‘Backyard Chicken’ Eggs: A Kinder Option for Chickens?
If you’re curious about “backyard chickens,” your heart’s in the right place. However, we should all show birds genuine kindness by leaving them and their eggs (say it with us: “their eggs”) the heck alone. So before you start building that chicken coop, consider these points:
1. Buying ‘Backyard Chickens’ v. Adopting Them
If you’re buying chickens from hatcheries (which ship day-old chicks via USPS—sometimes fatally) or stores like Tractor Supply (which get the chicks they sell from the hatcheries mentioned above), you’re still supporting the cruel egg industry. Like those used by Nellie’s Free Range and similar operations, the chickens you’re buying have been bred to have “desirable” egg-laying traits—despite the debilitating effects selective breeding for maximum egg-laying can have on their health. What’s more, you’re funding an industry that tosses out sickly chicks (ones it can’t exploit), leaves them to die, and grinds up male chicks while they’re still alive. (All American hatcheries kill male chicks.)
Right about now, you’re probably thinking, “Fine, I’ll adopt chickens then,”—which would be admirable if you weren’t planning to steal and eat their eggs. (Scroll to point number five.)
2. Chickens Fall Ill, Get Injured, and Stop Laying Eggs—Then What?
If your canine or feline companion requires medical attention, you visit your local veterinarian. Chickens, though, require specialized veterinary care—something that most veterinarians won’t be able to provide, and those who can are likely prohibitively costly. Make sure you are able (and willing) to cover such expenses before bringing chickens home.
A hen stops laying eggs if she is stressed, too cold, and when she reaches a certain age. A responsible guardian will care for a chicken for her entire life, and never drop off birds at animal shelters or abandon them in the woods when they stop laying eggs.
3. Be Better Than the Egg Industry
When left alone in nature, red jungle fowl lay about 10 to 15 eggs a year, and they—like all birds—lay eggs only during a particular breeding season. But “laying hens” (those bred from the red jungle fowl) have been manipulated—both genetically and situationally—to lay hundreds of eggs per year. Egg companies may keep the lights on for extended periods to induce the hens’ bodies into producing more eggs, leading to vitamin deficiencies and sometimes emaciation. Hens bred for egg laying are prone to broken bones from calcium deficiency and reproductive diseases such as ovarian cancer.
Caring for chicken companions without exploiting them for food typically means collecting their eggs and feeding them back to the birds, boiled or scrambled, along with the shells—this helps replenish vital nutrients that chickens lose from laying so often and will drastically improve the quality and duration of their lives. A responsible and considerate guardian should also consider contraception (medical therapy in the form of a hormone implant placed underneath birds’ skin) for hens who are most susceptible to reproductive issues.
4. Eggs Drive More Than Chickens to an Early Grave
Now you can be a little selfish—consider your own body and what eating eggs does to it. Eggs are full of cholesterol, and as researchers have found, eating them increases your chances of developing heart disease and dying early. Not to mention
5. Chickens Don’t Lay Eggs for You
Are you eating stolen goods? Hens—who begin to teach their chicks clucks and chirps before they even hatch—aren’t commodities or egg-producing machines: Their eggs are for them, not humans. You wouldn’t adopt a dog and expect them to produce something for you to eat, wear, or otherwise use, right? Then show chickens the same respect.
6. Bird Flu Risk
Bird flu, specifically the highly infectious H5N1 strain, is spreading like wildfire, making chickens, ducks, cows, cats, humans, and other animals sick. Since 2022, the government has slaughtered every flock with a bird flu infection, totaling more than 166 million birds on U.S. farms. Keeping chickens on your property puts them, your family, and other animals at risk.
Repeat after us: EGGS. ARE. NOT. OUR. FOOD.
Adopting chickens as companions and giving them refuge from being used or killed is a kind thing to do—but, just as with dogs and cats, it’s only kind if you have the means, knowledge, and compassion necessary to be an adequate guardian. If you live in an area with traffic and noise, your neighborhood could be too stressful for a chicken to live comfortably. Committing to being a guardian means caring for your feathered friend(s) for life. So if you really want to give a chicken a “retirement home,” please adopt—and love them like a companion, not a breakfast service.
Do More to Help Chickens
You don’t need a hen’s eggs—you need Just Egg, YoEgg, or any other egg-free upgrades that make whipping up a vegan omelet or baking a vegan cake a breeze. If you want to use your backyard for food, plant a vegetable garden—but leave chickens out of it.
Looking for unique Easter treats? Swap out the usual sweets for these thoughtful, animal-friendly Easter prizes that everyone will love.
Follow an egg from ovary to outside, learning what happens to a hen’s body when she lays an egg.
From melt-in-your-mouth croissants to decadent apple, almond, and lemon cake, these PETA-approved baking recipes don’t require eggs. Time to get baking!
