December 16-20 Happy Hen Farms Weekly Newsletter: Egg Anatomy

Happy Hen Farms Weekly Newsletter: Egg Anatomy

Good Evening, 

Every day is open for deliveries this week! I will be doing deliveries over Christmas break too; I will put out the delivery dates in next week's newsletter. 

For those of you who pick up at my grandparent's store, their hours are 10-3 pm (Tuesday&Thursday) and 10-5 pm (Friday). 

Eggs:  

Production has not slowed down! It has stayed extremely consistent at 6 dzn per day. I have 32 Md dzn and 8 Lg dzn available.

I reformulated their feed a week ago, and started feeding the chickens hay as well. Has there been any change in the amount of double yolked eggs that you all have noticed? 

Thanks for your feedback! (no pun intended)

Micro greens: 

I am sorry that I have not been able to start the microgreens sooner. Over Christmas break my schedule will be opened up enough to get those started. I will start out with:

• Chinese Cabbage
• Radish
• Arugula
• Cilantro

By the time Christmas break is almost over, or when school gets back in session, there will be a weekly supply of microgreens. 

Newsletter: 

I cracked an egg open earlier in the week, and saw the small white clump(s) on either side of the yolk and thought that some of you might have had the question about what exactly those clumps were. 

 it's kind of hard to see them in this picture, but they are on the sides of the yolks. 

What are they? 

Let's start on the outside of the egg. First, there is the shell, which is made up of calcium carbonate, with added pigment. Different pigments=different colors of eggs. Next, there is the shell membrane, which feels a little like rubber. You can see it even better when you peel hard boiled eggs. The air cell (located on the "big part" of the egg) is connected to the membrane. The air cell is probably the best way to check and see how old an egg is, because the bigger it is, the older the egg is. To check the air cell's size, just take a flashlight and hold it up against the side of the egg. Then, move it until you see a circle towards the back of the egg. If the circle is really small, that means it is very fresh. You probably don't want to eat an egg that has an air cell that takes up most of the back of the egg, because the contents of the egg have oxidized a little too long. 

The next part of the egg would be the white (albumen) of the egg. The white consists of the thin albumen (outermost part of the egg) and the thick albumen (surrounds the yolk). The white as a whole has about half of the total protein and nutrients, such as magnesium, potassium, niacin, riboflavin, and sodium. 

After the albumen, the yolk! The yolk has all of the fat and the other half of the protein. The yolk also contains vitamin D, which makes eggs exceptionally unique, because they are one of the few food sources that naturally occur with vitamin D. There are also trace minerals and metals in the yolk. (Calcium, copper, manganese, iron, phosphorous, selenium, zinc). Eggs are definitely a nutrient rich food source! On top of the yolk is the blastodisc, which is where a chick would start developing if the egg were fertilized. The reason why the yolk is the most nutrient dense is because a developing chick needs lots of nutrients! 

 

Finally! Now we can answer the original question! The "white clumps" surrounding the yolk are called the chalaza. Say that ten times fast! The purpose of the chalaza is to keep the yolk centered. If the chalaza wasn't part of the egg, the chances of having scrambled eggs in the shell would be extremely high. I am sure that you have noticed that the yolk is fairly fragile, so if it were to be bounced off of the sides of the shell too much, it breaks in the egg. So, when an egg is cracked opened, the chalazae are broken off of the ends of the shell, leaving them in a little pile next to the yolk. 

Eggcyclopedia 

As always, if there are any questions, comments, or concerns, ect... please feel free to ask!

Thank You!