Introduction
Most of the times, we all like our coffee either hot or cold. If it is lukewarm, most of us will find its taste figuring in the top ten list of things to 'never try again'. But once in a while, in mistaking it for hot coffee and finding it to be otherwise, the most obvious course of action one can take is to warm it up again so that we can enjoy a delicious cup of hot coffee.
Using an analogy, meat eaters to me is like hot coffee while vegans are like cold coffee, but the egg-a-tarians are like lukewarm that you wish you could spew out of your mouth as soon as it touches your lips.
And why? Because most eggatarians believe that in eating eggs, the life of an animal isn't harmed. What?
Even though the egg is not yet in the form of a hen/ rooster, it is still alive… isn't it? If you don't want to kill animals, then don't eat eggs either especially if take pride in your status as a 'grass-eater', a name that was once brought to my attention by a friend who was just as callous with his words as his actions.
But all I have to say is: Show some consistency here in the matters of being an 'omnivore'.
Eggs
For the rest of us who enjoy a hearty non-vegetarian meal and aren't pretentious enough to go on a fad vegetarian diet (for other than religious reasons, of course), and make tall claims about it, eggs are one of best sources of protein and is a breakfast meal that is must-have for most of us.
So, here are a few facts about eggs prior to the time when it finds its way to the breakfast table as an omelette or in its scrambled version.
What happens in Poultry farming
1. Laying eggs
Chickens lay at least one egg a day. Some can lay as many as 300 eggs a year while some other only about a dozen. In the business of poultry farming, hens belonging to the latter (read: lazy) class of fowl are mostly avoided, and slaughtered in a matter of six weeks.
For the top performers, their ability to lay one egg a day declines after a year, and are thereafter slaughtered as well.
After the hen lays a number of eggs (called a 'clutch') in the nest, the next part involves the brooding of eggs, which if uninterrupted, will result in the hen sitting on the eggs. And this is where the poultry farmers have to play their cards right.
The trick is to remove a number of eggs so that its number does not amount to a clutch, which results in the hen, laying another egg that will take the count of the eggs in the next closer to the number of eggs that can be considered a clutch (normally about 12 in number).
This process continues, however, one must ensure that the hen leaves the nest, so that the eggs can be taken out in the meanwhile. Once this is successfully done, the eggs must be inspected for cracks, blemishes and freshness, and then cleaned and packaged which makes it ready for sale, finding its way to the supermarket or the local market as well.
And this is how the eggs reach you at the breakfast table…
In Closing
As amusing as the idea of being an egg-a-tarian really is, one wonders what will happen to poultry farming, if hens learn how to count while also acquiring effective forensic methods to track their young ones. Or perhaps they're still pondering over the age-old dilemma: Which came first? The chicken or the egg?
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