Here's the one thing I just don't understand about vegans - why not eggs?

[LynneSin]

I mean the damn chickens are going to lay them anyways and if they're not fertilized they're just going to go to waste. Mind you, I buy only organic free range eggs but why not eggs?

Other than that I can respect their choices with everything else

[skygazer]

1. For the same reason we cannot use stem cells from fertilty treatments

for research. :P

:hide:

[billyskank]

3. ...

:spank:

[LynneSin]

4. You must loathe yourself once a month when Aunt Flo visits

:hide:

[skygazer]

5. Why did you have to remind me?

:cry:

Think of the children!

[LynneSin]

7. I figured I've wasted 300 eggs so far that could have been used the populate this earth Duggar style

oh well

[Gormy Cuss]

24. No Little House on the Prairie clothing for you.

:spank:

[QueenOfCalifornia]

30. I thought I told you

NEVER talk about the breeding Duggar's ever... EVER....

Ahhhhhhh.

I should post that picture of Carrot Top sticking his tongue out here.

[billyskank]

2. I think they keep laying them because the eggs keep being taken away.

Apart than that, I don't know the answer to your question. And I'm not a vegan anyway, so it's not my place to answer. I don't eat eggs either but my reason is probably different.

[China_cat]

12. A hen will get 'broody' if you leave the eggs in the nest

even if they aren't fertilized. And there's not much meaner than a broody hen. They will lay an average of one a day no matter what. Take them away, leave them, let the blacksnakes have them, the eggs will keep on coming.

I don't understand why not eggs, either. Or milk...except that they say it should be used for feeding calves but cows produce milk long after the calf is eating grass. I don't drink much milk but I sure would miss my yogurt and cheeses.

The silliest one, I think, is the prohibition on using wool because sheep get 'embarassed' when they're shorn. If you'd ever seen a sheep allowed to go without shearing, you'd be appalled. The wool can get to weigh as much as 75 lbs...so heavy around the neck that the animal can't bend its head to eat, matted around the legs so it can hardly walk and skin scalded by urine that stays in the wool and never gets out.

Oh, and honey. I had someone tell me that you can't produce honey without killing the bees but I've never seen that to be true.

[Tektonik]

6. I'm not a vegan, but

http://www.peta.org/living/AT-Spring1999/molt.html

[LynneSin]

8. as I said - I buy the organic free range eggs

I'd like to think my hens are leading a good life while they provide me nourishment

[Tektonik]

9. sorry I didn't catch that

[bridgit]

10. i thought it was like some 'no animal product/nothing' policy, though speaking of fertilization...

how are vegan gardens fertilized?

[mark414]

11. by vegans

:rofl:

[LeftyMom]

15. compost usually

good link here: http://www.vegansociety.com/html/people/lifestyle/home_and_garden/veganic_gardening.php

[Gormy Cuss]

21. Rotted vegan products.

Compost is the best routine fertilizer for gardens. Composted manure isn't necessary but it does give annual veggies a nice boost.

[rug]

13. Why not cheese?

[LeftyMom]

14. Well

The jungle fowl laying hens are descended from lay eggs only infrequently. Modern layers were bred for much more frequent laying (about one a day) at expense of their health, and they suffer from demineralization and other forms of malnutrition because they simply can't eat enough to keep up with what would be in it's closest human analog a daily menstrual cycle. After a year or two of this their laying slows and their bodies start to give out (many suffer "flip over syndrome" ie heart attacks due to malnourishment) and at this point they're slaughtered. Since they're not really bred for meat they're used for low grade applications like canned soup.

That's the basic story of the life of a laying hen. There are some variations based on the type of system (caged layers live their lives in a space the size of a standard sheet of office paper, six to a cage the size of a file cabinet drawer, while free range chickens live in big sheds, thousands at a time, and aren't really required to have any more space, only no cages) but both suffer overcrowding which is difficult for chickens because they can't create social order in large groups and become aggressive with eachother which is why most farms burn their beaks off after they hatch at the same time they sex the hatchlings and throw the males away or grind them up for feed or fertilizer.

[flvegan]

18. Food nazi.

[billyskank]

19. Nice post, Churchill.

[LeftyMom]

26. Shut up Hitler.

[China_cat]

20. Free range hens do not lay all year round. The cycle slows down

in fall and you'll get maybe one egg a week, if that, until spring or until they are fertilized. They are also allowed out to scratch and supplement with bugs, etc.

Chickens are NOT pack animals and if you tried keeping them 'thousands at a time' in one barn with no physical separation, you'd end up with about 6 chickens and lots and lots of feathers and blood all over the place. Pecking order isn't just a cliche. Let one get pecked until there's a speck of blood and the rest will pile on until there's nothing left...usually injuring more in the process and keeping it going. Hell, we had a hard enough time of keeping them whole when we only had 20, an open coop and the chickens were allowed to roam the yard.

The chicken farm down from us (who hatched about 500 a month) allowed the poults free roam of the hill until they were almost mature and then they either had to be shipped out or caged or there would be few left.

[flvegan]

22. Something for you to read

about "free range" as what you've stated is the ideal, and true in SOME cases, in most it is not.

Free-Range: While the USDA has defined the meaning of "free-range" for some poultry products, there are no standards in "free-range" egg production. Typically, free-range egg-laying hens are uncaged inside barns or warehouses and have some degree of outdoor access. They can engage in many natural behaviors such as nesting and foraging. However, there is no information on stocking density, the frequency or duration of outdoor access, or the quality of the land accessible to the birds. There is no information regarding what the birds can be fed. Beak cutting and forced molting through starvation are permitted. There is no third-party auditing.

http://www.hsus.org/farm/resources/pubs/animal_welfare_claims_on_egg_cartons.html

[China_cat]

32. When somebody says free range to me it means the eggs

we get from the driver who works with my husband and keeps chickens. It means the chicken coop where I grew up and the damned rooster who was meaner than the bull and the broody hens who would take off your fingers for trying to take the eggs they were sitting on.

And it means the 1/10 of a cent per egg that we got for candling eggs at the chicken farm when we were kids. Like I said, the poults were ranged on the hillside (always looked like snow on that hill until you got close enough) and I know none of them were ever debeaked.

[LeftyMom]

25. That's why they debeak them

It's cheaper than housing them in reasonable numbers.

[LynneSin]

29. Ok so answer me this

My aunt has a farm with about 6-10 chickens at any given time. This isn't a production farm, just a couple of retired people who keep a few animals around in the old barns, including chickens.

If those chickens happen to lay an egg outside of their normal day of just running all over the farm, clucking with the other hens, is that ok to eat?

[QueenOfCalifornia]

31. Yes

and it's also okay to sing Broadway show tunes while cooking said egg.

[Droopy]

16. oops, wrong thread

[LeftyMom]

17. I'm glad you caught that

I was reading that and like "Dude, what does that have to do with eggs? Freak." then I saw the other thread. :rofl:

[Schema Thing]

23. My daughter is vegan,

I've asked her the same thing.

Don't get me wrong, overall I think it's a better diet (she's very thoughtful about it regarding health), but this particular aspect of it is just arbitrary.

Milk and cheese... I think you can make the case that there are health benefits to avoiding them. And if you make the same case about eggs, well, I can respect that too. But simply because it comes from an animal? That is a tacit admission that you are living your life via the definition of a word, "vegan", and not out of rational thought.

[billyskank]

27. Arbitrary

Well, you could look at it like this: vegans don't want to eat anything animal, only vegetables, fruits, nuts, that sort of thing. Eggs definitely belong in the animal category. It's only being consistent.

[LeftyMom]

28. There's a solid case for not eating eggs for animal welfare reasons

I mentioned some of it upthread, but any basic book on veganism (I'm fond of Diet For a New America) should explain in more detail and with photos why vegans abstain from specific animal products.