Quick Facts: Eggs

Eggs
Each of the roughly 280 million laying birds in the United States produces from 250 to 300 eggs a year. In total, the United States produces about 75 billion eggs a year, about 10 percent of the world supply.

About 60 percent of the eggs produced in the United States each year are used by consumers and about 9 percent are used by the foodservice industry. The rest are turned into egg products which are used mostly by foodservice operators to make restaurant meals and by food manufacturers to make foods such as mayonnaise and cake mixes.

East Indian history indicates that wild fowl were domesticated as early as 3200 B.C. Egyptian and Chinese records show that fowl were laying eggs for man in 1400 B.C. Europe has had domesticated hens since 600 B.C.

In modern henhouses, computers control the lighting, which triggers egg laying. Most eggs are laid between 7-11 a.m. A hen requires about 24 to 26 hours to produce an egg. After the egg is laid, the hen starts all over again about 30 minutes later.

The eggshell accounts for about 9 to 12 percent of an egg's total weight, depending on egg size. The hen uses about the same amount of calcium carbonate and other minerals to make a shell, no matter how big the egg, so the shells of smaller eggs are usually thicker and stronger than the shells of larger eggs.

To tell if an egg is raw or hard cooked, spin it. Because the liquids have set into a solid, a hard-cooked egg will easily spin. The moving liquids in a raw egg will cause it to wobble.

Source: American Egg Board

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