Egg

[orbsycli]

So there's a chicken and she eats little things off the ground and then sits down and stuffs this life fluid in an orb and an eggshell forms around it then Plop.

This doesn't make sense to me at all.
How does this little hen make the egg?
It's like it's being beamed.
Any insight inside the bird?

[Buffy]

What part doesn't makes sense, Orb?

An egg is just another cell: nucleus, protoplasm, outer wall. I mean, I do think they're amazing, but to me they also seem to make sense because they're just like all the other constituents and supporting processes of life!

Omelette in the making,
Buffy

[orbsycli]

What is the shell made out of? How does it form?
That's what's weird to me.

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

What is the shell made out of?

A chicken’s egg is about 95% by mass calcium carbonate (). The remaining 5% or so is made of … chicken – that is, protein, the big, complicated, mostly carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen (“CHON”) stuff that all plant and animal cells are made of.

This little bit of protein “matrix” is very important – without it, an eggshell would be 100% , and have about the same strength and consistency as a Tums antacid tablet.

How does it form?

A hen has special glands in her oviduct dedicated to secreting this -rich protein fluid, coating the chick embryo-containing “sack” grown earlier in her gestational process.

An egg come out of the hen rather soft and flexible, until it’s air-dried a while. Were they aware of the alternative of the shell hardening while still inside, I’m sure hens everywhere would be grateful for this characteristic.

If hens don’t get enough calcium, or are dehydrated, their egg shells can be thin and brittle. The chicken eggs most of us are familiar with nowadays are much thinner shelled than the ones I knew as a child – large-scale chicken egg companies have learned how to save money by reducing the nutrients they feed their hens to the minimum needed to produce an egg that can survive shipping. The average home-farm egg has a much thicker, harder shell.

That's what's weird to me.

You can get a feel for how it works with a bit of culinary experience:

Take some white sugar (the finer the better), mix with water, spread and let dry. You’ll get a crumbly wafer, not good for much of anything.

Now take sugar and water, and add some protein, in the form of egg whites. Mix thoroughly – whip it good – spread, and let dry. You’ll get meringue cookies – light, but sturdy enough to play Frisbee with. (A safety-conscious cook will tell you you’ve got to bake them, or risk all sorts of rotten-egg-white unpleasantness, but meringue works fine baked or not, as long as you eat it either soon, or not at all)

I’ve never tried it myself, but I bet you could mix well-ground up Tums with egg whites and make a coating pretty similar to chicken egg shell.

[orbsycli]

wow. thanks . .

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by CraigD

I’ve never tried it myself, but I bet you could mix well-ground up Tums with egg whites and make a coating pretty similar to chicken egg shell.

Well dosh garnet Craig, you know I have to try it now.
Next time I go to the store I'll get some eggs (organic of course). I've already got the tums, but I might try to secure some pure calcium carbonate to avoid the very small amount of additives in tums (food coloring, adhesive, etc.).

I'd also be interested in other protein sources for this eggshell-making experiment.

Something that has not been addressed yet is the shape of an egg. As Craig mentioned, the egg is soft when fresh out of the chicken. The shape is formed (I believe) as the egg passes through the sphincter muscles of the chicken. This is biologically profound in many ways. The shape of the egg protects the embryo from pressure forces, be it from the hen sitting atop, a slight drop out of the nest, or a predator (though not so much so for the latter). It's an incredibly strong shape.

Indestructible Egg - Science Tricks - Surfing Scientist - The Lab

It would be interesting to see an impact test that addressed the differences between oval (egg shape) and sphere.

What could make an even more interesting experiment would be to try creating the fake-egg shell in the shape of an actual egg. The wafer should be as thin as possible in the end, to mimic eggshell. The thinner the better in the beginning, I can always go thicker later. If it can be done, it would be easy to test the comparative strengths.

I suppose one way of accomplishing this is to create a mold of an egg, and use this mold to create a mold of an egg (make sense?). These molds could be used in conjunction, with the fake-shell material sandwiched in between. It is left to dry, or very slightly warmed to speed up the process. Of course, the material would have to be cut in half to extract the egg mold, which would most likely completely compromise the integrity unless there is a way to seal it back together without seam weakness.

[orbsycli]

let us know how that goes.

the thought of all those animals being tortured so these lazy ass american idiots can drive to the store and scarf it down really really makes me sick. literally. like...nauseous.

[freeztar]

Originally Posted by orbsycli

the thought of all those animals being tortured so these lazy ass american idiots can drive to the store and scarf it down really really makes me sick. literally. like...nauseous.

While the topic of this thread is "egg", I will not go into animal cruelty except to say that free-range is cage-free (mostly). Even better is to have your own chicks, and harvest their eggs.

[orbsycli]

What does free range constitute?

[CraigD]

Originally Posted by freeztar

What could make an even more interesting experiment would be to try creating the fake-egg shell in the shape of an actual egg. The wafer should be as thin as possible in the end, to mimic eggshell. The thinner the better in the beginning, I can always go thicker later. If it can be done, it would be easy to test the comparative strengths.

I suppose one way of accomplishing this is to create a mold of an egg, and use this mold to create a mold of an egg (make sense?).

The shape of a chick egg is, I think, due primarily to the shape of the amniotic (not exactly the correct term, but roughly analogous) sack that it forms around.

An accurate way to create an artificial egg, then, would be to paint the fake egg shell mixture onto something similar to a natural egg sack, such as a small water-inflated balloon. For even more accuracy, coat the inside of an elastic tube, such as a condom, insert the balloon, let it sit and squish is around a bit, then squirt it out – basically construct an artificial hen oviduct, and “lay” the egg from it.

I’m eager to hear how the experiment turns out