The number of people who choose to keep chickens on their property for meat or eggs is on the rapid rise even in urban locations.
In the UK, close to three quarters of a million people now own a chicken coop.  This is an increase of 80% in three years!
Lots of chicken keeping newbies, however, can lead to disaster if the wrong type of equipment is selected for the chicken coop.
The June/July 2012 issue of Backyard Poultry magazine, for instance, details the sad story of a woman who lost an entire flock of 19 chickens from teflon coated light bulbs installed in the coop which off gassed deadly fumes.
The bulbs in question were shatter resistant, GE Rough Service worklight bulbs coated with polytetrafluoroethylene, aka teflon.
When heated, the bulbs emit gas that is deadly to birds who are particularly sensitive to polluted air. There is currently no warning label on the fowl foul GE bulbs although other brands like Sylvania apparently do carry a warning.
So, backyard chicken keepers beware! Â Do not use the shatter resistant bulbs coated with teflon in your chicken coops. Â I would imagine the fumes would prove deadly to turkeys too.
Oh, and by the way, those teflon pans in your kitchen should go too. Â If the fumes from heated teflon are so deadly to your poultry, they are no doubt unhealthy for you to be breathing too!
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
^^ We barely buy much of anything from the supermarkets, mostly from local amish farms, farmer’s markets, natural food markets or our own backyard.
If I were a bird (chicken or eagle) I wouldn’t care what my prison was constructed of. I also wouldn’t care what happened to my potential chickedees after they were stolen from me (kinda of like – do u like my kids scrambled or over easy).
I am not a vegan and I love omelettes – I’m just sayin
You should also say that unless an egg is fertilized, it’s not going to hatch and become a chick.
I have actually been trying to figure out (also known as googleing these days) exactly when is that point where it is no longer going to be anything but yolk. it is the estimation of me that once the egg is past fertilization point it is it in decay mode. ???
It is yolk unless it encounters a rooster.
If this is an ethical question for you, I wish you luck in your research.
All food by definition is living or has the potential for life, otherwise it isn’t food.
If you mean ethical like the abortion issue for humans – no. i am just trying to get a sense of the decay point of an egg that pops out. Does a rooster do something to it after it pops out? Or did they have sex and then some time later the egg popped out?
When the egg pops out, what is the turning point wherein there is going to be a chick or nothing?
If anyone has these answers that would be great.
An egg has to be fertilized before it’s laid by the hen.
very confused that a company would use teflon on lightbulbs for birds anyways. I’ve had a birds (parrots, tiels, finches) for over 20 years and know to not use teflon around them. Do not understand how a company can do this considering it’s old data.
I still find it interesting the levels of humaneness that we part on the other species as it convenes us. Oliver
at present it is not useful to teach them not to eat meat , eggs, chickens to every one. because we are wasting our energies towards them and they are least interested to give up. so i decided to say to them EAT MORE EGGS, CHICKENS, MEAT AND INVITE THE DISEASES OF HEART, KIDNEY . CANCER etc and enjoy lot.they are accepting knowingly and treated us as a hopeless teachers.so eat and die early.
These foods, if raised completely naturally in ways that have nourished people for eons, with species-appropriate food, fresh air and sunshine, contain many health promoting nutrients. One of these is CLA, conjugated linoleic acid, a potent cancer-fighting and heart disease-fighting nutrient. Eat up and live long.
Technically, from a molecular perspective – eating eggs provides no nutrients unless we eat them raw, like other species do when they eggs eggs of other species or even their own kin. Or Rocky Balboa. Again, from a chemical molecular perspective, frying an egg damages all the protein molecules beyond repair – and speaking of teflon, certain metals in some of types of pots and pans we use will cause a chemical reaction to the egg molecules even before turning on the heat.
Also, it is important not to refer to wikipedia that says denatured is still fine. Denatured occurs at around 117 degrees F – eggs begin to scramble at 145F- boiled eggs at 212F. These temps are way beyond mere proteins being denatured, they are destroyed. And this is irreversable once this damage is done to the molecules – we can’t put molecules back together (unless in a lab). Once any molecule is broken it is no longer that molecule – once any molecule is broken, damaged, it is no longer bio active, it is no longer bio available to anyone or anything. Oliver
gross…and there’s no way of telling if the chicken we buy in supermarkets was slaughtered or picked up from the floor hours after if died mysteriously.
this is something I read about years ago when I bought a pair of maccaws, I got rid of all teflon pans! I was unaware that they made teflon light bulbs though seems a bad idea when they are going to heat up! glad I read this I will be more inclined to read the packaging of bulbs from now on.
I’d like to know where else teflon is lurking. I’ve heard it’s sometimes applied to clothing and fabric tote bags. Maybe a topic for another post?
I just saw an advertisement for an Teflon-coated indoor/outdoor dog bed! Teflon is toxic to dogs as well as birds (I’m guessing cats too). With the summer sun beating down on it, I wouldn’t want to take the chance of my pooches inhaling the gasses.
Why are they coating light bulbs with teflon anyway?! We have a ballast light on an auto timer making sure they get 12-14 hrs of light to keep the egg production up esp in the winter months.
Kristin Levin Neilson and Christina Kneiszler-Boone here’s an article