access to the outdoors. The term “free-range”
can be misleading; it sometimes means only
that the chickens live in a slightly larger cage
than usual, or have brief access to the
outdoors. Still, with people eating fewer eggs
in the home, spending so little on those eggs,
and paying more attention to what they eat,
the odds are good that this modest de-
industrialization of the egg will continue.
Egg Biology
and Chemistry
How the Hen Makes an Egg
The egg is so familiar that we seldom
remember to marvel at its making. All
animals work hard at the business of
reproduction, but the hen does more than
most. Her “reproductive effort,” defined as
the fraction of body weight that an animal
deposits daily in her potential offspring, is