Are free range eggs not really free range?

[BansheeofInisherin]

I am veggie, but I eat eggs. I buy expensive free range but read on another of those very angry threads that actually free range is just as bad as not free range. Is this true? Is there a way of getting more humane eggs? Any particular brands?

The article is full of shit.
In fact, free-range flocks can reach up to 16,000 hens a shed, with daytime access to the outside provided by holes in the perimeter.

bullshit. It’s 16,000 hens a flock not a shed if you follow the link in the article itself.
“Standards for Free-Range Eggs on RSPCA Assured Farms
On RSPCA Assured farms, the welfare of free-range hens is a top priority. The maximum flock size is kept at 16,000 birds, and free-range hens are provided with ample litter to encourage natural behaviours. The litter covers at least one-third of the floor surface, ensuring each hen can roam and express its natural tendencies.”

Barn raised hens (never go outdoors) are limited to 4,000 hens per shed/barn and 9 hens per square metre. Free range hens indoors have the exact same requirements as barn raised hens only they also get at least 4 square metres of outside “free range” space per hen.
https://www.rspca.org.uk/documents/1494939/7712578/Laying+hens+Information+Sheet_August+2018.pdf/9587893b-64b5-ee56-73b9-6b82a1081340?t=1553271755453&download=true

There are no sheds with 16,000 hens in them.

I live near a free range egg farm - the chickens definitely go outside as we can see them and they are really cute

I think it depends OP… probably the smaller free range farms are better due to smaller flocks/easier access to outside. What I do know is that I’ve helped with hen rescues and in some cases the free range hens have been in worse condition (missing feathers) than the barn ones… they certainly don’t look like the healthy girls on the box! Very sad… but all we can do is choose the best option available to us.

If you're in London and near a Gail's Bakery try thr free range cacklebean eggs they sell. They are amazing!

My DH works in the egg industry and supermarket free range eggs can have up to 16000 hens in one unit and are let out once a day. With the recent AI outbreak they have been kept locked in and downgraded to barn eggs.

Organic has higher welfare standards than free range. They have smaller flocks, lower density of birds per square metre of indoor space, and more perch space and nest boxes per bird. They also have more extensive range area and other standards such as having to provide cover over the pasture in areas to encourage them to range further as otherwise they stick close to their sheds as their natural instinct is to fear birds of prey. I have organic poultry and the standards are sometimes a pain in the arse , but I will say that I have very happy hens so they are beneficial.

If you look it up you will see that although the free range chickens aren't kept in barns and this is, undoubtedly, better for them they are still fed poor quality feed and given antibiotics as a preventative measure so I think organic are much better in that regards.

@BansheeofInisherin I sell eggs from hens in my garden, to my neighbours. My hens are rescues mainly from British hen welfare trust and a home hatch where we kept 100%. We keep them all until they die of old age or we put to sleep on welfare grounds as they're pets.
Maybe join facebook groups from the rescue charities like fresh start for hens and British hen welfare trust and see if anyone near you does anything similar.

Thanks all. I do have a Gail's Bakery near me! Will consider all the options.

Frer range organic is better. But they were all inside during bird flu.

Where is this? It sounds preposterous because hens will not lay eggs if fed poor quality feed. A well fed hen can lay 2-3 eggs a day. No farmer is going to feed their hens crap and risk hens laying no eggs.

And it’s not true that U.K. chickens in the egg laying industry are given antibiotics “as a preventative measure” they are only given antibiotics to treat sickness/disease. For years, they’ve stayed below 1% of hen days with antibiotics. “In a statement included in the VMD report, the British Egg Industry Council (BEIC) explained that the slight increase in the last 12 months was the result of a higher incidence of enteritis. The BEIC said it was looking into the reason for this. However, it said that the industry was still achieving its aim despite this small rise. “The usage data presented for 2019 show that the members of the BEIC Lion Scheme, which represent over 90% of the industry, have once again met the sector target for percentage bird days treated to remain below 1%," it said.”
https://www.farminguk.com/news/use-of-antibiotics-up-slightly-in-uk-egg-sector_57182.html

You could get them delivered from somewhere like Abel and Cole. Some supermarket products are better than others, but previous posters are right that anything you buy in a supermarket is not really going to be what you'd consider high welfare.

https://www.abelandcole.co.uk/fresh-chilled/dairy/eggs

Hens don't lay 2-3 eggs per day. One egg per day every day is "maximum production " so to speak.

You’re right, I momentarily was thinking of my ducks.

I wouldn’t listen to anything the RSPCA has to say on the matter, considering they believe macerating day old male chicks is a “humane and ethical” way for them to die.

Ive always read that free range means they have access to the outdoors. It certainly isn’t the barn free, entirely outdoor life that egg advertising tries to make it seem.

Just don’t buy the cheap caged hen eggs. My rescues still haven’t fully feathered up after 3 months and it took ages to teach them how to be chickens. Even the so called enriched cages are horrific.
Chickens aren’t keen on rain and really hate wind so barn kept in the winter is fine.

There is no humane way to eat eggs. Even back yard eggs, the males would have already been separated and tossed into a blender (macerator) and free range hens are culled at 72 weeks.
Granted i know you dont want to stop eating eggs but as a former slaughter house worker i dislike the buzzwords (humane/ free range etc) that only serve to ease the public concience. The industry is evil,and funded by people who care about animal walfare.... until dinner time.

I hear you @FuckYouEzekiel. At some point in the future, I may go vegan but I am not there yet. I don't eat much dairy at all, but cutting out eggs will be harder.

The problem is you don't know.
The minimum standards required to be able to classify eggs as free range are very low. But obviously there are farmers who vastly exceed this and others who don't. How you can differentiate I don't really know. And even if they operate to high standards, most producers that are big enough to sell to big supermarkets probably cull their birds once they get to an age when they are not producing enough eggs rather than have them reach anywhere near their natural lifespan.
We have our own chickens and in the winter when they stop laying I get some from our neighbours, or buy direct from a farm down the road from us if they have any, though their chickens are basically pets too and don't lay a lot, or I just do without eggs til Spring. I won't buy commercially produced eggs these days. Since we got our own, chicken welfare is a subject I feel strongly about and there is a lot about the egg and poultry industry that I think is extremely cruel - worse than how most other animals produced for food are treated. Free range is obviously not as bad as how battery hens are kept, but it isn't necessarily what people imagine when they hear the term either. If my only option was supermarket eggs I probably would just stop eating them.

Could you try butchers or local fruit shops that sell eggs from reasonably local farms? Not sure how that would work in London.

I live in semi rural Lincolnshire so you can't move without tripping over a dozen eggs from someone's small holding.

The chickens on big farms used to supply supermarkets are generally not kept in good conditions. Free range means they can go outside. Barn chickens often never see daylight. But chickens don't need much space at all to be classed as free range. Organic have to have slightly more space so are probably your best bet if you can't get farm eggs.

During the bird flu pandemic all birds have been kept indoors/cages anyway but the restrictions being lifted should change that.

I feel the same and therefore keep my own chickens but see how that isn't possible for the majority of people.

Sorry for being snippy,nobody has more blood on their hands than me. Who am i to judge.

My friend used his own incubator and ate the males when they were a decent size.

I buy Clarence court or Burford brown eggs as I had the impression that these come from genuinely free range and well treated hens.

If this is not the case then I’ll have to drive out to a farm shop, we eat a lot of eggs though due to non meat eaters in the family, so do normally pick them up a couple of times a week when in supermarket.

I rehomed some ex-free range hens and they looked awful.

All rescue hens tend to look dreadful, but it’s because they’re moulting, which all chickens do.

Because the sheds they live in are warm, farmed hens tend to moult dramatically. This doesn’t mean they are unhealthy though.