At NSW Hen Rescue we #LoveHensNotEggs. The girls we have rescued have been exploited for their reproductive systems and the very least we can do is give them some of their lost nutrients back.
Ex-battery hens have had their broodiness bred out of them, so in most cases you will not upset the hens by feeding their eggs back to them. If you have a broody hen, then please don’t take her eggs in front of her. She will be upset.
Laying hens have been selectively bred by farmers and avian scientists to lay around 300-350 eggs a year. These girls originate from jungle fowl who only lay 12-30 eggs per year so as you can imagine the excess laying places a huge toll on their bodies. By feeding their eggs back to them we’re replenishing some of that lost nutrition.
You can feed the eggs back raw to the girls and they usually love it. However, we have a special needs hen here called Maddie who has trouble drinking liquid, so we cook them up for her and the others like it like that as well. It also allows us to add some extras to make it a bit more nutritious and more interesting.
Mix up all the ingredients in a frying pan until they are nicely cooked through. Then pop the mixture in a bowl to cool down because we don’t want to burn the hens’ little tongues.
Then simply feed to your girls. They will get very excited about their treat.
Some people believe that only happy hens lay eggs. That is simply not true. Due to the way their bodies have been manipulated, these girls will lay whether happy, sad, stressed or calm. They have no choice in it, so the very least we can do is to let them enjoy their eggs.
