Are home eggs always better? You could say that almost always. It depends not only on the conditions in which the hens live, but also on their age.
Danger of home eggs?
We only have the best opinion about home eggs. The very fact that they come from a neighbor who has hens forever in the garden and so to speak happy and happy is for many good enough reason to pay extra for home eggs, if necessary.
However, even large -scale production has its advantages. Let us now not solve the space or various non -mutilation of the practices that people connect with age. It is not a defense of cage breeding and the like. However, the advantages of large-scale production may include, for example, frequent control of egg quality and permanent veterinary care, which of course makes sense if breeding produces hundreds or thousands of eggs a day.
The disadvantage of domestic breeding can therefore be unzipable or even impossible to control the quality of eggs. Even breeding conditions are not always quite ideal. This does not mean that you should stop buying homemade eggs, it is better to know the origin and conditions of breeding. In the case of own breeding, it is sufficient to pay attention to the rules, which are quite commonly governed by the seasoned hens owners.
What to do when the hen does little tolerate? The autoca will advise this post from the YouTube channel Garden for pleasure.
What role does the age of hens play?
Many families are returning to the breeding of hens just to have their own and very fresh eggs. Of course, everyone can handle hens breeding quite well, on the other hand, they have their rules. It is definitely not true that it is enough to drain the hens in the morning and drive away the evening.
Regarding the quality of the hen eggs, after two years of toleration, they start to show the first problems. The shell and the egg content change slightly. Eggs can have thinner egg white and weaker protective layers, which otherwise the egg quite successfully protects against contamination with various microbes. As the age of the hens gets up, the eggs begin to be defective. What does this mean?
For example, even two egg yolks can appear or are completely without egg yolk, with blood or with various anomalies in the white. However, you will not notice this after shaking. At first glance, it may seem that it is only a visual defect, but it is not quite true. Eggs can be worse even in hygienic terms.
It is also essential for egg collection, the eggs should not stay in the chicken coop for a long time, as they can steam or contaminate. Of course, they degrade faster at room temperature. And how are the eggs nutritional?
Eggs from young hens are richer in antioxidants. Eggs older hens contain better fats. This is confirmed by the study Age of laying hens significantly affects the content of nutritionally important lipophilic compounds in eggs published in the Foods magazine in 2020. However, as older in this study, there are hens in this study in and a half of their age. After that the quality of the eggs simply decreases rapidly.
Breeding needs to be changed
It is therefore advisable to gradually change the flock for breeding and breeding. It is recommended to replace after 2 to 3 years, not only because of the lower quality toy. Older hens are more often sick, sometimes aggressive. In some breeds, a third of the flock is practiced after a year.
So the owners of the hens should take care of the regular change of their breeding. It is necessary to know the age of the hens, the need to clean the nest in the chicken coop, quality diet and ideally also the possibility of enclosure and finding food.
In any case, eggs should be stored as soon as possible, which will extend their durability. Better to discard eggs that are damaged. Cracks, blood or deformation can also be detected by illumination of eggs if you suspect.
Why do it all is quite clear. The study also pointed to fluctuating egg quality Egg quality and age of laying hens: impact on product safety from 2013 published in Animal Production Science, which points to the influence of the age of hens.
Egg quality from hens kept in two different systems, free breeding compared to breeding system Published 2010 in the European Poultry Science, in turn, points out that free breeding eggs have a stronger and more durable shell, which records the quality of domestic eggs.
Home eggs can definitely be of good quality and for many more acceptable thanks to better conditions that have hens. However, this is not a rule on which it can be 100 % relying. Even in this case: Trust, but check.
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