Consider The Egg

A chicken egg is a beautiful thing. At the time of hatching, the female chick already has within her all the eggs she will lay in her lifetime. Once she is mature enough, around 24 weeks of age, she will begin to lay an egg about every other day. Every egg inside her is at some form of development; from a tiny bead-like tapioca pearl size to a large yoke and white encased in a membrane waiting to be laid with the shell hardening immediately upon the waft of air touching it as it plops out of the hen large end first. 🥚

Egg size varies with the breed. And the shape is also varied, depending on how big or small or the difficulty experienced during the actual laying of the egg. Contingent on her breed, she will lay an egg with a shell color that can be white, off-white, beige, brown, blue, green and even black. Even though the coloring of the shell is as diverse as the breeds of chickens, the contents are all the same. The yoke, the white: or albumen if you want to be technically accurate, and that little squiggly white strand called the chalaza; which the purpose of is to be an protective “anchor” attaching the yoke to the shell’s membrane to prevent the yoke from moving around. As a side note, the chalaza indicates a fresh egg and is harmless to eat so there isn’t a need to try to scoop that out.

The egg’s contents are hidden inside the shell. However, we all know what is in there. Even though we can’t see inside, there really isn’t anything ‘hidden’ from us. It’s an egg so there is no doubt what to expect when we crack it open. We see an egg and we know. Perfectly normal.

Today I was processing several dozen eggs and about halfway through the process when I cracked an egg open this was revealed to me:

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The main cause of a blood spot is a small break in one of the tiny blood vessels around the yolk that occurs when the yolk is ovulated. High levels of hen activity during the time of ovulation can increase the incidence of blood spots. The incidence of blood spots is higher in brown-shelled eggs. (poultry.extension.org)

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Cooking Lesson

Never crack an egg directly into whatever you are making with it. Always, always, always crack the egg into a bowl first to make sure all is well with the egg. Don’t take the chance of ruining what you are making by cracking a defective egg directly into it, or be prepared to start over. This is especially important with home grown eggs because typically they aren’t candled for defects. Candling eggs may be a story for another post.

Life Lesson

There are many things in this world that cross your lifepath that may look perfectly normal and appealing. However, if you take the time to do your research and ‘crack it open’ to find out what is at the heart of that video you watched , or that movement you have an interest in, or that tidbit of information you absorbed on mainstream or social media; you could find what might be hidden within; exposing defects that are not fit for human consumption.

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