What Eggs are Safest?

I work in the professional egg world.  I know by name the vast majority of people who supervise the production, transport, grading, marketing and delivery of the eggs you find in your grocery stores, restaurants, farmers markets (yes, legally, those eggs need to be professionally graded too), and industrial users of eggs (think bread, cake, cookie, cereal, etc. makers).  I know how much care, concern, time, money and worry is dedicated to preserving the safety of eggs.  Being a vet, I am very involved in advising on many aspects of egg safety, right from chicken health to giving opinions on egg handling, and even national programs for salmonella control.

We, in the world of Canadian large-scale egg production, are quite proud of our safety record, and the programs we have in place.  We often debate whether small producers (read backyarders and hobby farmers) can produce a product that is comparable in safety.  We snicker a little at activists that say we need to get away from large-scale farming, since you can produce healthier eggs in your backyard, or on your apartment house roof.  How on earth can removing the expertise and care that we provide result in a healthier product?  By concentrating the number of birds on a farm, you allow a person to focus strictly on the care and protection of the hens….learn about them and become truly an expert.  I admit to having this opinion much of the time.

Many, many people disagree though.  “Factory farms”, “industrial production”, “bacterial breeding grounds” have been used to describe professional farms….unfairly, I think, but the terms are sincerely used by many people.  The problem is that there are many confounding factors.  Depending on what you WANT to read in a paper, almost any study can say anything.  Professional, caged farms are much bigger than extensive farms, and exponentially bigger than recreational farms.  If there is 1 contaminated egg per 1000 in a cage barn, the farm will produce many contaminated eggs per day.  A backyard flock with a rate of 1 contaminated egg per hundred would only have 1 contaminated egg per month.  If you eat 2 eggs per day, however, which is safer? 

The fact remains (check any activist website for examples) that many studies show that large farms have higher bacterial contamination.   Conversely (check any egg farming website for examples) many studies show that professional farms are much safer, contamination wise.  So, what’s right?

There is a very recent scientific paper from Spain that describes bacterial contamination that I think is quite balanced.  It must be taken with a grain of salt, however, since in North America, all graded eggs are washed, whereas in the EU, this is not the case.  Also, the rules on antibiotic use is different.   That being said, the study found that there was more significantly more bacterial contamination in free-range, organic and backyard (called “domestic eggs”) production than in free run (birds free inside of a barn), while cage barns had the least contamination.

Having said that, the authors went on to evaluate the antibiotic resistance in the different systems.  Free run barns were worst, then cage barns, then free range (outside), organic and backyard flocks had the least antibiotic resistance.  Both these findings make sense to me.  Large scale farms have a higher tendency to use antibiotics (thus the resistance), whereas backyard flocks almost never medicate (sometimes that is itself a problem). 

Which is more important?  I don’t know.  Antibiotic resistance doesn’t necessarily mean that the bacteria is likely to make you sick…it just means that if you treat an infection, you are more likely to clear it.  Some resistant bacteria don’t make you sick at all….some susceptible bacteria make you deathly ill, very quickly.  On the other hand, if you DO get sick from a resistant bacteria, it can be a serious problem. 

Bottom line, eggs from backyard flocks are more likely to be contaminated by bacteria than anything you would buy in a grocery store.  Be careful with them….wash your hands; keep the eggs in the fridge, separate from other foods; rinse eggs in running water to remove contamination before packing them in the fridge……and then relax.  Contamination rates are very low, and most bacteria are not pathogenic.  Take reasonable precautions and then just enjoy the fruits of your labours.  You are as likely to give yourself an ulcer from stressing about the bacteria as you are of getting food poisoning.

Mike the Chicken Vet

Eggless Chicken Born?!?!

Saw this story forwarded from the Daily Mirror in Sri Lanka…it is amazing!!

The Miracle Chick

In a zoological anomaly, a hen in Sri Lanka has given birth to a chick without an egg.

Instead of passing out of the hen’s body and being incubated outside, the egg was incubated in the hen for 21 days and then hatched inside the hen. The chick is fully formed and healthy, although the mother has died.

PR Yapa, the chief veterinary officer of Welimada, where it took place, said he had never seen anything like it before. When examining the hen’s carcass he found that the fertilised egg had developed within the hen’s reproductive system, but stayed inside the hen’s body until it hatched.

A post-mortem of the hen concluded that it died of internal wounds.

I have seen a lot of funky looking eggs, but have never even heard of a chick being born outside of an egg.  Eggs come in a variety of sizes, shapes and colours naturally. 

Quite a range of normal colours and sizes.

Once you work in the abnormal eggs, the range is extensive.   I was in a barn today where many of the brown eggs had “targets” on them….perfectly round white rings around a dark circle on the side of the egg.  I didn’t have a camera with me though….figures.

I’ve seen double-yolked eggs, triple-yolked eggs, shell-less eggs, round eggs, double-shelled eggs, and yolk-less eggs. 

Hen Reproductive tract

The double- and triple-yolked eggs are simply the avian version of twins and triplets, and are not that remarkable.  Double shelled eggs are odd (and rare), since the egg has to form in the shell gland, then be moved back up the reproductive tract to the magnum, where new membranes are added, then new shell is deposited as the egg re-descends through the shell gland.

These abnormal eggs are interesting, but should cause no concern to a flock owner.  There are eggs that are

Soft shelled, wrinkled and shiny eggs

symptoms of problems, and recognizing them will help you diagnose problems with your flock early enough to treat them effectively.  Soft shelled eggs and slab-sided eggs are symptoms of calcium deficiency in a hen.  Pimpled eggs can also be a sign of low calcium, if the shell is thin (pimpled eggs can be of 2

Slab Sided egg

types…1) the shell is normal thickness, with extra calcium causing raised nodules on the surface, or 2) thin shells with small areas of normal-thickness shells, that then seem to be raised areas).

 Slab sided eggs occur when an egg is held inside the bird for a day, and the next day’s egg comes down the tract, and lies against the formed egg that is in the way.  The new egg is a soft-shelled egg and deformable….it sits against the old egg as the shell is deposited on it….thus the flat side on the egg, and the round area of wrinkles around the flat side.  If you see these types of eggs in your nests, you should immediately assess the amount of calcium, phosphorus and vitamin D that is available to the hens, since hypocalcemia can result in weakness, sickness and death in a hen.

Another egg that should alert you to possible problems is a wrinkled egg.  It is usually a sign of an infection of some type.  Viral infections such as infectious bronchitis, egg drop syndrome and avian influenza can cause these types of eggs, but so can other illnesses that cause the hen to be fevered and dehydrated.  Imagine a yolk that gets covered by membranes in the magnum, but does not get its share of protein and water added to it while travelling through the

I've seen this only twice, but it does happen.

infundibulum….a partly full bag of water will result.  Once the calcium is added, the egg will stay wrinkled until it is laid.  A wrinkled egg is almost always a sign of illness.  Check that your hen is not wounded (wound infections can cause wrinkled eggs too), or showing any signs of illness.  Look carefully, because hens are often very stoic. 

It is, of course, important to know what is normal for your breed and type of hen.  Some hens lay dark eggs consistently, and light eggs may be a sign of problems….however some hens lay light brown eggs all the time.  A change is usually worth looking into….often subtle changes in egg color or texture can be the earliest sign you will get that your hens are missing something in their diet, or are facing a health problem.

If you find this egg in your coop....look for an escaped emu in the area!

 Mike the Chicken Vet

Chicken Vision

You should be able to file this entry into the “stuff I didn’t know” category.  I have had some experience with chicken vision, and was aware of some of the basic ideas of the “weirdness” that bird sight entails.  As I started writing this, I wanted to make sure I got my facts right (ish), so looked up a few things, and they led to a few more, and half my evening got lost in obscure eye facts that will never be clinically useful to me, but will be GREAT fodder at the next cocktail party.

How do chickens see?  What do chickens see?  Why do they bob their heads around like that?  Why do they look at you sideways?  Can they see at night?  How much can blind chickens see? 

Chickens see the same way we do….light comes in through the cornea and iris,

Chicken eye....about 25 times as large as a human eye...as a percentage of head size

then stimulates nerve endings in the retina at the back of the eyeball.  A major difference, however is that chickens have tetra-chromatic vision, while we have tri-chromatic.  In english, chickens have 4 wavelengths they are sensitive to, while we see 3 (red, green and blue).  The chicken eye sees red, green and blue as well, but they are also sensitive to ultraviolet light.  This seems kinda interesting at first glance, but the implications are actually staggering.

The fact that chickens see an extra sector of the light spectrum means that EVERYTHING they see looks different from what we see.  Their concept of the

The 4 peaks of sensitivities of the chicken eye.....they see UV light (grey line), as well as all the colours we see

green colour of grass is as different as our comparison of aquamarine and the colour of grass.  We have no concept or description for how much UV is reflected from any substance.  There is evidence that birds can find direction by looking at the sky and seeing the gradation of UV, and knowing which way is north as easily as you or I looking at a grey-scale drawing and knowing which side is closer to white.  It also means that we have a really hard time understanding what they are seeing.  In the following picture, there is a cockatiel.  Males and female cockatiels look the same to us, but if you

Left: bird and egg the way RGB eyes see them….Center: UV reflection of the same bird and egg….Right: What a chicken sees….

 look at the UV contribution, you see something else.  The picture on the left is human sight…..the picture in the middle is UV spectrum only, and the right hand picture is a rendering that approximates how another bird would sense that bird. 

 

Now….chickens have a disability when compared to us….their night vision is poor. This is a big part of the reason that chickens need protection at night from predators.  The retina in mammals is made up of rods and cones…..rods to see at night, and cones to see color.  Chickens have very few cones, and they are not especially sensitive.  This difference between rod to cone ratio, and the light sensitivities of cones in birds vs mammals is explained because mammals all but disappeared from evolution long ago, and the only types of mammals that survived  were nocturnal and insect eaters.  Mammals that survived this evolutionary bottleneck re-developed colour vision after millions of years, but since we evolved our cones from a different starting point than birds (they evolved from dinosaurs, and never spent millennia as nocturnal creatures), we developed our colour vision a little differently.  It’s another case of convergent evolution….kinda like whales and dolphins evolving to look like fish, because that’s the body type that works best in the water.

Bird’s colour vision is also different from ours because they have coloured filters mixed in with their nerve cells……little coloured drops of oil filter out different wavelengths, and act similarly to wearing yellow goggles when skiing

This is what you look like to a chicken....or at least a good guess

on a bright day….the contrast is enhanced.  Now imagine wearing yellow and blue and red goggles all at the same time…..it increases contrast and brightness and sensitivity, all at once, and we mammals can’t even imagine what it might look like. 

Chickens also have much better motion sensing ability than we do.  Not as good as hawks, but better than us….again because of a structure called a double cone in the retina.  This is important if you use flourescent lights in your coop.  Flourescent lights flicker on and off at a rate above what we can see….you notice it on old flourescent tubes that are dying….the flicker rate slows down and we can see it.  It is exceptionally annoying.  Birds can see the flicker in many flourescent lights, especially dimmable ones that are at lower intensity.  It would be like being in a dance club with strobe lights on…..all the time….it drives them nuts…literally.  On objects sitting still, chickens may not have as much acuity as we do, however.  This explains why hens are as “spooky” as they are when somebody makes a sudden movement, and why one bird jumping from something can cause the entire flock to take wing, even if they didn’t see the offending stimulus. 

Birds and mammals have a structure called a fovea in their retinas too…..its a small pit that, because of its shape, acts as an image enlarger.  You can see yours in action by looking at something out of the corner of your eye, then looking at it directly in front of you…..its way clearer in front of you, and why you look slightly down at anything you are concentrating on (the fovea is a little above the middle of the retina).  Chickens have 2 foveas (fovei?), and they act a little differently.  One is for distant vision, and one is for in close….think of built-in bifocals.  The funny thing is that the up close one is oval, and sideways….thats why, when you approach a bird, once you get to the focal distance of about 2-4 feet, birds will often bob their heads, and tilt their heads somewhat sideways to get the image better lined up on the second fovea.  Birds actually can’t reliably recognize flock mates until they are within about 24 inches.

Finally, blind birds can see light.  Birds reproductive cycles are controlled by their pineal gland, which is located in the middle of the bird’s forehead, just under the skull.  The skull is thin enough that reasonably bright light penetrates it and will still stimulate the hormone cascade that begins lay.  Even blind chickens can “see” spring coming.

This post is way too long already, so I will cut it off here….just remember, even if you and your chickens can see eye-to-eye, you still won’t see what they see…..keep it in mind when you try to figure out why they do what they do.

Mike the Chicken Vet

Spring is Coming….So is Coccidiosis!

Yesterday, spring sprung.  It was the warmest, sunniest, “springiest” St. Patricks day ever!  There were people in green t-shirts and shorts all over the place.  Shorts….in March….in Ontario, Canada.  This has been the year of the absent winter, and so I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that spring has come early.  I’m guessing that the spring has caught some backyard hen keepers a little by surprise.  There are some things that you should keep in mind, if you have hens outdoors this time of year.

All the organisms in your backyard are waking up….the water is sinking into the lawn, melting the frost, and sparking growth in plants, flowers, worms, bugs and all sorts of good things.  Unfortunately, along with all the good things, the nasty things in your yard are also waking up and rearing their ugly heads.  In terms of backyard hens, the big risk is parasites that have been lying dormant or under control all winter, that are bound to become more of a challenge for the flock as the weather gets warmer and wetter.

Coccidiosis is by far the biggest concern for backyard chickens.  Coccidiosis is a disease that encompasses a bunch of different “bugs” that live in the intestines of the bird, and are deposited in the environment every time the bird poops.  According to wikipedia, coccidia ” is a subclass of microscopic, spore-forming, single-celled obligate intracellular parasites belonging to the apicomplexan class Conoidasida.”  Hope you got that.   In english, coccidia are small parasites that MUST live inside the intestine cells of animals (in this case, chickens). The interesting thing is that they produce spores when they reproduce.  A spore makes a cockroach look like a frail butterfly.  Nuclear war, napalm and fire-breathing dragons are the only reliable ways to kill cocci spores.  This means that if you have chickens, you WILL have cocci spores in the area in which they live.  Spores start to develop and become infective after they get moist.

Cocci under a microscope. The shell around the 2 organisms is INCREDIBLY tough, and can live in your soil for months to years before it becomes infective.

Depending on how you manage your coop, now is the time that any build up of manure from over the winter will have the best chance of getting wet.  Also, any fresh droppings this time of year will sporulate almost immediately, since most chicken runs at this time of year are bound to have muddy areas.  Although treating coccidiosis is usually relatively effective, depending on the strain of cocci you have, and what other bacteria are present in your environment, birds can become very ill very quickly if coccidiosis gets going in your flock.  For this reason, it is best to manage the problem before it happens, since responding to it is sometimes too late. 

This is a milder stage of coccidiosis. She just looks "off", with ruffled feathers, a shrunken comb, and droopy wings. She will be contaminating the environment for the other hens.

If at all possible, move your chicken run regularly.  Any area that is consistently fouled with manure will eventually become severely contaminated with bacteria, viruses and parasites, so this is a good management practice regardless.  You should make it a special priority to move the run in the spring, however.  Because of the “load” that has built up over the winter, the disease challenge during spring thaw and muddy period  is especially high.  If you can get the hens to a clean area for several weeks until the yard dries up, you can prevent most of the parasite infections, and the severe illnesses that can follow coccidiosis infection, which can result in sudden death in affected hens.

This is a severely affected pullet. Notice the ruffled feathers, closed eyes...you can imagine how quiet and depressed she will act

If your birds do get coccidiosis, you will see chickens that look ruffled, rough coated, lethargic and will want to spend a lot of time sitting around.  Sometimes they will lay on their sides to keep pressure off their sore stomachs.  Their droppings will range from diarrhea to green paste, to blood tinged loose manure to black blobs that are made primarily of digested blood.

This is one way coccidiosis can show up in the manure....wet droppings with a fair bit of mucus.

If you see any of these signs, quick response is important.  Besides not wanting you birds to be sick, it’s important to treat the birds because they are full of cocci, and they are vigorously contaminating the run and coop, putting all the hens at greater risk of getting sick.  If you do get coccidiosis, it is most effective to treat the entire flock, since sub-clinical cocci is very common.  If you treat individual birds, you will just get one better, then another will come up sick.  If you treat them all, you break the life cycle of the bug, and the hens can get back to normal.

So remember, keeping the hens’ environment dry and clean will prevent many infections from occurring.  I realise this can be very difficult, depending on the weather, but the effort is worth it.  Also, treating the entire flock at the first sign of infection will help prevent more hens from coming down with the disease.

Mike the Chicken Vet

Be Careful what you Wish For….EU Egg Crisis

I am “up” on the animal welfare issues facing laying hen farmers across the world.  Different jurisdictions are dealing with hen housing in different ways, trying to find a balance between production efficiencies, animal welfare, consumer demands, environmental impact, food safety, and many other concerns.  The European Union has been touted as the leader in this regard, leading the way in banning conventional cages as of January 1/ 2012.  Animal rights organizations have long been using this as the “gold standard” when they criticized other areas for not moving fast enough on this issue.

Unfortunately for the EU, their policy has had some holes in it.  Recent newspaper articles have shown that there is an egg supply crisis in the EU…

“Britain’s supermarket shelves could be empty of key products within a month as an acute shortage of eggs threatens to have serious consequences for the country’s food chain. New EU rules banning the housing of hens in conventional cages are being blamed for what some in the industry are already labelling a “crisis”, as competition among food manufacturers to source eggs sends prices rocketing. The price of eggs on the EU wholesale market has nearly quadrupled over the past week to more than four euros a kilo.” The Guardian, Mar 4/2012

And:

“France is now suffering a shortfall of 21 million eggs a week or 10 per cent of overall production, the National Union of Egg Industries and Professionals said in a statement. As a result, egg prices shot up 75 per cent between October last year and February”  Ottawa Citizen, Mar 2/ 2012

The mistake that the EU made was that they tried to be too much to too many people, and they did not enforce a “phase-in” period.  (As an aside, I would like to point out that I have the benefit of hindsight and the ability to analyze what other jurisdictions have done since the EU directive was enacted in 1999….I am NOT criticizing the program, or the people who developed it.  They were WAY ahead of the curve, and did an excellent job.  They weren’t perfect however, and this situation can serve as a cautionary tale for other jurisdictions, like Canada, that are still deciding how to deal with the issue.)

The EU (under pressure from animal rights groups), decided that conventional cages were unacceptable, and legislated them out of existence.  They gave a 12 year “accommodation period” for the industry to adapt to the legislation, but didn’t demand a gradual uptake of alternative housing.  What happened is that farmers put off the huge investment for as long as they could (remember the unlucky coincidence of the world-wide recession in this period).  The legislation also discouraged farmers from investing in furnished cages (again, because any cage system was discouraged by animal rights groups), by categorizing them as “cage” eggs, and not paying a premium for them.  This resulted in many farms hesitating to moving to free-run or aviary systems, since they are less efficient and much different to manage.

There are two situations that have resulted….some countries have aggressively adopted the new requirements, and have been importing the eggs that they have not been able to produce locally, since the new systems are somewhat less efficient.  Now, however:

“Under the new rules, manufacturers are not now permitted to source their eggs from non-compliant EU countries, 13 of which have yet to introduce the new pens.” The Guardian, Mar 4/2012.  Because of this, even compliant countries are short of eggs, especially for commercial markets, such as for bakeries and food production facilities that use liquid or powdered eggs as ingredients.

“Cake and brioche manufacturers [in France] may soon be forced to shut down production and temporarily lay off workers if shortages continue.” Ottawa Citizen, Mar 2/2012.  I’m not 100% sure what brioche is, but it sounds yummy, and if it not produced anymore, I expect the world will suffer.

Countries in the EU are still unhappy with the directive….Irish sources state:

 

“Unfortunately, the cost of complying with the directive and the way in which it was implemented forced an estimated 10% to 15% of our producers out of business. This has resulted in a tightening of egg supplies and a rise in the price of eggs. ” Belfast Telegraph, Mar 10/2012.

They say a fool never learns, a smart man learns from his mistakes, and a wise man learns from other men’s mistakes.  If this is true, what can be learned from the EU example? 

First, putting together these types of sweeping rules is VERY complicated, the pitfalls are deep and plentiful, and the repercussions are HUGE.  So, as frustrating as it is to say, it is necessary to approach this issue slowly and carefully.  I have been really frustrated in the pace of change in the industry, but moving forward slowly and correctly is much more effective than moving quickly.  Jurisdictions such as the United States have proposed plans that give a phase in period, but have required benchmarks that require a certain amount of the industry to be compliant an interim times.  Other jurisdictions, such as Manitoba, have started to pay an incentive for hens housed in furnished cages, as well as loose-housed systems. 

I think that improving welfare is important, and it is the right thing to do.  All the farmers I work with agree, and want to do the right thing for their birds.  The unfortunate thing is that the question is so complicated that it is impossible to know for sure what the right answer is.  And the repercussions of moving the wrong way is losing your life’s work.  We can do it, and we can do it right.  I would like to thank the EU for paving the way with a really good first draft of a welfare program.  I can’t wait to be part of the committee that improves on the system of implementation that they developed.

Mike the Chicken Vet

 

Some Cool things about Chickens

I was asked last week if I could give a tour to some grade school students from the big city to show them where eggs come from (Sobey’s is about as far as most of em get).  I was contacted third-party, and was given the teacher’s address and waited for her to contact me with details.  I had no idea what age group, or what the teacher had in mind as goals for the tour, but since I was working in a chicken barn for a couple of hours, I started thinking about what to tell the kids when they came.  Unfortunately, the tour got postponed, but my ideas are still valid, so I am going to impose them on you…..imagine you are in grade 7…..you are in a chicken barn for the first time ever, and this super-cool, engaging, professional guy is telling you interesting stuff about chickens….. (if the guy was ACTUALLY super-cool, would he use the term “super-cool”? ….nevermind);

You all know that chickens are different from mammals….but do you know how, or why?

The biggest difference between birds and mammals is that birds fly.  Most of the major differences between birds and mammals are changes that enable birds to fly…….Yes Johnny?  I know bats fly too….don’t worry about it…..that is just an exception.

Chickens have no teeth.  Enamel is very dense and heavy, so not developing them lightens the birds so they can fly more easily.

Chickens lay eggs instead of carrying their young inside them.  Can you imagine a pregnant bird trying to fly?

Chickens have hollow bones, which reduces body weight, which makes them better able to fly.  — Yes Johnny?  I know penguins don’t have hollow bones….they don’t fly either….they have “de-evolved” hollow bones

Chickens have a gut-passage time of 2 hours.  That means that a piece of chicken feed turns into a piece of chicken manure in 2 hours.  This means that the birds digest food and get the nutrients out very quickly….making them carry less weight inside them.

Feathers keep birds warmer than hair does.  This allows birds to have less body fat, and thus less weight.  No Johnny…..skinny cats cannot fly…..

Birds have red blood cells with nuclei in them.  This makes it more efficient for birds to make red blood cells, and so more of the blood is made up of red blood cells, allowing the blood to carry more oxygen than mammals….this is really useful for long flights, since birds don’t get tired easily.

Birds have one way airflow through their lungs…..they don’t inhale, then push the used air out back out, over the lung tissues and back up the windpipe….they have structures called air-sacs…..the air comes in through the windpipe, over the lungs, then into the air-sacs, then out of the windpipe on the NEXT exhalation.  This means that only fresh, oxygen rich air ever touches the lungs.  This makes the lungs more efficient, and gives the bird more energy, which makes them better able to fly long distances.  No, Johnny…..chickens don’t really fly well….but they have all these characteristics because most birds fly a lot.

When chickens relax, their feet close tightly.  This is how they can sleep on perches.  Chickens actually have to actively let go with their feet.  You’re right Johnny…that has nothing to do with flying…..

Chickens can see ultraviolet light, as well as all the visible light we can see.  They see colours that we can’t even imagine.

Chickens have almost no taste buds…..humans have over 10,000 taste buds, while chickens have 20-30 taste buds.  Sigh, Yes Johnny….this also has nothing to do with flying……

Chickens only recognize friends once they get within 24 inches of each other.

Chickens recognize each other by way of facial characteristics.  YES Johnny…..I KNOW you recognize your friends by their faces too…..

You know….maybe it’s not a tragedy that the tour got postponed…..maybe Johnny will be sick on the alternate day….

Mike the Chicken Vet

Why Don’t Cities Want Backyard Chickens?

I just got interviewed for a magazine article on backyard flocks (I will read the article, and if I don’t sound like an idiot, I will let you know which magazine it is ).  A question that the reporter asked me is “why WOULDN’T cities allow backyard flocks of chickens”.  It got me thinking…..I have been involved on both sides of the debate, most recently in Toronto, where the issue was voted down, and the opportunity to legalize henning was not pursued.  I know personally several chicken owners in the city, and they were understandably disappointed, and also confused.  Why? was a question I was asked several times.

HOW could they possibly think this is a bad idea?

The pro’s of keeping backyard hens have been clearly and effectively put forth by the proponents:

1. Chickens make good pets…they are personable, quiet, small and reasonably cute
2. Chickens produce eggs….arguements that they will contribute to food security, local food movements, and sustainability
3. Chickens are not loud or smelly, won’t bite the neighbors (and if they do, they don’t have any teeth anyway), and they teach people (especially kids) about where their food comes from, and makes people appreciate the wonder of food production.

Why, then, would the evil bureaucracy machines not allow chickens to be kept inside city limits?

I am not against keeping chickens in the city.  I feel there is a big benefit to city dwellers learning about and understanding where their food comes from….I think that most urbanites are WAY too ignorant about the food chain, and any knowledge is great.  I also think that chickens can make good pets….not for everyone, but like rats, fish, hedgehogs, lizards and snakes, there are a proportion of people who find them fascinating and wonderful companions.

My concerns, and those of most municipalities that I have advised (I’ve been in the debate in 5 or 6 largish cities in Ontario), is that if chicken keeping is not done well, the risk of animal suffering and human disease is significant.

The biggest risk (ironically, also the biggest benefit) to keeping urban chickens is the general ignorance people have of chickens.  What do chickens need to eat to be healthy?  What temperature should the coop be able to maintain for the birds comfort and health?  How can I dispose of 2 lbs of manure per chicken per week?  What breed is appropriate for my climate?  What should I do with my chickens in the winter?  Should I clean eggs that have manure on them?  How?  What should I do with an egg with a crack in it?  What does a sick chicken look like?  Where could I take a sick chicken to be treated in an emergency?

How do you design a bylaw to prevent this from happening?

These questions are the tip of the iceberg of things that a backyard farmer must know before embarking on the oddessy that is henning.  None of these questions are complicated, or difficult to answer, given a bit of research and motivation.  Ironically, most people who are currently keeping chickens illegally are well educated in these matters, and are capable of keeping chickens in a safe, healthy manner.  The risk of making “henning” legal in a municipality is that anyone can decide, on a whim, to get some hens because it might be fun, and geez….we get FREE eggs!!!

If a municipality condones such an enterprise, they implicitly assume some of the responsibility for what happens when their bylaws are followed.  If complaints come in for chickens freezing to death in a poorly made coop, city council will be asked why they permit that to happen.  If someone gets very ill, or, heaven forbid, dies from food borne illness from backyard eggs, fingers will point towards city hall.  If there is a family of children that get sick from playing in the backyard amongst the manure of hens, well, you get the idea.

So, the challenge that municipalities face is developing a bylaw and a method of policing it that makes it impossible for people to cause themselves or their hens undue stress.  The bylaw also has to deal with keeping vermin to a minimum, finding ways to make appropriate feed available, planning for the disposition of manure (the concern is always, “what if this REALLY catches on?”)

If you saw this in your neighbours yard, would you call city hall to complain?

I have discussed methods of licensing backyard flocks, requirements for the setups that would prevent animal suffering, ways to prove that henners have safe egg handling protocols and ways to trace where eggs go from backyard flocks (let’s face it, not many families will eat 3 eggs per day….eggs will inevitably be given away to neighbors).

These programs are not complicated, and the problems are not insurmountable, but most municipalities find that the cost of setting up and implementing the program insurmountable, especially for the small number of people who are interested in keeping hens.

You may still think that city hall acts as the evil empire, illogically keeping hens out of the city, and you could have good reasons to think that.  At least now you know that their motivation is for the good of the people and animals that they are designing the bylaws for….whether they could do better is another discussion, but (in my experience), councillors hearts are usually in the right place.

Mike the Chicken Vet

Where’d they come from?

Chickens are a weird study in domestication.  People have had chickens around for a REALLY long time….but nobody is really sure where they came from exactly…

Red jungle fowl, and his great, great, great, great....(you get the idea)....grandson

It seems that red jungle fowl were hybridized with grey jungle fowl about 8000 years ago.  The original strains are likely to have come from Thailand, but domestication seems to have happened independently several times in southeast Asia and China between 5400 and 5200 BC.  I can’t help but imagine a Chinese Johnny Appleseed-type guy….wandering from village to village saying “if you keep some of these birds in your house, you won’t have to go hunting all the time….”

Cishan Site...a 10,000 year old site where 6000 year old chicken fossils were found, indicating this may be one of the earliest sites of chicken domestication

A couple thousand years later, the chicken made it to the Indus valley (around 2000 BC), which has been called the cradle of agriculture.  It was this are where many of our domesticated animals were domesticated, as well as many of the hybrid grain and vegetable crops that are the progenitors of todays farming across the world.  It is from the Indus valley that chickens found their way to Europe and Africa.

Now that we know where chickens came from, how have they changed?  It’s been a LOOONNNGGG time, and we’ve been messing with these birds pretty aggressively.  People have been VERY successful in increasing the ability of the bird to produce eggs.  Jungle fowl will lay around 5-6 small eggs per year.  Leghorn (the strain of white hens that are the most commercially successful chicken throughout the first world) hens will lay over 325 eggs in a year, and the eggs are much larger than the wild counterparts.  That is pretty obvious, and expected.

 

Laying hens split from jungle fowl lineages about 6000BC, and split from broiler chickens and Rhode Island Reds about 100 years ago

 

What is interesting is that domesticated animals (all of em…not just chickens) gain some traits when being domesticated…..think about it.  Domestic dogs, cats, cows, chickens, pigs…..all of them become less fearful of predators, have a less serious fear response, and show less interest in novel stimuli.  All that is understandable as animals are chosen on their ability to cope in a confined, human-centric environment….but there are other things too.  The one that amazes me is that domesticated animals uniformly turn more white.  I don’t know why….it makes sense that domesticated animals don’t need to be as camouflaged, but why bother changing?…..also…does that mean that blondes are more evolved than the rest of us?

 Domesticated chickens also use a more energy-conserving foraging strategy and are less active in fear tests, compared to jungle fowl.  This means that, given a choice, they PREFER more bland food, as long as it is easier to get, where as jungle fowl will work harder to get tastier tidbits.

The more predictable environments that leghorns find themselves in have caused them to be more risk averse, and less responsive to things like food deprivation.  Leghorns will act much more normally during experimental food deprivation than jungle fowl, who will spend more time searching for food, and spend more time off perches (a risky behaviour for hens in a jungle).

Maybe even more intriguingly, there are several traits that have not changed much from junglefowl….hens still flock together much the same way…the same inter-bird spaces, the same synchronization of behaviour, similar responses to predators.  Both leghorns and jungle fowl imprint readily on objects as babies, and will approach that object readily later in life….but leghorns have less flexibility in this….in one experiment, they could not get used to a blue ball in the pen, where jungle fowl imprinted on it readily.  Leghorn hens also show more fear of a novel environment than jungle fowl.  Leghorns will adventure less, and show more agitation in unfamiliar surroundings.

Other behaviour remain important to the hen, while being unnecessary in captivity.  Nest building is an important activity that hens will work hard to fulfill, as is foraging for food (interesting that leghorns will choose to eat bland, easy to get food in preference to novel foods, yet will then spent time scratching for food after they have eaten their fill), perching and dustbathing. 

The fact that jungle fowl are still alive and available for study is a rather unique situation.  Other domesticated farm animals do not have an ancestor to be compared to.  The aurochs (cow ancestor), mouflon (sheep ancestor), and tarpan (horse ancestor) are extinct, and the wild boar that exists today is very different from the ancestor of the modern pig.  As such, these species’ behaviour are not compared to the ancestral in order to try to guess what they would prefer.  I think it is dangerous to look at jungle fowl and expect that laying hens will desire or prefer the same things.  There is information to be gained from studying jungle fowl, but laying hens cannot be un-domesticated, and should be evaluated on their own when deciding on how to manage them, and what behavioural needs must be accounted for.

Mike the Chicken Vet

Whats in an Egg?

It’s something you don’t think about all that often.  You go to the fridge, grab what you need, crack ‘em and try not to get any shell into the slimy, sticky goop that comes out. 

The parts of an egg. The Chalazae are twisted because the egg rotates inside the shell membranes as it progresses past the infundibulum....natures version of "cats cradle"

Most people never really consider what is in the bowl or pan beyond that.  That’s sad….because the egg is really an amazing piece of engineering.  It only takes 22 hours to produce, it is impressive nutritionally, it is a source of both vaccines and medicine, AND it comes with a handy carrying case!

With today’s highly efficient strains of laying hens, an egg per day is not far from the truth.  This means that each day, the hen takes the most dominant follicle, wraps it in pure, digestible protein, water and membranes, then protects it inside a shell, and delivers it into the world.

The hens reproductive tract, with the parts labelled. The ovary makes ova (yolks), which then are covered during the 22 hourr trip down the reproductive tract

The ovary makes ova (yolks), which then are covered during the 22 hour trip down the reproductive tractThe infundibulum actually “plucks” the yolk off the ovary, and holds it for about 15 minutes. It’s here that fertilization will occur, if it is going to.  Then the 13 inch long magnum adds the thick albumin over about 3 hours.  In the isthmus, membranes are added which act as the scaffolding for the shell to grow from.  This takes about 75 minutes.Water is also added to the egg once the membranes are in place, in order to “plump” out the egg, and make it, well….egg shaped.  Then the egg sits in the shell gland for about 18 hours before being laid very quickly…usually just after daybreak. The addition of water is important, or you can end up with wrinkled eggs….the shell just covers the membranes, which are thin and pliable….without being plumped out, you get this :

I use this as a sign of stress in a laying flock.

You can get this type of thing from some diseases that injure the uterus, or if there is something that makes the egg leave the isthmus area too quickly.  During this relatively short period, an amazing package has been developed.  As someone who a) has kids and b) is in training, and wants to lose some weight as well as build muscle, I am acutely aware of the low calories and high protein available in the egg.  Eggs are still considered the yardstick against which other proteins are measured against, with beef getting a rating of .93, and whey protein has .25 of the quality of protein in an egg.  I also find it easier to get a scrambled egg into the kids than almost any other “healthy” food…(there is some debate in the house as to whether macaroni and cheese ranks as “healthy” food or not….).  For the low cost of 70 calories, eggs contain 6g of protein and 5g of fat.  They have an alphabet soup of vitamins, and iron, selenium and choline.

See....Lots of good stuff, and only 70 calories

See….Lots of good stuff, and only 70 caloriesThis is the breakdown of a “normal” egg.  If you feed chickens special things, such as lutein, Omega 3 fats, extra vitamins and potentially other things, you can harvest them from eggs, which make them the leading edge of the science of neutraceutical development.  Preventing macular degeneration, improving brain development and providing extra nutrition to people who don’t consume much food (think ill people, or the elderly) are all functions of eggs right now…the future has lots of potential.The other thing that is a nice characteristic of eggs is the versatility they have for preparation.  Hard boiled, over easy, quiches, scrambled, poached….all are quite different from each other, and eggs pick up the flavour of whatever you cook ’em in.  All in all, not a bad piece of food technology.  There are times, however, when you feel an urge to be a “purist”, and get back to nature….there is only one way to appreciate ALL the characteristics of eggs….not for the squeamish, however… 

Hard-Core Egg Consumption.....not sure what the health department would say...

 

Mike the Chicken Vet

 

Zoonotic Diseases and Chickens

Have you ever noticed that kids never get sick at the same time?   My youngest is laying like a puddle of water on the couch, recovering from the “gift” my daughter gave him.  We did tell her it is good to share…..

It got me thinking about some of the risks of people getting sick when they get into backyard chickens.  Like most things, the impressions people get from the media are skewed.  The big media scare around chickens is naturally bird flu.  Contagion, Outbreak, and a whole bunch of made-for-TV movies make it seem like we are poised on the brink of a world-wide viral catastrophe.  What makes the stories so engaging is that they are plausible….it truly could happen.  Of course, asteroids could collide with earth,  the magnetic poles could reverse, or a rabid dog could terrorize a small Maine town. 

Bird flu is a concern, but it is a risk that is minimal in North America.  We have never had a bird-human transmissible flu virus on the continent.  If we ever get “bird flu” in Canada, I will bet my next paycheck that it arrives on an airplane, carried by an infected person….likely from a country that is already dealing with a human outbreak.

There are risks with having backyard chickens, however.  Having birds in your backyard means having poop in your backyard, and in your coop.  Having poop in your backyard and coop means you have bacteria in your backyard and coop.  Bacteria will occasionally will make you sick, if you get it in your body.  Salmonella, E.coli, and Clostridium are all types of bacteria that can live in chickens that are a threat to human health.

The nice thing about eggs is that there is only really one bacteria that will contaminate the interior of an egg before it is laid.  Salmonella enteritidis can live in the ovary of the hen, and be incorporated in the egg.  The unfortunate thing is that S.e. doesn’t necessarily make the hen very ill….so you could possibly eat an egg from a contaminated hen without knowing it.  The amount of money and time spent controlling this bacteria by professional farmers is staggering.  We have programs of regular testing, and plans for what to do if the bacteria is ever found….even if we just find it in the environment, and NOT in any eggs.  This makes our commercially available, graded eggs very safe.  In your backyard, it is much more difficult to be sure….  It is expensive and technically difficult to isolate S.e. from a contaminated hen….let alone one who might, or might not have it.  The thing to keep in mind is if anyone in your household, or anyone who eats eggs from your hens, gets sick with diarrhea (especially bloody) or a high fever, PLEASE let your doctor know that you have hens, and eat ungraded eggs…..catching an infection like this early is very important.

The main difference between having chickens and having a dog is that you are planning on eating stuff that comes out of your chicken.  This means that the bacteria in your yard could easily be carried to your kitchen.  Also, bacteria in your yard can get on hands and clothing easily….also adding risk for illness.

As I said above, the only real risk for contaminating the inside of the egg is Salmonella, but eggs come out of the hen moist and warm (>40 C).  That means that if the egg lands in a contaminated spot, it can “suck” bacteria (especially E.coli) through pores in the shell, as it cools.  It is crucial to keep the nest boxes clean, and be very careful with any egg that is not laid in the nest box.  Also, the shell is a very good barrier to infection, but if the egg is cracked, contamination is a much bigger risk.  Once a few bacteria get in through the shell’s defences, it is an ideal spot for the bacteria to thrive, and the number of bacteria will grow exponentially if the conditions are right.

Here is a bit of a checklist to decrease human health risks for urban farmers:

1. Wash your hands EVERY time you interact with your chickens
2. Have shoes dedicated to chores time.  Leave them at the back door, and don’t walk through the house with them.
3. Collect your eggs as soon as practical after they are laid….get your eggs in the morning if possible, ideally before they cool off completely.
4. Be cautious with how you use eggs any time you have any signs of illness in your flock.
5. Be careful with any eggs with obvious manure contamination, or have cracks…..look into proper handling of these eggs, or throw them out.
6. Rinse your eggs in cool, running water after you pick them, then clean your sink with a disinfectant (ie bleach).
7. Keep your eggs in the refrigerator to keep any bacteria in the egg from reproducing.
8. Always cook your eggs well to help kill any bacteria that might be present.
9. Don’t keep your chickens in the house, unless they are in a separate area, with a separate airspace….it is intimate contact with live birds that is a risk factor for influenza transmission from birds to people…..remember, in this situation, you are more likely to make your hens sick, than they are to infect you.

All these steps are simple, straight forward and free, but if you don’t respect the fact that you are producing food, and take the necessary care, the consequences can be significant.

Mike the Chicken Vet