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.