Watercress?

People have asked me if my eggs are organic, or if the girls eat GMO feed.  Honestly, I can’t call my eggs organic, because their feed is not organic.  Organic feed from Poulin is $25 for a 50 lb bag.  If you knew what chickens ate, you wouldn’t be concerned with organic, trust me.  I’ve seen them eat Styrofoam, as well as mice.

As far as GMO feed, I asked Poulin whether or not their feed was non GMO.

This was their response “… neither the USDA nor Canadian Dept. of Agriculture distinguishes between GMO/GE and nonGMO/GE products. So at the farm, or the elevator or the shipping origin the two products could be mixed. Therefore no commercial feed mill can guarantee GMO/GE or nonGMO/GE products. Organic is an option to lessen the chance of GMO/GEs!”

Sounds like anyone who thinks they are buying nonGMO feed is being duped.

I would like to believe the reason why my eggs are so good is because the hens live their entire lives here.  They are not forced to molt, they do not get “extra” light to lay more.  And if they stop laying, there are plenty of things for them to do and eat, that they are welcome here for as long as they live.  And in some cases, it’s nearly 10 years!

So, I won’t say my hens are laying eggs that are organic and I won’t say that they aren’t GMO, but I will say that they eat plenty of watercress and at least one study

Effect of watercress (Nasturtium Officinale R.Br.) on egg quality, yolk colour and yolk fatty acid composition in laying hens

Found “… differences in feed consumption, egg weight, breaking strength, shell weight and albumen index were significant (P < 0.05). Differences in yolk colour index were highly significant”

Another study

Effect of Watercress (Nasturtium officinale L.) powder on performance and immune response of broilers

…the results concluded that the addition of the consecutive 3% Watercress powder to diet may improve performance and immune responses of broilers.

Patented chicken feed that includes watercress, proven to lower cholesterol.
“It has been found that poultry and specifically chicken hens given a diet of feed which contains a specified amount of naturally occuring iodine, niacine, hormones and trace amounts of calcium and magnesium a remarkable reduction is obtained in the cholesterol content of the egg yolks in the eggs laid by such poultry. The particular vegetable matter selected for the feed supplent is not important except that the combination of species of vegetable must collectively supply the specified amount of ingredients”