It just seems like the math doesn’t add up. Like I eat a healthy diet and I get tired just pooping out the bad stuff, meanwhile a chicken can eat non stop corn and have enough “good” stuff left over to create and throw away an egg the size of their head, every day.
In: 11289
Eli5 is they don’t have the spare resources. It takes a *massive* toll on their bodies.
Wild chickens will lay 10-20 eggs a year. The breeds that lay roughly an egg a day have been ~~naturally selected~~ artificially selected to lay around 200 eggs a year. This is indeed impossible to sustain. In studies, the vast majority of laying hens have bone fractures because those resources weren’t spare. Their bodies can’t support this. The best equivalent (not perfect, but as a simple comparison) is if human women were bred until they have their heaviest day of a period every day. You can imagine that wouldn’t be sustainable.
As a result the chickens inevitably burn out and can’t produce at that rate as their bodies deteriorate. And so once they’re not profitable, then they’re sent to the slaughterhouse.
Edit: thanks for the love, all. Edit on the strikethrough for correct term.
It is indeed good to know where your food really comes from and thus if you really want to keep eating eggs or any other animal part. Feel free to PM if you want advice on turning vegan. We’d love to help.
To answer a common point, backyard hens can (and do) live much longer and keep laying eggs. Part of this is being fed much more. They’re supplemented too. Of course better conditions will help, that’s true. The breed is still in pain laying so often. Some rescue places will use birth control so the hens don’t lay as often (this improves other health outcomes too). The main point is it’s also not profitable on a large scale. The price of eggs would maybe triple or more if that was the norm. So I’m of course speaking of how the vast vast majority are made. And again the short answer for OP is it’s not sustainable. Those chickens were artificially created by humans to lay so many and it hurts to do so. It will take its toll on the chicken’s health, bones, and mind.
For those wanting the studies, this isn’t a controversial point in general that laying hens get frequent fractures but this is the [latest systematic review I](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7433929/) read. There’s a LOT of links there from various countries with estimates.
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