Thursday, August 19, 2010

Happiness is knowing where your eggs come from

Photo credit: Wombatunderground1 on Flickr
A store-bought egg recall? Again? Well, thank goodness for our own backyard egg producers!

It's staggering to think that Wright County Egg is recalling 380 million eggs since improper handling at several of its facilities has been suspected of sickening hundreds of people with salmonella. For now, I'll leave the "how did this happen?" story to be told over on the news web sites.

I imagine we'll be reading a lot about federal regulations and industrial processing plant working conditions and distribution chains in the coming days before this story dies out.

What I hope people think about is the plight of the millions of hens who actually laid those 380 million eggs now recalled (for destruction if they haven't been eaten already). Thanks to human negligence and mishandling, all the energy expended to create and deliver those eggs into the industrial system has been wasted. And this coming from a creature that spends its life laying eggs in a space only as big as a standard letter-sized piece of paper. It hurts to think about it.

If you've had to buy eggs at the store since May, please check to see if you need to return your eggs.

And the next time you step out to the coop to pick an egg from the nesting box, please give your hen a hug.

Monday, August 9, 2010

Eggstravaganza: The Art of Living with Chickens

I'm accustomed to coop tours and chicken talks happening in the spring and summer months, so it's a bit of a surprise to discover that there's a coop tour appearing on the calendar just before Halloween this year in McClellanville, SC.

The McClellanville Arts Council ("Where everyone is an Artist") is holding the Eggstravaganza: The Art of Living with Chickens on Saturday, October 30, 2010.

The day-long schedule includes the following activities:
  • a morning panel discussion on raising poultry and a craft workshop: Chicken Art with Chicken Parts
  • An afternoon Tour da Coops, a self-guided tour of local chicken coops and poultry sites.
  • And things wind up with a photograph exhibit featuring local poultry and coops and a raffle of a hand-crafted coop/tractor in the shape of a chicken. 
People will be able to vote on their favorite poultry and coops and there will be door prizes throughout the day from local businesses.
If only I lived on the East Coast, I know where I'd be spending the day before Halloween. I look forward to hearing the recap from the event and you can rest assured I'll be posting it here.

Anyone know of any other Fall/Winter coop tours or chicken talks? Let me know and I'll add them to the list.

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