An 'Egg-stra' Boost to Feed Both Campus and Community

Fluffy scrambled eggs, omelets and breakfast burritos are all made possible by an egg-ceptional program feeding both campus and the community. Produced by hens raised on campus and cared for by our students, these eggs are part of nutritious meals found in the Dining Commons, a staple at The Pantry and helping local organizations like the Yolo County Food Bank.

The UC Davis Avian Facility on campus houses several bird species, including chickens, and gives students hands-on experience in animal care and poultry research. The facility, within the Department of Animal Science, focuses on teaching and research covering topics like bird health, hatchery practices, egg production and how biosecurity plays an important role to prevent diseases. It also supports food programs on and off campus, connecting student learning with community impact.

The facility is currently home to several cage-free hens as part of an ongoing research project. These birds not only provide valuable learning opportunities for students but also produce an egg-straordinary weekly yield. Facility Manager Kevin Bellido said one hen lays an egg roughly every 25 hours, so that’s usually about five eggs per week, per hen. From this current project’s hen population, that adds up to approximately 2,000 eggs a week.

“Our role is to make sure every single animal within this facility is healthy, has enough food for 24 hours, and has access to water,” Bellido said. “So, every single day, 365 days a year, we have somebody checking on them. For the chickens, we're collecting eggs by hand every day, properly storing them in our egg fridges, following proper rules, and doing the egg washing system to wash them and disinfect them in order to have them either sold or donated.”

Hatching a plan

This week, Bellido and his team donated 24 flats (30 eggs per flat), or roughly 750 eggs, to the Yolo County Food Bank. Bellido said the cage-free eggs were washed and disinfected to be ready for human consumption. The food bank sent a refrigerated box truck to campus to pick up the donation.

Another 540 eggs were donated to The Pantry, a student-run organization that provides food and other basic essentials to those in need within the campus community. The Pantry is located on the first floor of the Memorial Union and offers a variety of food items, including fresh produce, pantry staples and non-perishable goods.

Bellido also hopes to start a new collaboration to donate eggs to the Yolo Crisis Nursery, which provides free care for children. For as long as there are hens producing eggs, Bellido plans to continue to donate.

“The hens can keep producing a good steady amount of healthy, good quality eggs until June or July,” he said. “Right about that time is when we’d be shifting from the project to hopefully our own birds to continuously produce cage-free eggs. I want to continue this as long as I have the extra eggs to provide for them.”

Sunny side up solution

The eggs are also a stream of revenue for the facility, which started as a research facility in 1954. This week, they sold a total of 104 flats of eggs to the Dining Commons to be used for student meals and snacks at Segundo, Tercero and Cuarto dining halls as well as other campus dining locations. Bellido said this partnership first started around 2021 and has helped the facility with funding to upgrade equipment, like nest boxes, which are small, sheltered spaces where hens lay eggs, keeping them clean, safe and easy to collect.

"The Dining Commons do pay for the eggs, and it helps us buy better equipment,” Bellido said. “That's what my motivation is, to get more funding for us, so that way we can better our facility and then also have enough eggs to donate to other organizations as well."

Bellido has been involved with UC Davis and the Avian Facility for the past 10 years. He studied animal science and was a barn resident to the Avian Facility as an undergraduate student. While he now oversees the birds’ health, manages staff, maintains equipment and coordinates with researchers, he especially enjoys helping students learn and see the impact they can make.

“Whenever I have my classes or the internships here, during the first couple weeks of training, the students get to collect eggs by hand and they’re like, ‘Wow, it’s so crazy,’ when they feel a freshly laid egg,” he said. “Mentioning to these students that if you’ve ever been to Segundo, Tercero and Cuarto, or Latitude restaurant, and you’ve eaten some of the eggs, you might have had some of our eggs, and that’s just also amazing to them.” 

Bellido and the facility staff are also looking forward to supporting FFA and 4-H students during the upcoming Field Day on campus set for March 6-7 and organizing the popular chick-handling exhibit at Meyer Hall during Picnic Day on April 18.