Have you ever watched a chicken lay an egg? Think hard before you answer. Many of us may instinctively say, “Of course I have!” but then realize we’ve only seen movie scenes or cartoons depicting hens laying eggs. Few of us have actually witnessed a real egg come out of a real hen in real life.

Even fewer of us have seen it the way the folks at @chickenwifehappylife captured it. One of their chickens hopped onto a workbench and laid her egg right on the table in front of them. No nesting-box privacy for this lady. She wanted to show the world what she goes through to lay a single egg, and frankly, she has every right.

Watch a hen lay an egg:

@chickenwifehappylife This was a first for us..when she made her nest on my husbands tool bench I pulled out the camera. The whole process was about 10 mins from start to finish…#chickenlayinganegg #egglaying #hen #chicken #chickeneggs ♬ Suasana Pedesaan Dan Kicauan Burung – NYong Niode

This was a first for us..when she made her nest on my husbands tool bench I pulled out the camera. The whole process was about 10 mins from start to finish…#chickenlayinganegg #egglaying #hen #chicken #chickeneggs ♬ Suasana Pedesaan Dan Kicauan Burung – NYong Niode

Now see if the comments match what you were thinking:

“Was I the only one that wasn’t sure exactly where the egg was going to pop out of?”

“Great. Now I feel awful eating eggs. She went through all that and I just come along and see breakfast. Damn.”

“Totally makes sense why chickens are so mean. If I had to go through childbirth every day of my life, I’d be a raging lunatic too!”

“I never stopped to appreciate the eggs I consumed. After watching this, I have more respect for eggs and the chickens that lay them.”

“Girl… I promise not to complain about the price of eggs. Please take a day off, you deserve it.”

“I’d be pissed if I had to lay an egg every day.”

“We should have a moment of silence every time we crack an egg as respect. That was some work!”

The overwhelming sentiments people shared were: (1) “Wow, I have truly never watched a hen lay an egg before,” and (2) “Wow, I will never take eggs for granted again.” Some also said, “I don’t know if I want to eat eggs anymore,” rethinking their breakfast choices.

Does it hurt a chicken to lay an egg?

Watching this hen lay her egg on the workbench had people feeling for her. It’s a bit reminiscent of giving birth, especially with her bearing down and “singing the egg song” just before it popped out.

According to The Humane League, most experts agree that laying eggs is not generally painful for hens. How do they know? Here are the specifics:

“The reason it is hard to answer this question with complete clarity is because, of course, chickens cannot tell us for sure whether they’re experiencing pain when laying eggs. There are some signs, but we have to be careful not to misread them. For example, for a long time humans (including that first century Roman writer, Columella) believed that the sound many chickens make before laying indicated pain. However, studies found that the sound was instead an “egg song,” which could have a number of explanations, including happiness and scaring off predators. Another study found that when a hen “sings” it is more likely to be associated with contentment, while cackling aligns with danger.”

Naturally, there are things that can go wrong during the egg-laying process that can make it painful. Signs that a hen is in distress while laying include wheezing, distressed squawking, not eating or drinking, isolating, hunching over, drooping, avoiding movement or activity, and slow or awkward movements. Most of the time, however, a hen will recover immediately after laying an egg and go on with life as if nothing happened.

How often do chickens lay eggs?

Hens basically lay eggs daily, but that’s a bit oversimplified.

The University of Wisconsin–Madison notes that hens ovulate, releasing an egg yolk, every 24 to 26 hours. It then takes about 26 hours for the egg white and shell to form around the yolk. As a result, hens typically lay one egg per day, but the timing shifts later each day. Once in a while, a hen will also “skip” a day or two.

Hens did not originally lay more than 300 eggs a year, however. Through centuries of selective breeding, humans have “engineered” chickens to become more prolific egg layers.

Many people have concerns about the well-being of hens used in the industrial production of eggs. Even when we try to make ethical choices about the food we consume, the details are not always clear. Labels on egg cartons, such as “organic,” “cage-free,” and “pasture-raised,” can be confusing, but Certified Humane offers an explainer that helps demystify these terms.

Whatever egg choices we make, seeing the laying process may at least give us a newfound respect and gratitude for the hens who lay them.

Music, community and joy drive real change

In a small village in Pwani, a district on Tanzania’s coast, a massive dance party is coming to a close. For the past two hours, locals have paraded through the village streets, singing and beating ngombe drums; now, in a large clearing, a woman named Sheilla motions for everyone to sit facing a large projector screen. A film premiere is about to begin. 

It’s an unusual way to kick off a film about gender bias, inequality, early marriage, and other barriers that prevent girls from accessing education in Tanzania. But in Pwani and beyond, local organizations supported by Malala Fund and funded by Pura are finding creative, culturally relevant ways like this one to capture people’s interest. 

The film ends and Sheilla, the Communications and Partnership Lead for Media for Development and Advocacy (MEDEA), stands in front of the crowd once again, asking the audience to reflect: What did you think about the film? How did it relate to your own experience? What can we learn? 

Sheilla explains that, once the community sees the film, “It brings out conversations within themselves, reflective conversations.” The resonance and immediate action create a ripple effect of change.

Across Tanzania, gender-based violence often forces adolescent girls out of the classroom. This and other barriers — including child marriage, poverty, conflict, and discrimination — prevent girls from completing their education around the world. 

Sheilla and her team are using film and radio programs to address the challenges girls face in their communities. MEDEA’s ultimate goal is to affirm education as a fundamental right for everyone, and to ensure that every member of a community understands how girls’ education contributes to a stronger whole and how to be an ally for their sisters, daughters, granddaughters, friends, nieces, and girlfriends. 

Sheilla’s story is one of many that inspired Heart on Fire, a new fragrance from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection that blends the warm, earthy spices of Tanzania with a playful, joyful twist. Here’s how Pura is using scent as a tool to connect the world and inspire action.

A partnership focused on local impact, on a global mission

Pura, a fragrance company that recognizes education as both freedom and a human right, has partnered with Malala Fund since 2022. In order to defend every girl’s right to access and complete 12 years of education, Malala Fund partners with local organizations in countries where the educational barriers are the greatest. They invest in locally-led solutions because they know that those who are closest to the problems are best equipped to solve and build durable solutions, like MEDEA, which works with communities to challenge discrimination against girls and change beliefs about their education. 

But local initiatives can thrive and scale more powerfully with global support, which is why Pura is using their own superpower, the power of scent, to connect people around the world with the women and girls in these local communities. 

The Pura x Malala Fund Collection incorporates ingredients naturally found in Tanzania, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Brazil: countries where Malala Fund operates to address systemic education barriers. Eight percent of net revenue from the Pura x Malala Fund Collection will be donated to Malala Fund directly, but beyond financial support, the Collection is also a love letter to each unique community, blending notes like lemon, jasmine, cedarwood, and clove to transport people, ignite their senses, and help them draw inspiration and hope from the global movement for girls’ education. Through scent, people can connect to the courage, joy, and tenacity of girls and local leaders, all while uniting in a shared commitment to education: the belief that supporting girls’ rights in one community benefits all of us, everywhere. 

You’ve already met Sheilla. Now see how Naiara and Mama Habiba are building unique solutions to ensure every girl can learn freely and dare to dream.

Naiara Leite is reimagining what’s possible in Brazil

In Brazil, where pear trees and coconut plantations cover the Northeastern Coast, girls like ten-year-old Julia experience a different kind of educational barrier than girls in Tanzania. Too often, racial discrimination contributes to high dropout rates among Black, quilombola and Indigenous girls in the country. 

“In the logic of Brazilian society, Black people don’t need to study,” says Naiara Leite, Executive Coordinator of Odara, a women-led organization and Malala Fund partner. Bahia, the state where Odara is based, was once one of the largest slave-receiving territories in the Americas, and because of that history, deeply-ingrained, anti-Black prejudice is still widespread. “Our role and the image constructed around us is one of manual labor,” Naiara says. 

But education can change that. In 2020, with assistance from a Malala Fund grant, Odara launched its first initiative for improving school completion rates among Black, quilombola, and Indigenous girls: “Ayomidê Odara”. The young girls mentored under the program, including Julia, are known as the Ayomidês. And like the Pura x Malala Fund Collection’s Brazil: Breath of Courage scent, the Ayomidês are fierce, determined, and bursting with energy.

Ayomidês take part in weekly educational sessions where they explore subjects like education and ethnic-racial relations. The girls are encouraged to find their own voices by producing Instagram lives, social media videos, and by participating in public panels. Already, the Ayomidês are rewriting the narrative on what’s possible for Afro-Brazilian girls to achieve. One of the earliest Ayomidês, a young woman named Debora, is now a communications intern. Another former Ayomidê, Francine, works at UNICEF, helping train the next generation of adolescent leaders. And Julia has already set her sights on becoming a math teacher or a model. 

“These are generations of Black women who did not have access to a school,” Naiara says. “These are generations of Black women robbed daily of their dreams. And we’re telling them that they could be the generation in their family to write a new story.” 

Mama Habiba is reframing the conversation in Nigeria 

In Mama Habiba’s home country of Nigeria, the scents of starfruit, ylang ylang and pineapple, all incorporated into the Pura x Malala Collection’s “Nigeria: Hope for Tomorrow,” can be found throughout the vibrant markets. Like these native scents, Mama Habiba says that the Nigerian girls are also bright and passionate, but too often they are forced to leave school long before their potential fully blooms. 

​​“Some of these schools are very far, and there is an issue of quality, too,” Mama Habiba says. “Most parents find out when their children are in school, the girls are not learning. So why allow them to continue?” 

When girls drop out of secondary school, marriage is often the alternative. In Nigeria, one in three girls is married before the age of 18. When this happens, girls are unable to fulfill their potential, and their families and communities lose out on the social, health and economic benefits.

Completing secondary school delays marriage, and according to UNESCO, educated girls become women who raise healthier children, lift their families out of poverty and contribute to more peaceful, resilient communities.

To encourage young girls to stay in school, the Centre for Girls’ Education, a nonprofit in Nigeria founded by Mama Habiba and supported by Malala Fund and Pura, has pioneered an initiative that’s similar to the Ayomidê workshops in Brazil: safe spaces. Here, girls meet regularly to learn literacy, numeracy, and other issues like reproductive health. These safe spaces also provide an opportunity for the girls to role-play and learn to advocate for themselves, develop their self-image, and practice conversations with others about their values, education being one of them. In safe spaces, Mama Habiba says, girls start to understand “who she is, and that she is a girl who has value. She has the right to negotiate with her parents on what she really feels or wants.”

“When girls are educated, they can unlock so many opportunities,” Mama Habiba says. “It will help the economy of the country. It will boost so many opportunities for the country. If they are given the opportunity, I think the sky is not the limit. It is the starting point for every girl.”  

From parades, film screenings to safe spaces and educational programs, girls and local leaders are working hard to strengthen the quality, safety and accessibility of education and overcome systemic challenges. They are encouraging courageous behavior and reminding us all that education is freedom.

Experience the Pura x Malala Fund Collection here, and connect with the stories of real girls leading change across the globe.

Science lovers got a treat recently when new research on sperm whales was quietly released. Researchers not only witnessed the birth of a baby sperm whale, but also saw elder females, including the grandmother, acting as midwives. Very few species assist with birth outside of humans, but it seems sperm whales can now join that short list.

Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative)........

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