THE INCREDIBLE EDIBLE EGG
Every animal on Earth
comes from an egg,
and many of these eggs
stay hidden inside the mother.
However, the eggs we know best
are the eggs we can see,
the eggs mother birds
force outside their bodies,
as do most insect, fish, amphibian
and reptile mothers.
Only two mammals lay eggs,
the platypus and the spiny anteater.
Eggs forced outside
of the mother�s body
hold food for the baby
stored within outer shells
for protection.
Eggs hidden inside the mother
do not need
the extra protection
of a shell.
The female duck plucks feathers
from her body to line her nest
which serve to help warm
and protect her eggs.
Many bird parents share
in the care of their eggs
with one parent
staying with the nest
to protect the eggs
and to keep them warm,
while the other
searches for food.
The egg of the chicken
is like a little nursery
filled with food for the baby animal
and each egg is composed
of three important components.
The white of the egg, or albumin
contains most of the egg�s protein
and provides suspension
and cushioning for the yolk.
The yolk of the egg
contains most of the egg�s
vitamins and minerals,
and is lighter than the egg white.
Within the egg white
the yolk is held
in the approximate center of the egg
by a layer of egg white
which is twisted into
a rope-like structure
called a chalaza,
one at each end of the yolk.
Last, but certainly not the least,
the egg is contained
within a miraculous shell
affording the egg protection.
Located just inside the shell
are two ultra-thin membranes
that surround the egg white.
The membranes lie
close to each other
except at the large end of the egg
where they are separated
to form the air cell.
When the egg
is laid by the mother
it has no air cell
until the egg cools,
during which time,
the membranes separate
by the process of contraction
and the air cell is created.
The germ or the germ spot
is a tiny area about
the size of a pinhead
on the upper surface of the yolk.
After the female mates with a male,
the germ spot becomes the embryo
of the baby animal.
This may sound contradictory,
but an eggshell must be easy to break
yet strong enough not to break ~
must be thin and open,
yet thick and tightly closed
~ all at the same time.
An eggshell has to be so fragile
that a baby animal
can break its way out
when it is time to be born,
yet the eggshell must be so strong
that it doesn�t break
when parents sit on it.
The shell has to be thick enough
to keep the fluids inside from leaking out,
yet it has to be thin enough to let air
come in for the baby to breathe.
The shell itself is easy to break.
The shape of the egg
is what makes it strong,
for when pressure is put on the egg,
its rounded shape
spreads the pressure evenly
around the whole egg,
enabling the fragile eggshell
to withstand a lot of weight.
Eggshells are covered
with thousands of tiny pores,
which are too small to let
the important fluids leak out,
but they are large enough
to let critical oxygen get in.
Since the primary purpose of an egg
is to reproduce baby animals,
the contents of the egg
provide a well-balanced diet
for the developing embryo,
including the eggshell
which is composed almost entirely
of calcium carbonate
that is essential
for the formation of bones
and other body building processes.
Eggs incubated beneath a parent
or in a heated incubator
take from 21 days for a chicken
to 35 days for a duck to hatch.
The incubation heat
must be maintained constant
at 99 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit
~ 37 to 38 degrees Celsius.
By the time
the egg of a hen hatches,
the baby has grown so big
that it fills the shell.
Baby chicks peck their way
out of the egg shells
with their beaks.
They peck for a while,
rest for a while,
with peck and rest repetitions
until finally they make
a hole big enough
for them to emerge.
When lizards and snakes are born,
they break out of their eggshell
with a special tooth, that falls off
once they are out of the shell.
The temperature
of the eggs of crocodiles
determine the sex of the babies.
In some species of crocodiles,
eggs kept a few degrees cooler
produce the female babies
while the male babies
hatch out of warmer eggs,
although in other species,
the opposite it true.
In a nest partly in the shade
and partly in the sun,
female and male offspring
will emerge naturally.
For many centuries,
the egg has been
the symbol of new life,
and many people believed
that the world itself
had hatched from an egg.
Red is the Chinese color for good luck,
and the ancient Chinese exchanged
red colored eggs to celebrate spring.
They brought red eggs to the temples
to thank the gods for newborn babies,
while today, Chinese parents of new babies
give out red eggs to friends and family.
It was the custom in Europe
to do without eggs
during the 40 day period
before Easter called Lent.
Eggs became such a treat on Easter day,
very often they were given as gifts.
Decorated eggs at Easter
have been popular for a long time
and the Germans brought
the custom to America
when they colored eggs
as symbols of better times to come.
Carl Faberg�,
who was born in Russia
more than 100 years ago,
was a famous goldsmith and jeweler.
For many years at Easter time,
Faberg� designed beautiful
jeweled Easter eggs
for the Russian royal family.
Faberg� decorated many of his eggs
with precious gems such as diamonds,
emeralds and rubies,
and more often than not,
there were tiny surprises inside.
Faberg� eggs still in existence
are priceless treasures
collected by those rich enough
to afford them.
People eat eggs of many animals
including geese, ducks, pigeons, wild birds,
fish, snakes, alligators, crocodiles and turtles.
Most of the eggs that people eat
come from female chickens.
A hen needs 24 to 26 hours
to produce an egg.
Once she lays one,
the hen lets out a loud cackle.
Fifteen minutes or so afterward,
she starts producing another one.
Until 25 to 30 years ago,
most eggs came from family farms
where the farmer collected
the eggs by hand
from the cozy nests he prepared
for his laying hens.
Today most eggs are produced
by big companies
which might have from one million
to five million laying hens.
In nature, hens lay eggs
only in spring or early summer
when there is more light.
Today producers regulate the light
so the hens lay eggs all year round.
In modern egg production companies
almost everything is done by machine.
Step 1.
Hens lay eggs on tilted floors.
Step 2.
The eggs roll down into trays
on moving conveyer belts.
Step 3.
The eggs are cleaned in disinfectant.
Step 4.
The eggs are sprayed with oil
to keep them fresh.
Step 5.
The eggs are held up to a light so people
called inspectors can see inside the shell.
They check to make sure the eggs have
no flaws. This procedure is called candling
because before electricity people used to hold
the eggs up to candles for inspection.
Step 6.
The eggs are sorted
by size and color
and packed in special
plastic egg crib boxes.
Step 7.
The eggs are refrigerated
to prevent spoilage.
Step 8.
The eggs are shipped to market.
EGG TRIVIA:
A chicken egg is composed of ~
11 per cent fat
12 per cent protein
11 per cent minerals
66 per cent water.
The older the chicken
the bigger the egg.
White eggs come from chickens
with white feathers.
Brown eggs come from chickens
with red feathers.
In nature, chickens lay
from eight to ten eggs
one to three times a year.
The biggest egg
is the egg of the ostrich.
The plover egg is pear shaped.
The sand grouse egg is cylindrical.
The eggs of the owl
and the kingfisher
are almost perfectly round.
Colors or wild bird eggs vary greatly
from the white egg of the flicker
to the nearly solid black egg
of some ducks.
Oysters may lay as many as
500 million eggs per year.
While most fish do not mate
the sturgeon lays around
7 million eggs per year.
The common frog lays
6000 eggs at one time.
Egg laying snakes lay
from 20 to 30 eggs per year.
The water flea carries her eggs
in a pouch on her back.
The earthworm is bisexual
but must mate with another worm
to produce fertile eggs
which are contained in capsules
filled with milky liquid nutrients.�
There are approximately
250 million laying hens
in the United States.
Hens lay about 66 billion eggs
every year in the United States.
Each American ate on an average
of 239 eggs during 1997.
� An earthworm can measure
from one twenty-fifth of an inch
to eleven inches in length.
The earthworm breathes
through its relatively thin skin
and though it naturally favors
warm moist earth to survive,
when it rains and air pockets
within the earth are flooded,
the earthworm must surface
or drown.
Source material for this dialogue
was garnered and freely paraphrased
for clarity and enhancement from ~
Encyclopedia Britannica
The World Book
American Egg Board
United States Department of Agriculture
Dr. Sheila Schiedeler
University of Nebraska
Department of Animal Science