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A Yolk You Can Lift: Hen Houses and Egg Tests

Master Cho Han-kyu, interpreted by Kim Chang, Founder of Korean Natural Farming (Janong)

Spoken in Korean. Translated to English and checked line by line.

It's past 9 pm and Cho keeps going through his poultry slides: soil floors and dust baths, Korea's pesticide eggs, the hen that roosts highest, broody cages, dark laying boxes and rice hulls. He shows home-made feed, pig feed from broiler litter, and how to test an egg: lift the yolk, look for three layers, pull it with a toothpick. Then blood spots, red paper against pecking, dissected birds and darker yolks from purple sweet potato.

What they found

The question

How does Cho keep laying hens calm and clean, feed them cheaply, and tell a good egg from a bad one?

How they tested it

Late Friday evening; the interpreter and the room are tired and Cho carries on. Slides: hens on a soil floor, a broody cage, curtained laying boxes, chopped greens, a four-photo feed slide (sweet potato vine, culled sweet potatoes, red clay, IMO4), sifted broiler litter, a yolk lifted by fingers and chopsticks (2:46), dissected birds, a KBS1 stress-hormone chart (9배), and yolk colours.

What was compared
  • Breaking a broody hen — Put her in a wire cage inside the coop, where she can see the flock, until the habit passes; feed her lots of protein (Cho: meat) and it goes fast. Don't put her outside: brought back, the others peck her to death.
  • Home-made poultry feed — Sweet potato vines + sweet potatoes too poor to sell + red clay + IMO4, mixed and fed. No ratios given.
  • Fermented greens — Give greens fermented, not raw, for more nutritional value. How to ferment them was put off for lack of time.
  • Pig feed from broiler litter — After the broilers ship, sift the floor litter: the straw stays on top, the droppings fall through. Add IMO4, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeast, and ferment once more. No ratios given.
  • Stopping hens pecking a bleeding hen — Cut red paper and scatter it on the floor; with so much red around they don't peck at her vent. The keeper wears green trousers, never a skirt.
Results
  1. On a soil floor the droppings break down and the hens dust-bathe

    The floor stays soft.

    ▶ 2:30:16 From the slides

  2. Korea's 2017 pesticide eggs: caged hens get mites, so pesticide went into the feed

    Pesticide eggs turned up from big companies.

    ▶ 2:30:47 As spoken

  3. The best layer roosts highest; the others send her up

    'Chickens know how to honour the one that works hard.' Be humble doing natural farming.

    ▶ 2:36:52 As spoken

  4. Broody hens go in a wire cage inside the coop until the habit passes

    Feed her meat and it passes fast.

    ▶ 2:39:12 From the slides

  5. Cover the laying box with dark cloth; hens lay in comfort with less stress

    They dislike bright light when laying.

    ▶ 2:40:59 From the slides

  6. Rice hulls on the floor keep eggs clean, so they need no washing

    Not interpreted.

    ▶ 2:41:57 From the slides

  7. Give greens fermented, not raw

    Chickens eat greens endlessly; fermented, they're worth much more.

    ▶ 2:42:24 From the slides

  8. Home feed: sweet potato vines, culled sweet potatoes, red clay and IMO4

    Mixed together.

    ▶ 2:43:43 From the slides

  9. Sifted broiler litter with IMO4, LAB and yeast, fermented again, is pig feed

    You don't have to buy pig feed.

    ▶ 2:44:25 From the slides

  10. A natural farming yolk can be lifted by hand or chopsticks without breaking

    ▶ 2:46:02 From the slides

  11. Crack it on a plate: a good egg shows three layers and a yolk that stands up

    Thin liquid, thick white, raised yolk.

    ▶ 2:46:24 From the slides

  12. Toothpick test: stick it in the yolk and pull; a good yolk follows

    Market eggs break as soon as you stick it in.

    ▶ 2:47:20 From the slides

  13. Blood spots come from a hen startled before laying

    A dog passing the coop, a mongoose, or a keeper's fluttering skirt the hens take for a hawk.

    ▶ 2:49:10 As spoken

  14. Red excites hens: a bleeding vent gets pecked; scatter red paper; keeper in green

    When a hen lays, her vent can turn out and bleed; the others peck it and she dies.

    ▶ 2:50:47 As spoken

  15. Brown-rice hens: long gut, big gizzard; compound-feed hens: small gizzard, fat, fatty liver

    Shown on slides of dissected birds.

    ▶ 2:52:36 From the slides

  16. Stress-response hormone about 9 times higher in Natural Farming hens

    Slide from KBS1's '동물공장' documentary, part 2, '산란기계, 닭' (9배). NF hens stay calm; caged hens panic at the slightest fright.

    ▶ 2:55:30 From the slides

  17. Purple sweet potato deepens yolk colour toward red, which raises the egg price

    Natural farming yolks are already darker orange.

    ▶ 2:57:26 As spoken

Hold it loosely
  • Cho also says conventional eggs and vegetables carry pesticide that harms children's health, and that weak-yolk eggs hold 'poison, not protein'; these were not tested here and we don't repeat them as advice.
  • The stress-hormone figure comes from a TV documentary slide; how it was measured isn't shown.
  • No ratios are given for the home-made feed, the fermented greens or the litter feed.
  • One pass heard Cho say hens do not like red; the interpreter said they like it. Either way, red excites them.
For your farm
  • Keep a soil floor with rice hulls or straw; the hens dust-bathe and the eggs stay clean.
  • Cage a broody hen inside the coop, not outside, and feed her protein.
  • Darken laying boxes, and don't startle hens before they lay.
  • Ferment greens before feeding; turn sifted broiler litter into pig feed with IMO4, LAB and yeast.
  • Check your eggs: lift the yolk, look for three layers, try a toothpick.
  • Keep red paper on hand for a bleeding hen; wear green in the coop.

Next to Master Cho's teaching

  • Agrees

    Toothpick test for a good yolk In Hawaiʻi in 2016 Cho gave the same test: stick a toothpick in the yolk and pull; if the whole yolk comes, it's good.

    2016/Cho - Hawaii/IMG_6332 @ 0:24:44 (translated)

  • Agrees

    Broody hens go in a wire cage, not outside the coop In the 2017 advanced fruit seminar he gives the same reason: broody hens get killed by the others, so they're separated into a metal cage.

    2017/Advanced Cho/advanced fruit/IMG_3221 @ 1:09:50 (translated)

  • Agrees

    Red paper on the floor stops hens pecking a bleeding hen Same remedy in his DVD lectures: they peck the red paper instead of the injured hen.

    Cho - DVD rips/NAT_FARM_12 @ 1:11:27 (translated)

  • Goes further

    Feed greens fermented His book says fresh green grass is good feed, about a third of an adult hen's diet. Here he adds that greens should be fermented first.

    Cho, Janong Natural Farming (2003), p. 187

“Chickens know how to honor the one that works hard, but people treat the one who works hard as lesser.”

▶ 2:37:45

“When you do natural farming in Hawaiʻi, don't show off. Let's do it from a humble place.”

▶ 2:38:47

In this talk

  1. 2:30:05Soil floors and Korea's pesticide eggs
  2. 2:31:41Admin: it's 9:15 and his wife says finish
  3. 2:32:49Pesticide in conventional food (health claims)
  4. 2:36:44Hens honour the hardest worker
  5. 2:39:12Broody hens, laying boxes, rice hulls
  6. 2:42:15Fermented greens and home-made feed
  7. 2:44:24Pig feed from broiler litter
  8. 2:46:00How to tell a good egg
  9. 2:48:49Blood spots, red paper, green pants
  10. 2:52:35Brown rice vs compound feed: gizzard and fatty liver
  11. 2:55:29Stress hormone 9x, and redder yolks

Transcript

English translation, checked against the Korean as spoken.