Eggs

Seeking to buy eggs produced in a more humane way, McDonald's Corp. said Thursday that it would undertake a large-scale study involving tens of thousands of hens. But the Humane Society of the United States said the study probably would delay any significant move by McDonald's into the U.S. cage-free egg market -- a step some of its rivals have taken. Most eggs produced in the U.S.

Californians voted resoundingly to free about 20 million egg-laying hens of tiny cages. But in passing Proposition 2, the farm animal welfare measure, did the state's consumers yoke themselves to higher egg prices? For months farmers had contended that the measure would drive up egg prices or even put them out of business because of the high cost of retrofitting their farms with cage-free facilities.

Likening the case to a plot hatched from a Hollywood script, federal authorities are investigating how a well-preserved nest of fossilized dinosaur eggs ended up at a Los Angeles auction house. The nest, which included 22 unhatched eggs believed to be at least 65 million years old, were apparently smuggled out of China to be sold here, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.

National Park Service biologists said two bald eagles have an egg in their nest on Santa Cruz Island, their second in as many years. More significant is that the egg might mean bald eagles can reproduce naturally in the Channel Islands. The number of eagles on the islands declined in the 1960s because of over-hunting and the heavy use of the chemical DDT.

PERUSING the refrigerated egg section at many markets is kind of like looking up at the steps of Machu Picchu. You're standing there in front of rows and rows of eggs and wondering how to begin -- eggs with omega-3, organic eggs, cage-free eggs, brown eggs, jumbo eggs, fertile eggs. The Times' tasting panel met to find the best-tasting eggs among a wide sampling. Joining me on the panel were columnist Russ Parsons, staff writer Charles Perry and restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila.

A peregrine falcon shrieked in vain Friday as scientists snatched three eggs from their precarious perch beneath the Bay Bridge in an attempt to save the chicks from a deadly fall or car collision when they hatch. "It's the most dangerous place in the world for them," said Brian Latta, a UC Santa Cruz biologist who removed the eggs from a narrow beam about 200 feet above San Francisco Bay.

Louisiana's decorated Easter egg for the White House Visitors Center is split like a jeweled clam and features a chef with a bottle of Tabasco. Alabama's is a red, white and blue homage to Space Camp. Wisconsin's is a glittering depiction of butterflies and flowers. Then there's Wyoming's: It bears a crudely drawn skiing egg, wings holding the poles.

In June, the consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest blew its top -- excoriating egg companies in a news release for adding omega-3 fatty acids to their eggs (via nutrients added to the hens' feed) then trumpeting the eggs' nutritional fabulousness. An egg contains just more than 200 milligrams of dietary cholesterol, above the dietary limit set by the American Heart Assn. for people at increased risk of heart disease.

A monastery will halt its egg farming after claims by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals that the Trappist monks mistreated hens. Father Stan Gumula of Mepkin Abbey said in a statement Wednesday that pressure from PETA had made it difficult for the monks to live a quiet life of prayer, work and sacred reading. He said the monks were sad to give up "a hard and honorable work of which they are proud." The monks admitted no wrongdoing, and a spokeswoman declined to elaborate.

For the first time in more than half a century, a bald eagle has laid an egg on Santa Cruz Island, marking a major milestone for scientists overseeing a restoration program of the federally protected species on the northern Channel Islands. After years of attempting to repopulate the eight islands off the coast with bald eagles, biologists confirmed this week the sighting of an egg in a nest established last fall by two young birds.