Can You Eat “Backyard Eggs”? What to Know About Companion Chickens

Do you, your parents, or someone else you know have chickens at home? 🐔 This might seem like a kinder, more natural way to get eggs than supporting factory farms, but there’s a lot to unpack. Here’s the tea on “backyard eggs.”

are backyard eggs ethical?

Chickens aren’t egg-laying machines, but humans treat them like they are. While the ancestors of modern chickens naturally lay about 10-20 eggs per year, domesticated chickens have been bred to lay way more, sometimes hundreds per year. Forcing hens to pump out eggs nonstop leads to reproductive diseases, eggs getting stuck (aka egg binding), and bones weakening from lost calcium.

If you’ve adopted chickens, hook them up with a safe, clean coop with plenty of space to be comfy and protection from weather and predators. They’ll also need places to scratch, roost, dust bathe, and socialize. Much better than being crammed into poop-filled cages with six or seven others on an egg farm, right? And if you’re looking to add another chicken to your family, make sure to NEVER buy one. 🙅‍♂️ That only causes another to be bred in their place.

what to do with backyard eggs

So, what do you do with eggs that your (or your loved ones’) chickens lay? You have two solid options:

1. Feed them back to the hens: Cook or boil the eggs (shells and all) and give them to the hens. Laying so many eggs takes a huge toll on their bodies, so feeding them their eggs can replenish their calcium and protein. Plus, this honors that eggs are biologically theirs—just make sure the eggs don’t have medication residue.

2. Feed them to wildlife: Birds, squirrels, and other animals could get some quick nutrients.

your best bet: eat vegan

Even when you give hens a good life, their eggs still belong to them. Vegans don’t eat anything from an animal, including eggs from a companion chicken. Plus, just one large egg has about 200 mg of cholesterol. 😶 Eating too much cholesterol can lead to heart disease, which is a major, major drag. You know what’s completely cholesterol-free and doesn’t come from a chicken? Vegan food. 💁

There are tons of vegan foods you can use in recipes instead of eggs, like bananas, applesauce, and tofu. Plus, vegan eggs slap hard. Whether you’re a scramble stan, hard-boiled buff, or omelet aficionado, you can find chicken-friendly choices that’ll impress the most stubborn egg eater.

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Most domesticated chickens are forced to live in a space smaller than a piece of paper. Let everyone know that buying eggs props up this cruelty!