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Let There Be Sunlight! And There Will Be Eggs

chicken eggs

This time of year, I become obsessed with the amount of daylight we get here in the Midwest. Why? Because more daylight means my chickens are laying eggs again.

It's light--not the outdoor temperature--that determines whether a hen will lay eggs. There are a few other factors, such as age and health, but light has a lot to do with it. It takes about a minimum of twelve hours of daylight per day for a hen to lay at all, and the rule of thumb is that they lay their best when they're exposed to 14-16 hours of light a day.

Here are some fun facts and important info to know as your hens ramp up egg production:

How do eggs form inside the chicken? Eggs take 24-26 hours to form inside a hen. First, a cell called an ovum develops into the yolk inside an ovary. At ovulation, the follicle ruptures and the yolk is released into a tube called oviduct. As it goes through the the uterus, the albumen (egg white) is deposited around the yolk. Then, membranes form around the albumen. The shell forms in the uterus. Eggs are laid large end first, and about 30 minutes after laying, the process stars anew.

How often do hens lay eggs? Some breeds lay almost daily; some lay every other day; and then some lay once or twice a week. After about two years of age, even the best layer tapers off, but many hens will lay the occasional egg for years.

How many eggs does a hen lay a year? The average hen from a top egg-laying breed (i.e. Leghorns, Rhode Island Reds, any of the sex-link hybrids) can produce up to 270 eggs a year. Other breeds might be more suited for meat or ornamental uses, and therefore, might lay closer to 100 a year in their peak production years.

Here's a plug for the disappearing heritage breeds -- consider Anconas, Hamburgs, Campines or Redcaps as a way of raising great egg layers and maintaining some of the older breeds. To find out which heritage breeds might be just what you are looking for, check out the Livestock Conservancy breed comparison chart.

Does a blood spot inside the egg mean the egg is fertile? Nope. According to The Incredible Egg, the tiny blood spots don't mean the egg is fertilized. Instead, they're caused by the rupture of a blood vessel on the yolk's surface during formation of the egg or by a similar accident in the wall of the oviduct. And those eggs are just fine to eat!

Can you change the color or taste of an egg based on what you feed your chickens? Well, to some extent you can. Pasture-raised birds that are allowed to forage will produce eggs with deep yellow yolks as there is a chemical in grass that gives yolks a rich color. Supplementing the birds' diet with pumpkin, squash, carrots, marigold, dandelions or calendula will produce deeper yellow-orange yolks. Some organic egg producers use a marigold extract as a supplement to achieve the rich orange egg yolk, even if those hens are in enclosed pens and not free-range.

Should you refrigerate eggs? Let me give you the two points of view. In the United States, the USDA requires egg producers to wash and sanitize eggs before they are packed and sent away in refrigerated trucks to the refrigerated sections of grocery stores. One of the reasons American producers wash eggs is to prevent the transmission of salmonella. In Europe, however, they do not wash their eggs. Eggshells are porous and if you wash them at incorrect temperatures, the egg inside can contract and pull in germs. There's also something called a bloom that coats the egg when it comes out of the hen. The thinking in European countries is that not washing off this bloom will keep the eggs protected from salmonella.

Now, if you've ever refrigerated your eggs, you can't then decide to leave them out. Have you ever noticed that an egg sweats when it warms up to room temperature? That's bad because it can allow bacteria and germs to get inside the egg.

Personally, I refrigerate my eggs, but they never last very long at my house anyway!

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