Let's talk eggs..

mum26

15 medium free range eggs are usually around £2 at Aldi, the price fluctuates by around 10p every now and then (up as well as down). Tesco sell Farm Pride free range eggs 6 for 99p, you have to look for them though and the boxes don't draw attention to them they are just grey egg boxes rather than will chickens gambolling across the fields singing jerusalem..



I do live locally to a free range chicken farm, it's not very big but these ones are seriously free range,lol, they have two decent sized fields to roam and lots of coops (that look a bit like smaller romany caravan shaped constructions), so some are ok, obviously some are really misleading like Terra Firma mentions, this sort of thing drives me crackers, if consumers are saying this is what we choose to buy then they should be getting what they think they are paying for instead of this kind of sleight of hand almost. I am lucky to live in a town with countryside around so I can drive a mile and buy eggs from any number of ladies with chickens in their gardens etc, my only concern there is freshness etc but if you are more savvy than me it's an option.

browneyedbazzi

terra_ferma wrote: »

Images of animal farms, including free range ones, are not shown by the media, there must be a reason. If free range was all we expect it to be they would be keen to show it....

It's fairly normal practice for farmed animals to be mutilated in one form or another.

I don't think the media show a lot of images of lovely happy animal farms because people don't want to see it and things being done as they should be is not 'news'. It's only 'news' when something goes wrong...people seem to tune in to see shocking/disturbing stories so that's what makes it onto the TV to keep ratings up.

I disagree with the comment about it being 'fairly normal practice' to mutilate farm animals. I grew up on and around farms and ranches and spent an awful lot of time around farm animals without seeing any evidence of this. A lot of farmers treat their livestock very well. There are some pressure groups that get their hands on an example of a bad farmer and try to make out that the way they treat their animals is the norm when that just is not the case.

~Chameleon~

Agree with the above comments that the eggs will only taste as good as the food & lifestyle the chuck receives. It really does have an effect on the quality of egg. A proper egg should have a deep orange yolk and bright clear white and is rich in flavour. Quite a contrast to the insipid pale yellowed yolk and watery whites of supermarket offerings

A._Badger

As a chicken keeper (aka slave) the thing that isn't being mentioned here is the breed, which does have an affect on the appearance of the egg (notably the yolk colour).

When our girls aren't laying (we let them rest naturally in the winter) I won't buy battery farmed eggs or the supermarkets' so called 'free range' types - sorry, not even from the blessed Waitrose or M&S. I try to buy from local farms where I can peer over the fence for myself.

The feed chickens are given does affect egg quality, of course, but a genuinely free range chicken will get a lot of its nutrition from what it scratches up. I suspect that is what affects the flavour - the variety of bugs and grubs a free range bird gets in its diet. That would explain why 'not very free range' eggs taste no different from battery farmed.

I am wholly unconvinced by the 'organic' business, but I don't want to go into that as it's a minefield. The real issue for me is the quality of a chicken's life - and I do not believe for a moment that the eggs sold as 'free range' by most supermarkets are what I, or any other animal lover, would agree genuinely deserves that description.

HeadAboveWater

Free range (should!) taste completely different to caged or barn eggs. I will always buy free range when out shopping, even though they are usually dearer.

In saying that, I do question how 'free' the hens really are because if you get eggs from a local farm you WILL see and taste the difference. They are so much nicer.

walwin

Edwardia wrote: »

First off, we're now supposed to have only Free Range eggs

Since when?

A._Badger

walwin wrote: »

Since when?

1st January 2012 See here: http://www.theranger.co.uk/news/Free-range-producers-reminded-of-impending-stocking-density-changes_21693.html

poppy23

Free range doesn't mean cruelty free.

http:// www. viva. org.uk /campaigns/chickens/happy-eggs.htm

geordie_joe

A._Badger wrote: »

1st January 2012 See here: http://www.theranger.co.uk/news/Free-range-producers-reminded-of-impending-stocking-density-changes_21693.html

At no point on that page does it say all eggs must be free range.

It refers to two regulations, one banning battery cages and the other reducing the stocking density of free range birds.

What made you think all eggs must be free range?

Chris25

I read on here ages ago that Sainsbury value 'barn' eggs are sometimes substituted with free-range. I've checked the eggs in the boxes & on a few occasions, found that they are free-range.