Post Punk Kitchen Forum

My mom has been asking me for years (in a non-pushy, loving motherly kind of way) if I would conider eating eggs from happy pet chickens. Recently she brought up the idea of raising those chickies herself! I'm going to assume that was hypothetical because of her HOA rules, but I digress. I am guilty of asking this question early on in my PPK career and lived to regret it. But! The point is that I every time my mom offers, I've come to the conclusion that its more convenient for me to have the "vegan" label than to be able to eat eggs sometimes. Plus, they just sorta squick me out at this point to be honest.

Others have summed up the issue much better, just adding my own experience. And welcome! :)

I didn't mean to come off as angry, I wasn't sure and thought I'd let you know in case you didn't. I just encounter a lot of people who claim they don't support the meat/egg industry since they buy chickens and raise them themselves, so I may have come off unintentionally short since I say it a lot, sorry.

And everyone in between. I think respect and courtesy and sometimes humility, are important for PPK membership. Everyone is welcome as long as you play by the rules.

I get you. We're cool. :)

Of course you are!

I'd also go with the I'm vegan except for the eggs laid by my rescue hens thing rather than saying you're vegan.

I say USE THE TERM.
When you go to a restaurant, they're not going to be serving your chickens' eggs. They are more likely to understand and be able to provide for you if you say, "I'm vegan," rather than, "I'm mostly vegan but I..." or "I'm a strict vegetarian that..." I mean, when/where does this come up, anyway?

When you're out and about, you eat a vegan diet. Kaboom. And that's all you have to say. You're cool. And that's all I have to say.

Whoops double post.

Footface is wise. Rock on with helping those chickens!


I agree with this; it's probably better not to muddy the water with subtle gradations of vegetarianism when eating out.

I have vegetarian friends who have chickens and eat their eggs; they love the hens, the hens love them, everyone is happy. No one here is going to judge you for doing something active and positive to give a better life animals that have abused and exploited. Just forget the label thing and be a happy vegetarian!

I have to agree with this. Your friends and family should know you eat your own hen's eggs. But when it comes to waiters and strangers, people you aren't going to meet again or eat with in the future, I understand why you want to call yourself vegan. As long as YOU and others who know you eat eggs understand that you are not vegan, I don't see the problem.

I don't know if this has been said, but I kinda look at eating eggs from rescued chickens like I would for eating the meat of animals that die naturally or the fur. I don't need it, even though I wouldn't be exploiting the animals for their eggs/meat/milk/fur. Would you consider eating the chickens after they die naturally?

Performing an autopsy on a chicken is probably a little costly, so I wouldn't really compare the two. Besides, we eat things we don't need all the time. I didn't need to eat half the things I ate today to survive.

you are most certainly welcome! If I was in your situation, I would probably eat the eggs and call myself a vegetarian. If someone offered me food with dairy or egg, I would politely decline. You don't have to give people an explanation.

I'm just a vegetarian, and I don't get kicked off the boards. Well, yet ;) I eat mostly vegan, but I'm pretty lax when I'm out. It's all good, but I'm not vegan. Also, I hate labels too, they can be so misleading. Blah. Just don't go posting egg recipes and I think you'll be fine.

I fall under the vegan umbrella, but I'd much rather just ask "Is it vegan?" at a restaurant or someone's house. Waiters usually want to take your order and get on with it. If they want to hear more, they'll ask if you're vegan and then you can get into the details of how you are, or you eat your rescued chickens eggs, and so on.

I don't know, I still don't have faith in people knowing what vegan means. Much easier to say "no dairy, no eggs, no meat, no fish" Even saying that, you'll still get 'surprises' some times. I've said that and still have gotten butter (from a catered food service no less), so I even will sometimes specify no butter. If they know what vegan means, good, otherwise you might be served a turkey burger or something because of someone's interpretation.

Good point. That JUST happened to me at denny's this past week. Butter on my wheat bread, no mayo, no cheese california veggie burger? Does that even make sense?

I just wanted to chime in and say (a) thank you for saving those hens and taking good care of them (assuming you do), (b) because you eat their eggs you can't really refer to yourself as vegan and THAT'S OK, HONEST and (c) you don't have to eat their eggs, do you? Farm animal sanctuaries feed the eggs back to the hens, to replenish their calcium. Hens eat their own eggs anyway, so it's not cannibalism or anything like that. Just hardboil them and give them back to them. Easy peasy.

You're a good person.

I agree, and I don't see how you telling a waiter you're vegan would result in other actual vegans getting served non-vegan food, like others have said. If anything, telling them the truth is what would probably confuse them and leave them with an unclear view of veganism..

I am totally comfortable with you calling yourself a vegan. If you and I were hanging out and someone asked me, "Is your friend here a vegan?" I would have no hesitation saying "yes".

to get us to call her vegan.

Agreed. I don't think that being vegan is about purity. It's about doing the least harm that you reasonably can. To me, eating eggs that a hen does not give a shiitake about is perfectly vegan.

I'm predicting that this thread is going to be locked soon.

nevermind

Since you said yourself that labels suck, no sense in getting worried about whether or not you can call yourself vegan.

Vegans don't eat animal products. Eggs are an animal product.


/debate.

Yup yup yup! That's where I'm coming from!

OK.. you know that hole I dug myself? Well before someone throws me a shovel to dig myself a leetle deeper I'll bow out from this thread :P

THANKS for the welcome :D
No eggs will be mentioned on this site (although the hens cuteness may crop up from time to time :P)
I'll continue to post and comment *as* vegan, as the issues I face are the same out and about, at ppls homes, rude ppls reactions etc but I didn't want to be here under false pretences.

See you round :)