The Benefits of Backyard Eggs: Eggs Laid by Domestic Chickens

What is a "Backyard Egg?"

The best eggs come from happy, healthy chickens. The happiest, healthiest chickens are those kept in the most natural conditions. "Natural" to a domestic chicken is someone's backyard, or someplace very like it. Hence, "backyard eggs!"

The Numbers First

Backyard eggs have approximately twenty-five percent more vitamin E, seventy-five percent more beta carotene, and as much as twenty times the amount of Omega-3 fatty acids as do factory farmed eggs.

Perhaps best of all for those who avoid eating eggs due to worries about cholesterol, backyard eggs contain only about half as much cholesterol as factory farmed eggs.

Why?

When the idea for this article formed, I began by thinking I'd divide it into two sections: the health benefits of backyard eggs and the moral reasoning behind it. I scrapped that idea because it became clear there is no line between the two. Hens treated well produce healthier eggs. Simple as that!

Factory Farmed Eggs

The vast majority of grocery store eggs are produced by factory farmed hens. Standard procedure is to keep five to ten hens in battery cages approximately eighteen by twenty inches. (Chickens have a wingspan of about thirty inches, by the way.) These cages are kept by the hundreds in large buildings, where dust, debris and enormous piles of feces build up quickly. Some farms clean these buildings as infrequently as once per year or less. If you've ever been in or anywhere near one of these farms, you probably know the smell does not increase the appetite, for eggs or anything else.

Considering the conditions under which factory farmed hens are kept, it should be no surprise that dangerous bacteria such as E. Coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter are found in many of the hens themselves, as well as in a significant percentage of the eggs that reach supermarket shelves.