HAPPY HENS

HAPPY HENS
In pursuit of free-range eggs-cellence in Reno-Tahoe.

WRITTEN BY BARBARA TWITCHELL
PHOTOS BY CAROLE TOPALIAN

As Dawn Spinola exits her back door and walks toward the neat row of hen houses a short distance away, a strange thing begins to happen. The very ground starts to move. Or so it seems as a sea of multi-colored feathers travels toward her in an undulating wave. Chickens – no less than 800 of them – all eagerly rush forward to greet her like so many clucking pets. She laughs happily as she saunters through the throng.

“So what do you think?” she asks. “Humane?”

Talk about an understatement.

Raising chickens in a natural, humane, and healthy environment is of primary importance to Dawn and Alan Spinola, who barely a year ago started their thriving business, RenoEgg.com. It all began with five cute, baby chicks that Dawn couldn’t resist buying. By the end of 2011, these former city dwellers hope to have 2,000 happy, well-loved laying hens on their Phoenix Ranch, just north of Reno.

Spinola attributes their success to increasing consumer awareness and concern about the quality and safety of the food on their plates. For starters, she says, happy hens produce great tasting eggs.

“Numerous people ask me, ‘What’s the difference?’” she says. “I say, just eat one of these next to a supermarket egg and you’ll never ask again.”

BETTER BAKER

Nancy Horn, owner of Dish Café & Catering in Reno and a strong advocate of using local and fresh ingredients, wholeheartedly agrees.

“It’s just a better performing egg … more delicious, more sumptuous, fluffier,” she says, “and it tastes better when we’re baking.”

And who should know better? In the preparation of her menu items, Horn uses 25 to 40 dozen eggs a week. Ninety-eight percent are locally sourced, farm-fresh eggs from pastured, humanely raised birds.

In addition to the improved flavor and cooking performance of these eggs, both Spinola and Horn point out that there are important health, safety, and ethical considerations as well.

“Shelf life is too long on supermarket eggs,” Horn says. “They’re not as fresh. And there’s such an unhealthy environment for most chickens.”

HEALTH CONCERNS

A massive recall of salmonella-tainted eggs last August brought these issues to national attention. The recall shed an unnerving spotlight onto the unsanitary and inhumane conditions of “factory” chickens that supply most of the nation’s egg supply.

Spinola’s operation, like many other local ranches, stands in sharp contrast to this. Not only is it obvious to any visitor that her chickens are healthy and well cared for, but also Spinola sells no eggs more than a week old, which ensures optimal flavor and product safety.

Additionally, a small but growing body of reliable research strongly suggests that the nutritional content of eggs from hens that have truly been pasture raised – that are allowed to forage daily in natural sunlight, on grass, grubs, bugs, and the like – produce a significantly superior egg. These eggs, when compared to official USDA data for factory-farm eggs, have been found to contain 1/3 less cholesterol, ¼ less saturated fat, 2/3 more vitamin A, twice the omega-3 fatty acids, three times more vitamin E, seven times more beta carotene, and three to six times more vitamin D.

Nancy Horn sums it up nicely.

“A happy chicken is going to give you a better-tasting, more nutritious product,” Horn says. “And you have a clean conscience knowing that they were treated humanely and with respect.”

Or as Dawn Spinola would say, “These birds are loved, which to me means their eggs have good juju.”

And who couldn’t use a little more of that these days?

Reno writer Barbara Twitchell is convinced that there are lots of good reasons to put a few happy chickens in her own backyard. The question is, will she chicken out?