for Dorothy and other chicken-egg-experts

[Joy2012]

Dorothy,  There are now two kinds of pasture-raised chicken eggs in Austin supermarkets.  One is in HEB and the other is in Natural Grocers. If you have seen them, I would like to know your opinions on them. OK, both are washed so they do not pass your inspection on that point. But I would like to know which one is better. It seems to me the cheaper one--the one in NG--is more genuine.

The shell color of these individual eggs varies from whitish to deep yellow. Which ones are better nutritionally?

[jessica]

if they are the same "organic pastured" eggs as they sell at the natural grocers in colorado i wouldnt waste the money.  you are in AUSTIN...there has got to be a local farm/farmers market where you can pick up some good eggs.  use craigslist, check out localharvest.com, eatwild.com, austin has a ton of farms as well as people producing good food in their backyards, just ask a ton of question

also in your last paragraph, do you mean the shell color or the yolk color?
the shell varies depending on what kind of chicken it is, some claim green eggs from aracauna chickens have less cholesterol....but i havent heard much about other breeds.  good eggs will have super yellow/orange thick yolks with a very distinct flavor, thick egg whites and solid shells

[Dorothy]

He Joy. I don't go to Natural Grocers or HEB... and I also don't buy eggs for obvious reasons.
But - here's some information for you. The color of the shell means absolutely NOTHING about the inside of the eggs. The color is totally superfluous. The reason why certain colors became associated with better nutrition is that certain breeds were kept in people's yards and therefore got a better diet of foraged things and human food scraps. In people's yards and small farms they often kept the dual-purpose breeds that lay brown or blue eggs whereas in industry they usually used leghorns which are a single-purpose breed that is just for laying that lays white eggs. The only thing that is going to effect the nutritional content of the inside of the egg is the chickens' diet. My leghorns I'm sure lay better eggs than the brown eggs you would buy in any store because of the way I feed them. Factory farming now has produced some brown egg laying breeds that can withstand almost as much stress as the phenomenal leghorn - so color truly means nothing today.

Vital Farms is a local supplier of eggs that truly free ranges their chickens from what I understand - but also supplies feed of course. They are located in South Austin pretty close to me. The chickens are treated well from what I understand. I've never had them raw - just soft-boiled in restaurants. There are a couple of little markets around town where you can find them.

The farmer's markets have some really free-ranged eggs and you can talk to the farmers at the market at least to find out what kind of feed they supplement with.
 
There's a great yahoo backyard meetup group that I belong to with a chat board where I post a bunch. I've been trying to educate them on feeding. I have a long thread there about raising bugs for chickens and another on stopping the feeding of processed chicken feed. Some people on the board posted that they do similar things. You could join and post to see if anyone wants to sell you their extra eggs. Many people that have backyard chickens spoil them which means growing/buying them bug treats, letting them roam their yards and giving them their leftovers - which is far better than you get most anywhere. When I didn't have enough eggs for myself I bought some from another member. Not nearly as good as mine - but still dramatically better than store bought. She also was willing to not wash them or refrigerate them for me when I explained that I understood how in America you have to be so careful and I would even sign a document stating that I would not hold her responsible for anything.

I have 6 hens that are just started to lay. If I ever have any extra maybe we could exchange for something. I would never give my eggs to anyone that didn't understand what they were! It costs me a fortune (especially in time) to create a raw paleo diet for my chickens so that I will have raw paleo eggs. You couldn't find anything like them unless you found someone who had enough land to let their chickens totally free range without supplementing anything except dead animals, bugs and sprouted grains. Not likely you would find that anywhere else unless you raised them yourself too.

I'm really working on my black soldier fly production methods. If I get those down and my mealworm production up, then I will even be able to get some more chickens. I've always wanted to have all the pretty colors and would love to have some Marans and Americaunas for the dark brown and bright blue eggs - but they just don't produce as much as the breeds I have. At this point I sometimes even feed my chickens Slankers pet food when I don't have enough bugs - so I wouldn't feed a chicken with less production until I have my "free" food totally up and running. I plan on growing their grains and starting an aquaponics system so they can have live fish and growing the chickens algae.

I know - I'm NUTS! But in the meantime - Vital Farms is sold at Central Market  I think. I know HEB owns Central Market but Central Market has some different things.

And here's the message board I told you about:
http://www.meetup.com/AustinBackyardPoultry/messages/boards/

Personally - and this is just me ok? - these days any other egg besides my own I soft-boil no matter how the person says they raise it. 3 minutes. I've eaten even store-bought eggs raw in the past but I've become WAY too picky.  

Good Luck!

[Joy2012]

Dorothy, I see you are very proud of your chickens/eggs.    Many thanks for sharing your experience/knowledge.  I will just trust your judgment  instead of doing my own research.  Vital Farm is the the eggs sold at Natural Grocers.  So I will be satisfied with Vital Farm eggs until your chicken farm produces suplus eggs.

Jessica,  thanks for your response. I meant shell colors.  So are the "organic pastured" eggs sold at the natural grocers in colorado Vital Farm eggs?

Maybe one day I will drag myself to farmers markets.  But really I do not know enough about farming to ask the right questions. I am not a big egg eater anyway. I am more into grass-fed beef and alaskan wild salmon.  Maybe the reason is that  I have never eaten an egg that is produced  truly  in a natural way.

 

good eggs will have super yellow/orange thick yolks with a very distinct flavor, thick egg whites and solid shells

That is good to know. Thanks.   When you say "thick egg whites" do you mean the egg has a small yolk and lots of white?

[Dorothy]

Quote from: jessica on August 18, 2012, 09:55:56 am
good eggs will have super yellow/orange thick yolks with a very distinct flavor, thick egg whites and solid shells

That is good to know. Thanks.   When you say "thick egg whites" do you mean the egg has a small yolk and lots of white?

Joy - I must add something about the color of yolks. How yellow or orange the yolk is is completely due to how much carotene the chickens eat. Dark colored yolks are considered to be healthier because usually it was the chickens running around and foraging (eating the dark green plants/grasses) that had this color, much like the brown shell color, yolk color came to be associated with healthy better eggs.

The problem is that because that was the case some farmers have taken to adding chemicalized supplements to the chickens' food to make their egg yolks very dark and rich looking when in fact the eggs are not all that good. Even when my eggs have a lighter color when there is drought, my eggs would still be better because the chickens are given a fully raw paleo diet and are fluctuating with the natural changes in environment and are never given chemicals.

So, you can't always go by the color of the yolks any more just like you can't go by the color of the shells.

Thick whites means that the whites (not the size - whatever size they are) are thick and gooey and not thin. That is an indicator of freshness. As the egg gets older the whites get thinner and thinner.

Solid shells means that the chickens get enough calcium to make the shells thick. It's not as important for nutrition of the egg itself really as much as for the health of the bird in general - which I guess would effect the healthiness of the egg for you indirectly.

But really - the best thing is to find a producer that you trust.

If you ever go to the farmer's market what you need to find is someone that has a chicken tractor - means takes their chickens in a portable coop to constantly new places of greenery and bugs on their farm and that's supplements with organic and soy free chicken feed. That's the whole thing you have to find.

Vital Farms doesn't use a tractor - just let's them roam - and is actually second best. The problem is that most of the time a chicken farm will be quickly depleted of all bugs and greenery even if they let the chickens free range all day.  It's the best that you can find though in a supermarket.

Yes, I am proud of my birdies! I'm proud to have been able to figure out how to feed them right - kind of like the path it took for me to figure out how to feed me right.   It's been a long road. Having them has become one of my favorite hobbies. I just fed them a peach. It was gone soooo fast! I'm always going out there giving them treats. It's a hoot.

I'm really glad that you found something that will suit your needs. Bon Apetit!

[Joy2012]

Many thanks again Dorothy. Now that I am fortified with the knowledge you provided, maybe I will visit Farmers markets one day.   

[Joy2012]

I visited a famer's market where two farmers were selling chicken eggs. Both farmers said their chicken free roam and are supplemented with organic feed without soy.  One farmer's eggs were about medium-sized. The other farmer's eggs were uniformly extra small.   Does the size of eggs mean anything?

I bought from both. I don't feel their eggs taste especially delicious. But that is OK. The important point that their eggs were unwashed and were not coated with chemicals. I am using the egg shells to make my calcium supplement.

[Dorothy]

Unwashed! :O That's rare. Congratulations!

There is no nutritional difference with the size of the egg or the color of the shell. The small eggs could be due to the fact about this time of year many pullets are starting to lay their first eggs and the first eggs are smaller or it could be due to the chicken being a smaller breed. Either way - it's the diet that makes the taste and nutritional differences - not the size.

If you can ask the farmers if there is a particular brand of food they feed because I know most of them. Also ask if they supplement with anything besides the feed. Some human leftovers can really increase the nutrition of the eggs - if it's good food with some meat in it that is. If the chickens get to scratch through a compost pile for instance that is a big plus. You also want to ask how many chickens get to forage over how many acres. I have known people to say that their chickens get to forage - but when you go to see it there isn't one stick of grass left and doubtfully one bug either.

You want the good egg shells even if you aren't eating the shells directly btw because shells are porous and will absorb toxins - especially if the bloom (covering the chicken naturally puts on the egg to preserve it) is washed off.

If the eggs never have any dirt or poopies on them I would start to doubt if they weren't at least wiped. Some farmers consider "washing" different than wiping with a wet cloth because selling eggs that are dirty could get them in trouble - so sometimes you have to press the point asking if the eggs are exactly as they found them in the nest. If the eggs are not washed you know of course not to put them in the fridge right? Putting eggs in the refrigerator changes them. If the eggs are unfertilized they will stay fresh longer.

There is a thread here about using eggs to make a supplement that you might want to search for as there were some negatives that you might want to be aware of. Are you just eating the shells or processing them in some way?

[LePatron7]

Dorothy, I get fertile eggs unwashed. I typically do refrigerate them. Why do you suggest not putting them in the fridge?

I also haven't gotten any poo or anything on them, or maybe I haven't noticed.

[Dorothy]

Refrigeration changes the way they taste a great deal to me. It does something to the egg that I think is just "wrong" for the lack of a better explanation. If the eggs truly are not washed or wiped down they will have what is called "bloom" on them. It's a coating that the chicken's body naturally puts on the egg to preserve it for the weeks it takes to lay enough eggs to have a clutch. Fertile eggs left out at room temperature will last at least the 2 weeks it will take to make an average clutch. If you wish them to stay fresh and unfermented longer than that you can preserve them by putting them in a high quality olive oil or put them in the refrigerator, but I hear fermented eggs are a delicacy. My eggs have never lasted long enough to try them fermented though.

Refrigerating unwashed/unwiped eggs when eating them raw - that's a shame! There is nothing like a fresh egg directly out of the nest. I wash my eggs only just before eating and never refrigerate them unless I have to wash them for weird reason.

If there is never ever a poopie or an attached feather or a little blood or some bedding attached it might mean that it is a very small and clean operation or that they are wiping the eggs and calling them unwashed. My eggs rarely are dirty - but I only have 10 chickens - but still it happens. Your farmer may be picking out only the clean ones for you since he is selling them unwashed. The only way to know is to ask your farmer directly. You can tell them that you don't care even if there are poopies on them. I tried that with one farm though and traveled two hours to get there and STILL they "wiped them off" because they just couldn't stand the idea of selling eggs with poopies on them so into the fridge they went and Brian ended up cooking them and I went through all that effort for eggs worthy of eating raw to get nothing.

Raising chickens is a blast and really very easy if you have a backyard. It will cost more than buying eggs of course - but you can't buy the kind of eggs that you can get from your own paleo chickens.

[LePatron7]

So you clean them right before you eat it? I've been eating it unwashed, their website said it boosts the immune system because of the bacteria. I agree with that, just like raw meat bacteria boost the immune system.

Here's what they say about washed or unwashed: If you choose to get your eggs unwashed, they will have natural bacteria and chicken excrement on the outside of the shell. Basically, the eggs are picked right out of the hens nest and placed right into the egg carton. Exposure to natural farm bacteria from chicken eggs has been found to build the immune system and help prevent allergies. Many people suck the egg raw right out of the shell and want the exposure to the bacteria to help strengthen their systems. If you are not "ready" for this, then get your eggs "washed". No commercial cleansers are used to clean the eggs.

From - http://www.myhealthyfoodclub.com/Pastured-Eggs-Fertile-No-Soy-per-doz_p_174.html

They also discuss their diet on there too. Do you think you could check it out and tell me what you think?

They're the best eggs I've ever had, many times better than the organic pastured eggs I've gotten at whole foods.

[Dorothy]

Wow - what a GREAT resource!
I got to see pictures of the farm on the website. The important thing is that the chickens have access to the entire farm and there were greens everywhere, cow dung that would attract fly larva and as many bugs as those chicken could ever eat. If a chicken can find bugs or meat it will always eat those over any kind of chicken feed.  In Pennsylvania it is probably during the winter when the chickens will eat the most feed. You might see and taste that difference during that time - at least you should. You sure are lucky having eggs like that available to you!

The farmers even understand that bacteria isn't bad! I have not long ago stopped washing my eggs that I eat raw before opening - but if Brian and I eat together or there is visible poopie on the egg I wash it. If you ever offer someone raw egg for the first time while visiting with you I would most definitely wash the egg before serving. At the beginning I do suggest washing the eggs just before eating because you are still going to get some bacteria from the inside of the eggs.  Remember - eggs are porous. Whether you get sick from bacteria or not is always about degree/number. If you get small doses at the beginning your immune system learns how to fight the bacteria/parasite well so when you get a bigger onslaught it will be ready and handle it with ease. If you eat little bits of say salmonella in your eggs when that big dose eventually comes the one day you happen to eat say ... cooked spinach touched by someone who didn't wash their hands at a restaurant or the like ... you might be the only one that doesn't get sick.

When determining if you should wash your eggs and for how long you have to take into consideration the strength of your immune system, how generally strong you are and how delicate or strong your digestive fire is as well as how healthy your diet has been in the past and how long you have been exposing yourself to similar bacteria. Also, whenever getting your eggs from a new source you will be exposed to new bacteria and parasites - so I would always at first wash any source of new eggs and only expose myself to the bacteria inside the egg at first to give my immune system a heads up as to what is coming so it will be prepared (if it's possible). If you are getting eggs from a farmer you might not know if they got in new stock and therefore potentially new bacteria  - just something to keep in mind. With my own chickens I have come to doubt that they have much bad bacteria or parasites of any kind to give me troubles anyway. Their water is treated with colloidal silver to keep it fresh and them super healthy - so their eggs might not even be as healthy since they probably don't expose me to as many kinds of bacteria as you would get at your farm or with wild foraged eggs for instance. But that's ok because my chickens are like healthy little tanks with the CS - which is the way I like it as they are pets as well as egg laying machinery.

[Alive]

@Dorothy - our hens are free, and there is grass and animal poop, compost, rotten wood etc for bugs, fallen fruit etc, but in addition to my raw scraps they eat cooked scraps from my family kitchen, plus get fed commercial grain based feed. We do not have any roosters.

What do you think - should I eat their eggs?

[Dorothy]

@Dorothy - our hens are free, and there is grass and animal poop, compost, rotten wood etc for bugs, fallen fruit etc, but in addition to my raw scraps they eat cooked scraps from my family kitchen, plus get fed commercial grain based feed. We do not have any roosters.

What do you think - should I eat their eggs?

Alive - did you mean free range or just "free"?  I'm interpreting this to mean that you have hens that get to run all around eating what they like right? Why would you ever NOT want to eat those eggs? They are better than anything you could ever buy.

Your hens sound like the ideal egg makers! The only thing I would change is to get whole grains for them and sprout it instead of the commercial grain feed. Feed is ground and loses the nutrients so fast and has all those antinutrients and enzyme inhibitors in them. If you just get some whole grains and soak/sprout them - it's sooooo much better for them! Sprouts have a protein percentage of 20 - 30% - the same as that feed with that old cooked soy or fish in it and if you get the seeds and sprout them they grow - giving more food for the money so in the end it doesn't cost any more - probably less than chicken feed - but provides incredible nutrition and enzymes.

How many hens do you have Alive? You are a lucky man.

[Alive]

Hi Dorothy, yes our 4 hens are free to do whatever they please when ever they like. My kids have named them and say they are all different, but I don't really notice. I have made 2 chicken coops in the past and both were rejected by the hens - they preferred to sleep in our barn, on top of an old TV last time I looked!

I guess it's just another new experience to get used to - OK I have just taken your advice and cracked a fresh room temperature egg into my mouth.

Thanks Dorothy, I will aim to make a habit of eating raw eggs, and look into improving their feed as you suggest

[Joy2012]

Dorothy, thanks for answering my question and sharing some more knowledge.

The farmers wipe their eggs, which is quite alright with me, for I use the eggs within a few days. Actually I am not sure I like to wash dirty eggs myself. I am a city girl you know.

I will ask one farmer (whom I prefer over the other) the questions you suggest next time I see him.

I cover  the egg shells with fresh  lemon juice and calcium will dissolve into the lemon juice and then I drink the lemon juice diluted with water. Sometimes I blend 1/2 shell with fruit.

[Dorothy]

If you want to make sure that bacteria does not reach the inside of the egg because of the porosity created by wiping off the bloom (the egg will not only go bad faster but be open to microbes it wouldn't be with the bloom still intact), you could put the eggs into olive oil to preserve them on the counter as well. I put any eggs without the bloom into the refrigerator myself. The bacteria within the egg with the bloom I'm not worried about in the least. Bacteria from outside without that bloom - I'm not up to exposing myself to at this time - especially ones handled by farmers. Those eggs I'd wash and put in the fridge or in the newly arrived olive oil from Con Olio and keep using that same oil for a year to preserve my eggs in. To me it would be worth buying oil once a year to preserve the eggs instead of taking a chance. One day when I finally get too many eggs I will be preserving my eggs in oil as that is a great way to preserve eggs for long periods without refrigeration. But that's me. I'm sure what you are doing is just fine. I can go a little over boad.  

That's a great idea using that lemon juice! I'm going to try that too. Thanks a bunch for that.

[Joy2012]

Dorothy, I thought olive oil goes bad in room temperature?

The lemon juice recipe is from a Chinese website (but I made some changes). Lemon juice has to be very fresh or the eggshells will not dissolve. The glass bottle holding the mixture has to be tightly capped for 48 hours. I use juice of 12 lemons for 12 crushed eggshells. The mixture will produce bubbles right away as calcium begins to dissolve into lemon juice. After 48 hours you may start to drink the mixture. If you add icy water and honey, it will taste like lemon soda, quite tasty. The mixture may stay in the fridge for at least one week. I throw unresolved shells into my morning smoothies. One medium-sized eggshell contains 2 grams of calcium. The website says this is calcium citrate, the best calcium supplement.

Thank you for telling me to get eggs without chemical coating.

[Dorothy]

I feed my chickens their eggshells back to them - but now they are going to have competition! Thanks so much for those directions. I'm going to try it for sure.

Olive oil does fine at room temperature for a year after it's harvest date. The reason you can't use regular oil when you don't know the harvest date is because it's already rancid so you can't leave it out or it just gets worse and worse. You just want it to be out of sunlight and in a opaque glass. You don't want it to be in heat either so never store your olive next to yours stove (but since we don't cook here that shouldn't be a problem eh?). Homes in Texas are all air conditioned so it's no problem keeping your oil out of the fridge. Olive oil congeals in the fridge so you can't use it whenever you want to if you store it that way. Olive oil is traditionally kept un-refrigerated - probably for that reason I would guess.

[Joy2012]

If you can ask the farmers if there is a particular brand of food they feed because I know most of them. Also ask if they supplement with anything besides the feed. Some human leftovers can really increase the nutrition of the eggs - if it's good food with some meat in it that is. If the chickens get to scratch through a compost pile for instance that is a big plus. You also want to ask how many chickens get to forage over how many acres. I have known people to say that their chickens get to forage - but when you go to see it there isn't one stick of grass left and doubtfully one bug either.

You want the good egg shells even if you aren't eating the shells directly btw because shells are porous and will absorb toxins - especially if the bloom (covering the chicken naturally puts on the egg to preserve it) is washed off.

If the eggs never have any dirt or poopies on them I would start to doubt if they weren't at least wiped. Some farmers consider "washing" different than wiping with a wet cloth because selling eggs that are dirty could get them in trouble - so sometimes you have to press the point asking if the eggs are exactly as they found them in the nest. If the eggs are not washed you know of course not to put them in the fridge right? Putting eggs in the refrigerator changes them. If the eggs are unfertilized they will stay fresh longer.

There is a thread here about using eggs to make a supplement that you might want to search for as there were some negatives that you might want to be aware of. Are you just eating the shells or processing them in some way?

Dorothy, I obtained the information about the chicken/eggs of the farmer I purchase eggs from. He has 18 hens and 6 roosters although he is getting rid of some of the roosters. [He had dozens of chickens before but predators have kept getting them.] The chicken rotate to different plots of a grassland over 100 acres. [His chief business is raising sheep.] The chicken feed is organic feed from a San Antonio farmer who gets his feed from mid-west. There is no brand. Just bulk feed.  He also gives his chicken organic sunflower black oil. He gets only about 3 dozens of eggs each week for sale. He calls his eggs pastured fertile eggs. He wipes the eggs clean, which is OK with me.

How does this sound to you? I feel I trust this farmer.  If he passes your examination, then I will need to pray about the predators situation. I do not want all the hens getting killed.

If I wash the eggs and place them in the fridge, how long will they keep in the fridge?

I did not find the thread about the negatives of eating eggshells.

[Dorothy]

Dorothy, I obtained the information about the chicken/eggs of the farmer I purchase eggs from. He has 18 hens and 6 roosters although he is getting rid of some of the roosters. [He had dozens of chickens before but predators have kept getting them.] The chicken rotate to different plots of a grassland over 100 acres. [His chief business is raising sheep.] The chicken feed is organic feed from a San Antonio farmer who gets his feed from mid-west. There is no brand. Just bulk feed.  He also gives his chicken organic sunflower black oil. He gets only about 3 dozens of eggs each week for sale. He calls his eggs pastured fertile eggs. He wipes the eggs clean, which is OK with me.

How does this sound to you? I feel I trust this farmer.  If he passes your examination, then I will need to pray about the predators situation. I do not want all the hens getting killed.

If I wash the eggs and place them in the fridge, how long will they keep in the fridge?

I did not find the thread about the negatives of eating eggshells.

That is a lot of roosters! He probably raised them from chicks so got stuck with a bunch.

Sounds like he has a chicken tractor that he pulls around with a tractor or some such. If he moves them often enough they will get lots of bugs and fresh greens this way - which is good. At least the feed is organic! The protein in the feed might be soy based though. That would be bad for the chickens - but not horrible for you since they do get bugs and greens mostly - probably

If he just lets his chickens rotate on their own without a secure coop - they will all be gone soon. Once a predator finds them - they keep on coming back. No amount of praying will stop that if he is dumb (or poor) enough not to secure them up well - especially at night. .

If he has a chicken tractor it might be made out of chicken wire which raccoons can simply tear open or is on wheels so things can just dig right under it. A stationary coop is pretty easy to make predator-proof, but a tractor much less so because on a stationary coop you sweep some wire mesh down extending it on the ground past the coop and cover it with dirt so that when things try to dig to get in they simply can't.  You also have to make sure the lock has several steps to open or raccoons can open simple latches pretty easily. They have opposable thumbs and great intelligence. Hawks should not be an issue in any tractor setting with a top on it. That would be pretty easy to prevent.


All he really needs is a good dog - but we can't exactly tell him how to run his own farm can we?

The search engine on this site really sucks. I can't find much of anything when I search, so I doubt that I will do any better. It's a shame because it was a really good discussion!

Chickens on land with lots of grass and bugs and organic feed - you're not going to do much better than that buying eggs. They are even fertile which is really hard to come by. Good job! The only thing you might want to do is ask him what the ingredients of the feed are to find out what kind of protein source they use and how many different kinds of seeds. I doubt that it is certified organic since there is only one company in Texas that makes a certified organic chicken feed - but it might be just a farmer that isn't using any pesticides - which is fine. The feed probably is just some ground up seeds. That's ok. Not ideal of course - but there is no way you will ever find ideal unless you raise your own chickens.

Overall - if they taste good - you aren't going to get any better!

I've never raised or gotten fertile eggs so I can't advise you as to how long they will last in the refrigerator. You should as your farmer that. If you put them in olive oil in the refrigerator they will last a very long time because it is the respiration through the shell that makes for the deterioration and the oil seals off that respiration and acts as an anti-microbial agent.

[Joy2012]

Thank you, Dorothy. I will try to pass your advice on predators to the farmer.

What does black sunflower oil (which the farmer feeds his chicken) do for the chicken?

[Dorothy]

The black sunflower oil adds some fat to their diet as chickens need a lot of fat to lay those wonderful fatty eggs. The ideal is to lightly sprout some sunflower seeds instead. He probably adds the oil because his feed doesn't have the wild fish or other types of oils and doesn't contain expensive sunflower seeds. I wonder if that oil is rancid. Fresh sunflower oil is hard to come by - let alone cheap enough to feed to chickens. A chicken would be much better off with suet, bone marrow, organ meat, live fish or just enough bugs! etc. for their fat - but your farmer is doing the best he can with what he has. My chickens go NUTS for suet - especially in the winter. That's a good reminder! It's starting to get colder so tomorrow I will give them some suet..... me too!   I love sitting out there throwing suet to the chickens, the cats and the dogs while I eat it too. It's like my own little party.

Your farmer would be so much better off taking everything that is usually thrown away from his lambs to feed back to the chickens! That is... if he can get the slaughterhouse to give it to him.   If he does his own slaughtering ever - then he has a very rich source of food for those chickens!

[Joy2012]

Thank you, Dorothy. It sounds like you grew up in a chicke farm!

[Dorothy]

As far away from a chicken farm as imaginable! That's why I had to study/learn so much. I read everything I could find and then asked everyone that DID grow up on a chicken farm everything they knew. But mostly - I think about diet different than most people. I have asked for my other pets and myself "what is the ideal natural raw diet for this species?" -- so I just naturally fell into the same thing with chickens.