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With Easter just around the corner, egg ranches in North County are gearing up for their busiest week of the year.
One popular destination for egg buyers is the San Pasqual Academy Egg Ranch, 3 miles east of the Wild Animal Park in the San Pasqual Valley.
The ranch, opened in the early 1950s, is part of a Seventh-day Adventists boarding high school. Here, dozens of cages set against an imposing background of boulder-strewn hills are home to more than 40,000 chickens.
"We're one of the very few ranches which are strictly vegetarian in their methods of feeding chickens," said ranch manager Glenn Lewis, who has held the position for more than 25 years.
Twice a day, students at the academy work in the ranch's egg-grading room, sorting and packaging the fragile product.
The job requires clear vision and steady hands. After the eggs are set on a conveyor belt, they must go through the "candling" process, slowly rotating through an illuminated section of the belt. Each egg is examined by hand for spots, dirt, or cracks-those that don't make the grade are discarded.
Small or slightly cracked ones go to commercial egg breakers, who in turn,...