Free Range Chicken

competitionscafe

sarahlsmith22 wrote: »

Has anyone actually been able to find a free range chicken to purchase in the last week? My usual online shop brought everything but the chicken, so I popped to tesco, no free range, went to sainsbury, no free range, went back to Tesco and the assistant said "yeah since that show on TV every time we put one on the shelf it almost gets ripped out of our hands". I want chicken tonight!

According to this thread on River Cottage forum there seems to be a shortage of free-range chooks at most supermarkets:
http://forum.rivercottage.net/viewtopic.php?t=28253

ragdoll

I went to my local butcher today intending to buy a free range chicken, but sadly at £15 I had to say no! Bought an RSPCA approved for £8.65 but feel a bit fed up as not sure that RSPCA approved is that great and £8.65 is more than I have ever spent for sunday dinner. Will have to make sure we get a casserole and soup out of it and if I am carefull enough for a curry!

Really wanted to embrace the free range idea, but really can't at that price, will try Tesco next but would much prefer to buy from a butcher or farm shop.

~Chameleon~

ragdoll wrote: »

I went to my local butcher today intending to buy a free range chicken, but sadly at £15 I had to say no! Bought an RSPCA approved for £8.65 but feel a bit fed up as not sure that RSPCA approved is that great and £8.65 is more than I have ever spent for sunday dinner. Will have to make sure we get a casserole and soup out of it and if I am carefull enough for a curry!

Really wanted to embrace the free range idea, but really can't at that price, will try Tesco next but would much prefer to buy from a butcher or farm shop.

Hey, don't feel fed up about it, the fact that you even wanted to do it is great, and we can't all afford £15 for a chook

Ok, so the one you ended up buying might not be "free range" as such but I bet it had a damn sight better life than one of those poor intensive chickens, so good on you! :T :T :T

orchid-96

I too have decided free range only, got my free range bird from Tesco yesterday for £4.14, I usually buy a large one and get a roast and 2 meals for around 4.50 but I will be happy to get 2 out of this one and I will use the carcass for a change as I will be happier that it is not full of rubbish...

I realise that we are taking the producers at their word sort of thing that the birds are in fact free range etc. but I would have thought that the more people demand this, the more likely it will be that the whole industry will have to rethink...

Power to the people and all that!!

jaxw

Decided we should definately only eat free range. Went to Morrisons in Stirling yesterday & they didn't have any free range, organic or RSPCA Red Tractor, so didn't buy any chicken. Morrisons did have a lot of standard chicken reduced in price though so it looks like people are voting with their feet & just not buying it.
Went to Tesco in Dunblane today - they didn't have any free range or organic either & don't seem to have had since the TV programmes were on last week. They did have some Willow Farm, which I didn't buy as I thought we could manage without chicken but I kNow they at least have a better & longer life than the very intensively reared chickens & have had them before & they do taste better than the standard, cheap chicken.
I was interested to read in the papers a few weeks ago that some places are now battery rearing phesants and other game birds, not that we have those very often, but I always assumed they were at least free range. This perhaps explains how some of the very cheap supermarkets had cheap frozen pheasant in before Christmas, which I didn't buy because it seemed too cheap & I wasn't sure why.

Olliebeak

jaxw wrote: »

Decided we should definately only eat free range. Went to Morrisons in Stirling yesterday & they didn't have any free range, organic or RSPCA Red Tractor, so didn't buy any chicken. Morrisons did have a lot of standard chicken reduced in price though so it looks like people are voting with their feet & just not buying it.
Went to Tesco in Dunblane today - they didn't have any free range or organic either & don't seem to have had since the TV programmes were on last week. They did have some Willow Farm, which I didn't buy as I thought we could manage without chicken but I kNow they at least have a better & longer life than the very intensively reared chickens & have had them before & they do taste better than the standard, cheap chicken.
I was interested to read in the papers a few weeks ago that some places are now battery rearing phesants and other game birds, not that we have those very often, but I always assumed they were at least free range. This perhaps explains how some of the very cheap supermarkets had cheap frozen pheasant in before Christmas, which I didn't buy because it seemed too cheap & I wasn't sure why.

Been to Asda today but no Free Range chickens at all .......... and the NORMAL chickens had gone up in price to 2 for £6! What a cheek!!!

davetaylor

I wonder how long it will take to get Free Range chickens back in stock. Are there any supermarket workers here with inside information? I wonder how the Supermarkets feel about the chicken revolution, have they really been affected by it?

Dave

~Chameleon~

davetaylor wrote: »

I wonder how long it will take to get Free Range chickens back in stock. Are there any supermarket workers here with inside information? I wonder how the Supermarkets feel about the chicken revolution, have they really been affected by it?

Dave

Well, before they can supply more chickens to eat they first have to incubate more eggs (3 weeks from laying to hatching) and then grow on the birds, which takes twice as long to produce than the intensive farmed chickens, so that would be anything from 80 days upwards. I guess we're looking at around 4 months before we even start to see an increase in supplies on the shelves.

It will also take time to increase the parent/grandparent stock to even produce the amount of eggs that will be needed to meet increased demand too, so we're looking at several months if not years before we can hope to see predominantly free range products on the shelves.

Current production levels are still operating normally but the problem is demand is outstripping supply and people are snapping them up within minutes of them going on sale. We just need to be a little more patient, but it will be worth it in the long run

davetaylor

~Chameleon~ wrote: »

Well, before they can supply more chickens to eat they first have to incubate more eggs (3 weeks from laying to hatching) and then grow on the birds, which takes twice as long to produce than the intensive farmed chickens, so that would be anything from 80 days upwards. I guess we're looking at around 4 months before we even start to see an increase in supplies on the shelves.

It will also take time to increase the parent/grandparent stock to even produce the amount of eggs that will be needed to meet increased demand too, so we're looking at several months if not years before we can hope to see predominantly free range products on the shelves.

Current production levels are still operating normally but the problem is demand is outstripping supply and people are snapping them up within minutes of them going on sale. We just need to be a little more patient, but it will be worth it in the long run

That all makes sense. There will also be the free range chickens which have already been in production. Maybe the Supermarkets are paying the farmers over the odds in order to have these birds on their shelves. I hope so!

I also wonder how difficult it is for the intensive chicken farmers to change their methods to free range? If I was an intensive chicken farmer, I imagine I would want to change my methods asap?

I hope that consumers don't go back to cheap chicken whilst waiting for the Free Range to become available?

Dave

KittyKate

I tried to order a free range chicken on my Tesco order - they had none, so simply included a 'regular' chicken (which I needed for the Sunday, so had to accept).

Imagine my dismay when we came to cook it (after keeping it in the fridge for 1 day) to find that they'd sent one only 3 days from it's use-by date (and their T&Cs state all fresh foods have to be at least 4 days) and it stank of rotten meat. Phoned Tesco and got a refund, but am not very happy.

Anyway, on a trip to Morrisons I found that they had a great selection of free range eggs and chickens. I have bought free range eggs for years and to my shame never really considered the plight of chickens - I truly believe that the better reared the chicken the tastier and better for you the meat. Not to mention that I don't want any animal to suffer like that - even if I am to eat it.