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Empathy for chickens laying larger eggs

Tom Vesey, chairman of the British Free Range Producers’ Association, has stated what I think we’ve known in our hearts all along: “It can be painful to the hen to lay a larger egg.” If you care about hen welfare, you should be buying medium eggs, not large and definitely, absolutely not, extra large. He adds that people may prefer to have two medium eggs for breakfast, rather than one large one. An even more compelling quote comes from Christine Nicol, professor of animal welfare at the University of Bristol in south-west England. I suggest you finish your breakfast before you read it.

“There is no strong evidence of pain in egg-laying hens but it’s not unreasonable to think there may be a mismatch in the size of birds and the eggs they produce. We do often spot bloodstains on large eggs.”

The driver behind this is cost: supermarkets pay more for large eggs, farmers prefer to produce them (selective breeding means they cost no more to lay), recipes — decent ones - are tested not just to see if they work, but on ingredient availability in medium-sized shops. This cycle forces the size up.

The acquiescence, by cookery writers, to standardising egg-size is partly chemistry and partly the physical realities.

In recipes where any alchemy occurs — thickening, rising, setting — there’s probably an egg behind it, so recipes have to rely on a uniform amount. Really, we need one soft-hearted cookery writer of enormous influence to switch resolutely to medium eggs and stay there. Just think of the chickens.

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