Dear S., thank you for asking about the "Ethics of Raising Chickens for Eggs."
First let's explore the science and then we could consider the ethics. When you visit https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/eggs/ you'll learn that egg consumption does NOT promote health in humans. And when you visit https://nutritionfacts.org/?s=protein%20deficiency you'll read that protein deficiency amongst those who consume adequate calories is non-existent. Here is an additional FREE resource to help you eat in a manner that is both healthy as well as ethical https://www.youtube.com/c/MictheVegan .
Now that you've seen the peer reviewed evidence dispelling the myths that it is dangerous to eat a whole food vegan diet let's talk about ethics. In the wild chickens produce non-fertilized eggs regularly. And even though they are not fertilized, producing them is physiologically taxing upon the hen. Perhaps that is why chicken's evolved the instinct to eat their own non-fertilized eggs in an effort to replenish a portion of the resources their bodies used in the process of egg production. However when we take their unfertilized eggs they don't get that opportunity we are therefore performing an act of exploitation.
Fifty percent of the Buddha's eight-fold path pertains to loving-kindness. And there is noting kind about exploiting a hen. Don't feel badly for you probably did not know that. But now you do. And now everything is different. But don't worry, your hens' droppings, and tendencies to scratch about in the dirt are both beneficial to the eco-system of your garden. I am told that hens make great pets, and an excellent object of our loving-kindness.
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