Free Range or Value eggs?

zar

xlt_hunter wrote:

Back to topic - to me vaule or FR eggs is no bother to me, okay the poor birds are in a cage, but they are treated, fed and watered well - they must live a boring life though.

Afraid I haven't read the whole thread so someone else has probably said something similar, but there is just no contest between the lives of battery chickens and free-range. We've had a few ex-battery hens (some people do rescues - the farmer lets people have the chickens after their first year when they are no longer productive instead of killing them).

I don't have a problem with keeping animals in cages per se (my guinea pigs are in cage, as is my dog at night!) or inside (when DH was a dairy farmworker he assures me that the cows would much rather be in the warm in winter! - though they are really happy and excited when they go out in the spring). I do have a problem with overcrowded conditions and animals not being able to behave naturally. When the chickens arrive from the battery farm the amount of feathers they have varies, some of them only have a couple missing whilst others are really bad and look very similar to chickens in the supermarket! At first they don't know what to do when they are let outside, but really quickly they start scratching at the earth and pecking at the grass. After a few months they have grown the feathers back and develop their personalities. The eggs go from being watery and pale and unappetising to being tasty and yellow/orange yolked. And they complain if they are not let out in the morning so I think they must prefer it to being inside!

We've had to buy eggs recently as they had all stopped laying, and the organic eggs from the supermarket were nowhere near as nice as the ones from the ones in the garden, so there probably isn't much taste reason to go for the free-range over the value in the supermarket. But if you care about their welfare, its definitely worth the extra. The chickens I see in the field at the organic farm down the road definitely look a lot happier and healthier than the ones that come from the battery farm...

p.s. there is a tree in the paddock our hens are in and hedges around the edge and most of the hens do like hanging around the tree although they go all over the field, so the woodland free-range does sound like a good idea - I never shop at Sainsburys so hadn't heard of them before.

krishna

Magentasue wrote:

I got hens in May and haven't regretted it for a moment. Free range eggs are better than value - the hens can at least move but it is true that they may still have miserable lives. As has been said, eggs from the bloke up the road is best.

Well, not best - best is your own! By the way, I have a small town garden with neighbours either side. Hens are easy to look after, cheap to feed and won't annoy your neighbours. Our start up costs were £150 but if you're handy with wood it can be a few quid.

Also (you can see I'm a chicken bore) hens are fascinating. I didn't realise how they have such funny ways and engaging personalities. They even put themselves to bed at night!

Would love to keep hens, but we have foxes living at the bottom of the garden; and this is the middle of London!

Cariad_3

I think I've become a wiser shopper in recent years and am constantly looking for bargains but I don't buy anything now except organic eggs. I buy them because I think the cruelty to the chickens are abhorrent and over the years I got confused which was animal friendly- barn, farm fresh,free range etc I don't eat them but my o.h says you can tell the difference in the taste and they certainly look better, plumper and the yolks aren't artificially orange from additives.
My way of thinking is that our family don't ever eat more than a dozen a week even with cake making etc so the cost isn't horrendous.

competitionscafe

Magentasue wrote:

Also (you can see I'm a chicken bore) hens are fascinating. I didn't realise how they have such funny ways and engaging personalities. They even put themselves to bed at night!

Have you read Hen and the Art of Chicken Maintenance by Martin Gurdon?
I think you would really enjoy it if you haven't already read it..I have never kept chickens, but I still found it an interesting and amusing book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/1843304147/

By the way, some supermarkets (Tesco? Waitrose? Morrisons? Sainsburys?) are now selling the Clarence Court free range eggs from rare breed birds (Old Cotswold Legbars) - not organic but free range (there is a Hencam on their web site) and the light blue colour of the eggs is gorgeous.
http://axiological.com/cgi-bin/fullxml-cc/default.asp?id=4&mnu=4

belleooo

We kept about 20 hens and all but two were taken by foxes. Foxes are sly and steal the hens when you least expect them to. The cruel thing is they only ever eat one. The rest they normally waste, but they steal and kill anyway. So please secure them the best that you can. Letting them just roam about in the garden, or a pen, is risky.

Nikki

Haven't read all the posts but I find value eggs make my cakes taste really horrible, they're fine with any other type of eggs though.

bargain-chic

i am trying very hard to stick to my budget each month, so i buy a tray of 2 dozen large free range eggs for £2.75 at my local farm shop to use as fried, boiled, omelette's, etc., meals were you can actually taste the egg - if you know what i mean!
but i also buy a tray of extra small eggs of 2.5 dozen for 99p from a different farm shop, which i know they are not free range, but they are a lot lot cheaper, so they go in all my cakes, puddings, etc.,

what sort of eggs do you buy and what do you use them for?

Penelope_Penguin

We keep our own free-range hens, so have their eggs in the warmer months (they're highly-strung rare breed so are off the lay atm; my friend's hybrids laid all winter :rolleyes: ). Since December I've been buying free range eggs at a smallholder's gate. After seeing how battery hens are kept, I could never go back to them.

I'll add this to Eggs - free range or value? later

Penny. x

Gigervamp

I will only buy free range. I get mine from the butcher and they're 85p for half dozen large eggs.

I had a pack a couple of weeks ago that had two double yolkers! Hadn't seen a double yolk egg for years, then I got 2 of them!

I've been wanting to keep my own hens for years but hubby said no.

I'm still working on him, I'm determined to get hens! :rotfl:

shelley1977

i only buy free range,i would love to have my own chickens maybe next year.