ARE YOU WILLING TO WHISK IT ALL?

USING HER BEAK, A HEN WILL TURN HER EGG AN AVERAGE OF 50 TIMES IN A SINGLE DAY IN ORDER TO ROTATE THE EMBRYO INTO THE THE EGG WHITE AND ITS NUTRIENTS, ACCORDING TO PURDUE UNIVERSITY. The search for Fabergé eggs puts the average Easter egg hunt to shame Sa

Conditions for Canadian egg-laying hens are currently in flux, but as of March 2017, roughly 90 per cent lived in cramped battery cages. Space is so constrained in these enclosures that hens are unable to spread their wings, walk or engage in other natural behaviours such as laying their eggs in nests. Each bird reportedly has less floor space than the size of a standard letter-sized sheet of paper.

As part of a National Farm Animal Care Council code, Canadian egg farmers will entirely phase out battery cages by 2036 and transition to enriched cages or cage-free barns. Some animal welfare advocates, such as Mercy for Animals, view the long timeline as “simply outrageous.”

Food companies such as Tim Hortons, Burger King, Starbucks, McDonald’s and Subway have committed to serving exclusively cage-free eggs at all North American outlets by 2025. But a “cage-free” label simply means hens aren’t raised in battery cages. It doesn’t mean the birds have access to the outdoors or offer any assurances as to diet or the medications they may be given.

“Free-run” means that hens can roam freely but not necessarily outdoors, and not necessarily in spacious conditions (overcrowding can still occur). A “free-range” label refers to hens raised in an open barn system, which includes access to the outdoors, weather permitting.

According to the David Suzuki Foundation, certified organic eggs are the best choice as they “benefit from the highest welfare standards.” Third party labels, such as SPCA Certified, guarantee that the eggs were produced on farms that comply with their animal welfare guidelines.

In what could be considered the world’s largest Easter egg hunt, hundreds of Fabergé egg lovers and art historians have researched and travelled around the world for decades in search of the famous missing eggs. Whether the eggs even exist at all, however, is a century-old mystery – one that’s bred a war between Russian and American art collectors in a bid to discover and own the most, each containing mysterious messages and contents potentially worth millions of dollars.

It’s an unusual item to have achieved such significance. An egg, oval in shape and bland in whiteness, is, after all, likely the last food item you’d expect to carry any sort of allure, much less glamour. Yet, for the House of Fabergé, a Russian jewellery firm founded in 1842 in St. Petersburg, it became a defining symbol of wealth and luxury when, in 1885, Tsar Alexander III commissioned an Easter egg as a gift for his wife, Empress Maria Fedorovna. After the Tsar’s death in 1894, his son, Nicholas II, followed in his father’s footsteps, gifting Fabergé eggs to both his mother and his own wife, Alexandra Fedorovna.

A spoil of riches, the initial egg’s shell was enamelled in gold. It pulled apart to reveal a gold yolk, which itself opened to reveal a gold chicken that

opened to reveal a replica of the Imperial Crown, attached to a glimmering ruby pendant. Fabergé would go on to design similar works for other clients, including the Rothschild family and the Duchess of Marlborough. Each egg was unique, made from a range of materials, whether it was gold or crystal, flecked in emeralds, pearls and diamonds, always ranging in size.

Every year (except for 1904 and 1905, during the RussoJapanese War), Fabergé continued to make increasingly grand and elaborate Imperial eggs for the royal family. But the real-life fantasy came to a crashing halt in 1917 when Fabergé’s final two eggs, already designed, would go un- delivered due to the Russian Revolution and the fall of the Romanov dynasty.

Overthrown and executed, it was the end of the imperial family. The eggs left behind would remain not only a symbol of their reign, but their fate – described by Walters Art Museum curator Jo Briggs as “the Mona Lisa of the decorative art world.” The revolution spelled the end for the firm as well when, in 1918, it was nationalized by the Bolsheviks, and the Fabergé family left Russia for Switzerland. The family trademark was sold several times in the decades since, leading to countless copycat egg-related jewellery.

In total, the House of Fabergé completed 50 (or 52, according to different reports) Imperial eggs for Alexander and his family, but only 42 are known to still exist, with many stored in private collections or museums, most notably the Kremlin Armoury Museum. Some are believed to have been stolen during the revolution, while others were sold to private dealers, including Armand Hammer. A cluster also now lives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while the British Royal Family owns three.

The Bolsheviks’ intent was to profit, selling away the shells and yolks separately in an effort to get the most bang for their buck, which is why the eggs are now largely considered impossible to piece back together.

Although over a century has passed, the enigma behind the eggs has only grown. The odds of one day locating all of the shells and interior pieces is unlikely, however. In 2012, the third Imperial egg was found in the home of an American man who Google searched the egg, years after buying it at an antique market. He discovered it was worth as much as $33 million.

Despite this one serendipitous find, it may finally be time to consider the mystery of the Fabergé eggs one that may never be fully cracked.