An Egg is Not a Chicken's Abortion

This article is to clarify a few misconceptions about what eggs are, and what they are not. Some people will tell you that chicken eggs are a chicken's abortions, or they are a chickens "period". Failing either of those attempts they will try to tell you that eggs are chicken fetuses. I have to take the time to tell you that none of these scare tactics are true, and will explain why, and give a bit more information about "the egg".

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First off, lets look at a few eggs. The difference in color of shells pretty much only indicates different breeds of birds that laid them, the color does not indicate any health value of the egg, nor does it indicate if the hen was a "free range" bird or battery bird. Typically battery hens (girls) are white and lay white eggs. Consumers seem to want white eggs, so this is what the industry caters too. Myself, I am happier with free range eggs.

These are my own birds, free range in the day, and penned up at night for their own safety from predators. We fed them a proper laying ration and get at least one egg per bird every day (excluding winter when they slow down or stop laying). While they were out they munched grass, dandelions, and bugs. This article is not debating free range vs battery hens, but you will note, that in neither situation is a rooster involved.

That is right, generally no roosters are used in the production of eggs for eating. Hens lay eggs no matter what. Their bodies naturally produce them, the egg gets too big and must come out. So if there is no rooster, the egg is not fertile, so cannot be considered an "abortion". Even if it was fertile, this is the natural process of chicken reproduction, so equally could not be considered an "abortion".

Some people resort to referring to chicken eggs as their "period", another laughable proposal. Chickens, and birds in general don't get periods. A human females period is part of her monthly cycle. In a woman her uterus builds up a "wall" in case she becomes pregnant, this wall is what is shed during her period, which occurs usually two weeks after she is fertile, so totally impossible for the egg to be the same thing in this case either.

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Now supposing, you wanted a chick, you would have to have a rooster and hen. They would both have to be mature enough for reproduction, usually about 5 or 6 months. While all hens will lay eggs, not all hens will want to sit on them. Eggs must be kept warm or will not hatch. Eggs collected daily in the mornings and put into the refrigerator will not develop, and will never hatch, even if they were fertilized. So the argument that you are eating a "fetus" is also not worthy of any attention, because, even if the farm has a rooster, the eggs are usually collected within hours of being laid, far too soon for a "fetus" to form.

Most of these tactics are used by people to discourage them from eating eggs, as part of an animal rights agenda. Theoretically though, if they are not eating eggs for protein, they are probably eating some other animal that was slaughtered for meat. Thereby negating any positive attempt to end cruelty.
I support free range hens, and keepers of real free range birds (let us not get into what free range can mean, what it does mean, and what it should mean, you all know what I am talking about). I do not support people who spread misinformation to turn people off of something.

The egg, and chick photos are from Wikimedia, the other is my own.