ALTERNATIVE FLOCK
Excelling in Egg Quality
4-H Program Honors 2024 Golden Egg Contest Winners
It’ s that time of year again! 4-H members work hard all year to raise laying hens of different breeds at home for either their 4-H Chick Chain program or 4-H Poultry project. These members take great care in selecting their very best eggs from their hens. Once those eggs are selected, they are cleaned, scrubbed and stored in the refrigerator. By doing so, they can gather up enough so that they can sort through and pick their most uniform dozen that are of the highest quality.
4-H members must examine not only the outside of their eggs, but also the interior quality. They candle their eggs to make sure that they are Grade AA or Grade A. This year some slight changes were made to the contest to make the evaluation more accurate.
The egg shape index( SI) was used to determine the uniformity in size and shape of the dozen. The SI is the measurement of the egg from end to end with a pair of calipers and then the largest part of the middle of the egg is measured. These numbers are put into a calculation that categorizes the egg as normal shaped, pointed or round. Half of a point was deducted for each egg that was not normal shaped. Also, the uniformity of the shell color was calculated with a portable colorimeter. Eggs that were uniform placed higher than those that were not uniform in color. Lastly, eggs were examined for interior quality using the Egg Tester Ultimate which measures Haugh units( a measurement of an egg’ s protein quality, based on the height of its egg white and the egg’ s weight), yolk color and shell thickness.
Winner Bo Hodges, 9, from Lauderdale County, Alabama, wears his first-place ribbon after winning the 4-H competition hosted by Auburn University, and holds his egg basket as part of the first-place prize.
( Photos provided by Auburn University)
The Prizes First place received a half ton of feed donated by Nutrena. In addition, the 4-H Youth Development Coordinator in the winning county received 250 pounds of feed from the company that they could use for their 4-H program. Additionally, the member received a signed copy of“ The Chicken Whisperer’ s Guide to Keeping Chickens,” an egg basket and a set of ribbons.
Second place received 500 pounds of feed from Nutrena.
First, second and third place all received a tour of the Auburn University campus which included the Miller Poultry Center, the Poultry Science Department, Ag Hill and the football stadium, ending with a walk on the field!
26 Winter 2024 www. chickenwhisperermagazine. com