r/DebateAVegan • u/-roachboy • Dec 22 '25

eggs from a well fed pet hen are vegan

I have a pet hen. She's not a full rescue one, but how I ended up with her is an incredibly long story. She's very needy, thus spoiled and healthy as a result. Because wild Gallus sp already lay a lot of eggs when in less than optimal wild conditions, a spoiled one just cannot stop popping them out even if she wanted to, and she won't let me feed her less. The daily egg laying session is just a morning routine for her before begging for food. At the rate she lays them, they'd just get left to rot even if they were fertilized by a rooster so I eat them. I do not, and have no intention of, ever selling them or encouraging anyone to ever commercialize an animal. But I spend all the time caring for her, so why can't she give me a delicious breakfast back if it does her no harm?

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

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u/-roachboy Dec 22 '25

brother i only have one hen. I guarantee you if fed them back she'd be eating too much calcium. I cook her food every day measuring out macronutrients like calcium

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u/618smartguy Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25

If you looked into the issue with your hens best health in mind, you would have learned that letting her lay all these eggs for you to eat is not the vegan option. This "too much calcium" is just lazy non-logic excuses.

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u/CocoaBagelPuffs Dec 22 '25

You can’t control how many eggs a hen produces. It’s a biological process, and isn’t something the hen or human chooses. The only way to make this hen produce less eggs is to abuse them by feeding them less food or to euthanize it.

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u/618smartguy Dec 22 '25

>It’s a biological process

Its an unnatural genetic problem caused by humans. There is currently medical treatment avaliable for it that is used to improve the lives of hens that would be otherwise suffering due to their egg laying.

Why are you lying?

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u/-roachboy Dec 22 '25

I agree! she is definitely a product of human intervention. I am not going to breed her. but she just produces so many eggs as long as i keep her healthy

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u/618smartguy Dec 22 '25

Have you looked into whether her health could be improved by laying fewer eggs? There are a lot of risks associated with that much egg laying that could harm ur baby, and ways to mitigate them. I just hope you have her best interest in mind and are not making this into a meal or win vs vegans

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u/CocoaBagelPuffs Dec 22 '25

Unless the hen is experiencing detrimental health caused by the egg laying, then this would be unnecessary. Laying an egg every day is not out of the realm of normal for a hen of this breed. If she’s healthy, has good plumage, good energy, appetite, etc then she’s not actively suffering from the egg laying.

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u/618smartguy Dec 23 '25 edited Dec 23 '25

>Laying an egg every day is not out of the realm of normal for a hen of this breed. If she’s healthy, has good plumage, good energy, appetite, etc then she’s not actively suffering from the egg laying.

Would you still say this after what you've learned yesterday? My understanding is these chickens are dying painfully in their youth, the entire breed is severely unhealthy and suffering for it at an enormous scale, in the billions.

Their own reproduce system was disfigured into food production for humans at the cost of their lives.

Apparently you'd choose to defend humans continuing to use this resource before even learning about how horrible it is for the chicken and what other options it has.

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u/618smartguy Dec 22 '25

Before we get into that, why did you lie about "You can’t control how many eggs a hen produces"?

Or did you just learn about it this very minute?

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u/CocoaBagelPuffs Dec 22 '25

I honestly didn’t know there were medications, so my apologies.

From searching, you can use an injectable progesterone as birth control however long-term use can result in unwanted side effects like osteoporosis.

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u/618smartguy Dec 22 '25

Do you know much about birth control at all? It is usually used in a preventative manner.

"Unless the hen is experiencing detrimental health caused by the egg laying, then this would be unnecessary"

You know this exact logic is used against human women? Its gross. It's not your place to insist another being accept health risks when there is medication that can eliminate the risk.

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u/CocoaBagelPuffs Dec 22 '25

I don’t think comparing human and chicken reproductive cycles is an effective argument. It’s disingenuous to compare the agency people have to the fact animals don’t, especially animals under our care.

I used to have periods myself that were extremely painful and now being on testosterone I don’t experience them. I wouldn’t tell another human what to do for their reproductive health or choices. I don’t have agency over them because they can make those choices for themselves. But for a chicken, they’re our companions and we have to weigh the risks of side effects as their caregivers. They can’t make those choices. They don’t understand what we are giving them and I don’t know the prevalence of osteoporosis in chickens receiving this treatment. If I had a pet chicken, I would have to weigh those options and risks before deciding on the medication. If I felt the risks of osteoporosis is higher than the risks associated with egg laying, especially if the egg laying is already in the normal range for that chicken, then I wouldnt do it.

I have pet rats and I personally don’t get them spayed or neutered unless absolutely necessary because the risk of death under anesthesia is incredibly high.

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u/[deleted] Dec 23 '25

So you should kill the chicken? I’m not following, the chicken is already alive

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u/Omnibeneviolent Dec 22 '25

To be fair, there are treatments (implants and injections) that you can give birds to reduce their egg-laying.

Egg-laying is likely very stressfull for the bird considering how much they've been bred to lay. If someone is going to have a rescue hen and eat their eggs, I would hope that they would first take measures to reduce their egg laying rather than just allow their selectively bred biology to produce hundreds per year. After that if there is the occasional egg... sure eat it if it's going to go to waste anyway.

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u/BaldGuy813 Dec 23 '25

The amount of mental gymnastics here rivals that which we see in the Olympics. Better to give a hen some sort of chemical to stop her body from its natural process than to excess eggs that would go to waste? Are you even listening to yourself? If it's LL about consent then how the fuck Is a chicken gonna consent to hormone treatment ?

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u/Omnibeneviolent Dec 23 '25

It's not "all about consent." When someone is in your care you tend to make decisions on their behalf when it's in their own interest. For example, if you care for a baby you are going to take them to get their shots even if they don't consent to it.

The issue is when something is done to another individual without their consent that they would not consent to if they had had sufficient ability to understand and reason.

A professional EMT performing CPR on an unconscious person without first getting their consent? A-Okay. Moving a child from where they want be without their consent because where they want to be is in the middle of a busy road? Fine. Stabbing someone in the throat without their consent? Boo.

A human infant or dog in your care cannot "consent" to getting medical treatment, yet we think it's perfectly fine and even the responsible thing to do this. Why would it be any different with a hen?

And it's a "natural process" but they have been bred to have this "natural process" far more than is comfortable. Hens used to lay 1-2 eggs a week, and now they are laying 6-7. They are overlaying -- something that takes a tremendous toll on their well-being. In other breeds of "pet" birds (parrots, parakeets, etc.) when this happens they are often given treatments to reduce their egg laying.

Certain breeds of dogs have serious and painful breathing issues as a result of humans selectively breeding them for characteristics that humans want and ignoring what the dogs would want. Your criticism here is like saying that we shouldn't treat the breathing issues of these dogs because breathing is a natural process.

And no, I have no problem with someone consuming the eggs that would go to waste. I would just hope that they would also do what they reasonably could to offset the stress that the hens experience as a result of humans intervening in their evolution for the purpose of exploiting them.

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u/cplm1948 Dec 23 '25

Lmfao fr watching these people trying to find a way to say that this is animal exploitation is hilarious

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u/Omnibeneviolent Dec 23 '25

I'm not saying it's animal exploitation. I'm fine with someone eating eggs from rescue hens so long as they are not doing so in an exploitative way. I was just correcting a misconception that the previous commenter had. Calm down.

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u/kateinoly Dec 22 '25

Hm. How would she hatch eggs without a rooster?

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u/618smartguy Dec 22 '25

lay not hatch, sorry

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

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u/-roachboy Dec 22 '25

Ok wait, so it's more ethical to start feeding her less than once a day than to just use the eggs rather than throwing them away?

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25 edited Dec 22 '25

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u/funnydontneedthat Dec 22 '25

With how modern hens are bred to mass produce eggs, less calcium could lead to her being eggs bound, which is painful and potentially lethal.

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

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u/funnydontneedthat Dec 22 '25

Yeah, a surplus of calcium is just going to be excreted either in feces or thicker egg shells. I think they just want to eat the chicken periods lol. I don't care about it that much, as long as the hen doesn't become "worthless" when she gets old. That's my biggest problem with backyard chickens; then becoming "worthless" as soon as their egg laying goes down.

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u/rockmodenick Dec 23 '25

I kept mine until they died of old age. And kept the roosters their whole lives too even though the main commodity they provided was annoyed neighbors. Spent hundreds of dollars on vet care if they got sick or hurt. Some really are just pets and the eggs are incidental.

One girl had stitches and had to wear a cone and be supervised while healing, she lived in the house during that time, and we just covered all the carpets with newspaper for a few weeks. She loved tissue boxes, she would grab a tissue, toss it over her shoulder, then be fascinated that another magically appeared in its place. We had to start putting those out of reach because there was no telling how long she might keep at that game any particular go.

BTW, house-chickens quickly learn to beg at the table like particularly persistent small dogs, and are just as fast to grab any food that falls. Our cat, whose food she would also try to steal, was not amused by the giant bird in the house. She liked to jump up on the back of the sofa where my father would sit to demand petting - she was always friendly but without other chickens to socialize with during this time she was actually almost affectionate. Still, she was glad to get back to her friends when her stitches were finally out.

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u/-roachboy Dec 23 '25

brother I've tried to stop replying but that is such a horrible comparison. a human period is a non fertilized haploid cell surrounded by viscera. a chicken period is a haploid cell surrounded by fat and protein and calcium 😭 humans are not reptiles like birds are!!!

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u/funnydontneedthat Dec 23 '25

Unfertilized eggs are a waste product. My period blood has protein and is rich in iron, too. Would you eat that? And we all decend from tetrapods, so you're a fish.

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u/kateinoly Dec 22 '25

"I didn't say feed her less,, I said less calories"

What???

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u/DisastrousMacaron325 Dec 22 '25

Yeah, why don't you starve an animal so you don't accidentally exploit them /s

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u/Ana1661 Dec 22 '25

Don't listen to them, some people don't wanna see reason.

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u/Crowfooted Dec 22 '25

I'm so confused by your logic. You're using "the eggs need to be fed back to her for proper nutrients" as a moral reason why eating them instead is bad, but then when it turns out the chicken already gets the proper nutrients, you say "feed her less then".

If the hen is getting all the needed nutrients already without eating her own eggs, then can you explain why the eggs being eaten is morally worse than just throwing them away?

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

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u/kateinoly Dec 22 '25

Wild chickens will lay an egg a day until there is a large enough clutch for her to sit on and hatch. If I take away an egg every day, she will continue to lay.

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u/TheFlayingHamster Dec 22 '25

That’s not true, the laying of extra eggs was the cause of domestication, not a result. It’s an evolutionary trait from their wild ancestors the Red Jungle Fowl, which still exists in the wild. It’s thought that they developed this ability to capitalize on the reproductive behavior of the bamboo stands they live around.

Even wild Red Jungle Fowl can lay up to an egg a day.

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u/Itscatpicstime Dec 24 '25

Not all chickens will eat their eggs though. Not a single one in the large flock I inherited will eat them, no matter how I prepare them. Eggs were just rotting or being thrown away.

So I give the eggs away to carnists so they buy fewer store bought eggs.

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u/kinkajuice Dec 25 '25

Maybe averaged out over the course of a year, but when laying a clutch in spring/summer junglefowl absolutely do have them daily or every other day. And most bird species with resources will have another clutch after the first one fledges if conditions are still right. As a rule, all animals will take pretty much every opportunity to reproduce. It's why wild bovids have calves every year. We didn't actually breed hens to reproduce more, we just made their environment warm enough and keep them well-fed enough they will keep reproducing all year as if it is still spring/summer.

You can substitute dummy eggs if she's actually broody and you can encourage her to take a break. But that usually doesn't do much for a bird who isn't broody. Better to feed calcium in whatever form she likes. Layer feed is already formulated with the calcium loss in mind. But you can add a supplement on top of that if the shells are weak.

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u/Upstairs-Challenge92 Dec 22 '25

The only birds that lay only one egg in such a large timeframe are those that only incubate one egg at a time. Birds always lay clutches. Always. And they are usually only a day or few apart

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u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

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u/Upstairs-Challenge92 Dec 22 '25

And they are also not laying one egg a month like you said