The Bad Egg

I am happy to report that the eggs at the Grand Mad Farm are not under recall. Of course, hardly anyone but me and the dogs eats them, but I haven't had any adverse effects and the dogs look fine. I did some reading about the problem, and apparently this is internal salmonella of the chickens, not the care of the eggs.  My chickens don't live in a sterile environment, but I don't want them to.

Their diet consists of Purina Layena and all the bugs they can catch. I keep a Flock Block out for them, and supplemental calcium and grit.  They get lots of exercise and plenty of room to spread their wings.  I am hoping their healthy immune systems will ward off any infection.

This recall got me thinking about the term, "bad egg".  I don't know the exact origin of the phrase, but I think it is pretty much self-explanatory. I read somewhere, when I first started cooking, that when using eggs you should first crack them in a bowl instead of directly in a recipe in case it is a "bad egg". That made sense to me and I usually do that when making a recipe calling for eggs.  I don't want to spoil a whole cake on one bad egg. But in all my years of cooking and baking, I have to say there were just a couple eggs through the years that looked a little funny. From time to time when I thought I had a little stomach virus, I probably ate a bad egg, but never knew it.

Eggs are Nature's perfect packages, but as in all natural things, there is some risk. As consumers we don't like risk. It has been pounded in our heads to cook eggs, but some want to eat their eggs raw and take their chances. When the occasional bad egg shows up, as programmed American consumers they sue. In the half a billion eggs in the last couple months, if just a couple thousand are eaten raw and cause some problems, that seems fairly low risk to me.

I am guessing that my chickens eat the occasional field mouse turd, but maybe they know the difference. I have seen them pick something up and spit it out, so they probably have some taste discrimination. They like grasshoppers and crickets.

I think the real bad eggs are the producers that don't take good care of their chickens and give them some fresh air and a little room to spread their wings.  Maybe we should recall them.
  

Chicken Treats

Since I stopped raising puppies and turned to chickens, my trips to Tractor Supply have been cut in half.  Grass is still plentiful enough that I don't need sheep feed or horse feed yet, and the days of buying a pallet of dog food are gone. I still go weekly and pick up a bag of Purina Layena pellets for the chickens and a 50 pound bag of feed for the sheep dogs.  I could probably just go once a month, but I like the store and know the workers there.

Tractor Supply is for the small farm crowd.  It has a good selection of feed, particularly for horses, and I noticed it has been increasing its dog and pet supplies. The store has small tires for lawn tractors and wagons and a decent inventory of hardware and lawn/garden supplies, jeans and shirts, animal medicines, fencing, small farm implements and feed supplies.

Tractor Supply's advertisement states, it has "the stuff you need out here". And it does.  When I have the time, I walk the aisles to see all the cool stuff, like pond water treatment, wild critter traps and trailer hitches. Right now the featured items are giant barn fans.  The store is like a Best Buy for farmers.

Last week I found a new item for the chickens, the Flock Block, made by Purina.  It is a block of pressed chicken feed and supplements, and my chickens love it.  They peck, peck, peck at it and get their calcium and grit quota for good egg production. Salt and mineral blocks for cattle and horses have been around ever since I can remember, but this is the first block for chickens. It is a clever idea with a catchy name and relects the growing trend of pasture and free-range chickens.

Wish I would have thought of it.