History
As late as the 1940s, small, backyard flocks of chickens made up the majority of the egg industry. After these chickens had laid a relatively small number of eggs they were consumed for meat. Hens also entered into a natural molt during the winter months and stopped producing eggs. Consumers wanting to purchase eggs during the winter months had to receive them from cold storage, which quite often meant nothing more than simply the farmer's basement. The eggs could be several weeks old by the time the consumer actually received them.
Backyard chickens, continuously subjected to diseases, freezing, predators, poisoning, and in fighting, had a precarious existence and a normal mortality rate as high as 40 percent per year. Average yearly egg production was little more than 100 eggs per year for each hen and microbes from poultry diseases contaminated many of these eggs.
