No egg scare here

We aren’t too scared of eggs out here in Real Texas.

Here is a photo of three eggs I gathered today.  One is brown, another is a darker brown, and one is pure white.  I gathered them right out of the nest and they are clean and spotless.

I have watched the news with interest about the huge egg recall due to people getting sick from eating eggs.  Seems they got salmonella or food poisoning somehow.  There are allegations of unsanitary conditions at an egg production facility and the USDA has an investigation going on against a place in Iowa.  Seems the place has been fined several million dollars in the past for numerous health related violations.  In 2009, investigators were inspecting the place and three of them got sick from inhaling the fumes that workers there breathed every day.  Sounds pretty bad to me.

What was astounding was that around 580,000,000 eggs have been recalled.

The allegations ranged from workplace violations to hiring illegals to sexual harassment of female employees.  There were undercover film clips of rotting hens in cages with live hens, dead hens thrown into trash cans, and many other shocking events.

I hope they get to the bottom of this.  Bad operators can make a lot of folks sick.  Especially city folks who have no other choice than to be dependent on others for their food supply.  I just don’t intend to ever get into the situation where I am so totally dependent on a grocery store for my basic food supply.  I have unlimited water in my backyard, deer and wild game visit my place every day, and of course, we have chickens.  What’s that Hank Williams, Jr. Song?  Country Boys Can Survive!

Just reading about that bad chicken operation makes me sick.  But again, we’re not too scared of eggs out here in Real Texas.

Here’s why.

I just go out to our backyard chicken pen and gather eggs.  I keep the chickens well fed, their pen is kept clean, fresh water is always available, and they are mostly free-range.  They get let out every day and they happily go to work keeping bugs out of the yard.  I can drive down the road in my golf cart and grasshoppers are everywhere.  But they don’t last long in our yard.  The hard working chickens are standing by the gate every day ready, able, and willing to get out and get to work.

But there is one problem.  I don’t get to eat the chickens.  They all have names.  They are generally named after a relative or friend.  Let’s see, there is Cathy, Margaret, Callie, Jere, Little Joe, Timothy, Gloria, Marvis, Butterscotch, Lillie, Red, Eloisa  and the ducks Ray and Rebecca.  Of course the rooster is called Lucky.  There are a few newcomers that are not named yet, but I’m sure they will be soon.

These chickens live a good life, unlike the chickens at Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms that is making news these days.

City folks just don’t know what they are missing in not eating a free range chicken egg.  They are just tastier than a store bought egg.  We often give a dozen eggs to close friends and they get to enjoy the eggs also.

However, our egg production is down a bit during the hot summer days recently.  We’ve been through the cycle before.  When it starts to cool off some,  the ladies will increase production.  They always produce enough for us to live off of here at Sherwood Ranch.  I haven’t bought any eggs at the store in four years.

You can raise your own chickens in your backyard also.  In fact, I wrote an eBook about all that a few years ago.  Go here to check it out. It’s called the Fantastic Chickens of Sherwood Ranch.  It’s a free download, you don’t have to buy anything to get it, but it does have some interesting information.

I’m David out in Real Texas

Not scared of eggs.

Tagged as: backyard chickens, backyard eggs, egg scare, Real Texas Blog, Texas Lifestyle