Stockpiling Food, Nutrition, and Chickens
Kevin Felts 06.15.17
In our race to stockpile as much food as possible, how often do you take nutrition into account? Whether it is canned or freeze dried, do you have a balance between meats, fruits, and veggies?
Overall, it seems nutrition is something that is overlooked by preppers. A lot of us have the mindset of, “buy cheap and stack deep.” However, our bodies are not designed to live off beans, rice and oatmeal day to day.
What brought this up?
There is an interesting study that says eggs help children grow – One egg per day boost growth in infants.
In a study published June 7 in the journal Pediatrics, researchers gave eggs to 80 infants between six and nine months of age for one year. Another 84 weren’t given eggs and served as a control group.
Compared to these controls, the egg-eating youngsters had a 47 percent lower prevalence of stunting, which is defined as being too short for one’s age. Their length-for-age measurement also shot up by a significant margin.
In the overall scheme of prepping, I consider the chicken to be one of our best friends. Unlike rabbits, pigs and even goats and cattle, a hen produces food almost every day or every couple of days.
With goats, cattle and sheep, the animals have to be bred, then milked after they start lactating. The chicken needs no such effort. When a hen is around six months old, it will start laying eggs. It will continue laying eggs until late in life.
Children start puberty at around 12 years old. A chicken starts puberty at around six months old. Which is when hens will start laying and roosters will start crowing.
Nutrition
Chicken eggs have been described as the perfect food.
Eggs contain all of the necessary amino acids, as well as choline, various growth factors and DHA, a polyunsaturated fatty acid important for the brain. All of these are necessary for proper growth and development, and the normal function of the body.
Rather than stockpiling various freeze dried meats, maybe one of our main food sources should be fresh and freeze dried eggs?
As urban areas ease regulations on backyard hens, maybe preppers should take a closer look at getting a backyard chicken flock? Just four or five Australorp, Rhode Island Red, Barred Rock, or Buff Orpington should provide the family with several eggs a day.
Fresh eggs will help supplement your food stockpile.
So, are you thinking about getting some chickens?
