based farms that do not.

We are not intensive in terms of yield, quality is the number one concern here on our farm and since it's not our soul source of income we can keep the focus on quality instead of sacrificing to keep the boat afloat!

Soy free eggs are becoming more common as people wake up and request them, but still a premium if you can find them.

That's why it's important to know your farmer if you can, or if not, make sure the retailer is sourcing the real deal, because as far as I know, my co-op does not carry any soy free, pastured eggs, their best quality, which goes for over 5$USD /dzn  pale in comparison to ours and other pastured farmers in the area.