to wonder if free range eggs are a big cruel con?

[evilcherub]

I normally buy free range eggs even though they are much more expensive than normal eggs but now I am wondering if they are a bit of a con, considering what can be classified as "free range". I have always wondered how free the birds really are and how easy it is to get a free range classification and it seems I have got an answer - (yes it is a Daily Mail article, but please don't let your prejudice get in the way of the point it is making);

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3489317/And-call-free-range-s-disturbing-images-16-000-free-range-hens-crammed-shed-fact-conditions-approved-RSPCA.html

We recently bought four 'ex-free-range' chickens to come and live in our garden. They are only 17 months old but they certainly don't look as though they've had an entirely happy life! We have provided them with a coop (free access) that has an upstairs and downstairs (perches and nest boxes upstairs), an area of approx 10m x 8m that's fenced in by electric netting that contains fresh grass to eat and lots of places to scratch up/dust bathe etc, as well as loads of bugs in there to eat. It took them about a week to realise they were supposed to go into the coop at night instead of just laying down on the ground outside it, and almost a fortnight longer for them to realise there were perches for them to roost on upstairs. For the first week we also had to shoo them out of the coop in the morning as they were just not used to going outside.

They've been with us a few weeks now and they all roost upstairs at night and wait to be let out of the coop area in the morning (they are shut in the coop at night as an added precaution). Eventually we'd like to let them go fully free range in our field but we border woods and there are so many foxes about that I'm not sure we're ever going to be able to do that as we'd lose them in an instant!

The British public are very misled when it comes to animal welfare standards and I for one believe that there should be a lot more transparency on our food packaging. Perhaps if all our meat/milk/egg packaging had a photo of the conditions that the particular animal was kept in, more people might be more inclined to buy better welfare food!

We have around 20-30 chickens.
We hatch and rear our own, the girls lay eggs, we rear the boys on for ourselves.
They have an idyllic life, and their eggs taste lovely, no comparison at all to shop bought eggs.

I do think people see "free range" and think the chickens have lovely lives (a la Happy Eggs advert), when the truth is far from that.

I only buy eggs from my local farm.

Don't get my started on the chicken/egg industry.

CruCru you can't buy traditional battery farmed eggs nowadays, it was banned and replaced by a system called "enhanced" or "enriched" cages, where the cages are double the size they were. We've had ex battery rescue hen's for years, and now they're in bigger cages they come with more injuries than before, as they have room to squabble now. They are still very poor, unhealthy looking creatures that look great once they've had a couple of months of freedom and life as a hen. We've also got some ex barn hen's, which aren't in as bad a condition as the ex batts, but they are still sad creatures.

So many people adopt hens nowadays, they're cheap and easy to keep, so it should be easy to find real local free range eggs. We sell quite a lot of ours.

Id love chickens one day but I live inner city so it wouldn't be practical or fair on the chicks... But I'm lucky to have a local farm that deliver eggs and they are so reasonable, 2.60 for a dozen! When I finally get my oven back next week after a slightly prolonged kitchen refurb I'm going to increase my order to a dozen every week I'm going to be baking so many cakes!

My parents keep chickens and that's where we get our eggs. Absolutely lovely and I know they roam free (except at night, they are shut in the coop away from foxes!)
When they do incubate some eggs and get chicks, which the kids love!, they just advertise the roosters locally, and if no takers they just keep them. Luckily they have no neighbors.
They even raised turkeys one year, specifically for Christmas dinner, which were delicious. My dad is a chef, trained in butchery so he knew what he was doing.
Although, my auntie didn't speak to mum for months afterwards... Despite the fact she isn't a veggie, and happily eats supermarket turkey every year.....

Having been in both 'free-range' and 'barn' chicken sheds in the last couple of years, I'd choose barn every time. The birds have more indoor space than the free-range, and the sheds were quieter, less dusty and the chickens seemed much calmer.

I once went on a tour round a 'free range' egg farm. The boxes they sell the eggs in show the owner (a charming looking blonde gentleman) holding a hen and smiling and of course the box has a little description about how he cares for the hens and they are free to roam in lush pastures.

The reality couldn't be further than the truth. Yes, The hens might have access through a very small door to a dusty paddock outside, but inside the shed there were metal poles for them to roost on, stacked up like some kind of hen storage unit, all crammed in with no room to move, hundreds of hens. There were conveyor belts for the eggs and it just looked totally barbaric.

The smiling blonde owner from the box didn't even know how to switch the light on in the shed....he obviously was so involved and cared so much

I think the best thing you can do is buy eggs from local pet hens where you can see their living conditions. Admittedly that's harder to do when you don't live rurally, but basically all the free range labels in big supermarkets are a con.

Interesting article on pastured eggs.

I only hear about pastured eggs from listening to The Archers 😳. I didn't realise that 'free range' meant so little. Thanks for this thread, I'll certainly change the way I shop for my eggs now.

www.cheeseslave.com/how-to-buy-organic-eggs-pastured-vs-free-range-eggs/

I'm surprised more people dont have hens. Look at Eglu hen houses for convenient small houses. I'm convinced most gardens could happily accommodate 2+ hens. They're lovely pets, especially ex battery hens, and as soon as I've got a bit more time I'll be getting some again.

As others have said, even Clarence Court or 'proper' free range eggs agents cruelty free, as any male chicks are thrown straight into the mincer as soon as they're born.

Getting eggs from farms or someone you know is best, but check their breeding practices and if you get your own please rehome ex-battery hens- if you buy chicks or hens from a pet shop they'll have been subject to the same process (male chicks minced at birth) so no better!

*aren't, not agenct!

*aren't not agents!

Stupid autocorrect!

I remember a couple of years ago when the tipping point was achieved in the UK where more free-range eggs were sold than non free-range (52%). I think this has led to the mistaken view that we are as a nation, improving our attitudes towards animal welfare in food production. Sadly, 'free range' means jack-all now and confirmation of this can be seen when you compare the price of free-range organic eggs with non-organic free-range. Was it Hugh Fearnley-W or Jimmys Farm man that made a programme showing the different conditions of the chickens according to the different egg classifications?

It was so eye opening for me. I'd been an organic buyer anyway, but this has made me view free-range eggs with even more disdain. Don't even want to think about the conditions of the battery hens. It's a shame that we seem to be increasingly be more prepared to pay more for meat that has been reared less intensively, and to be concerned with its provenance, but with eggs, because they are not the animal itself, we don't seem to demand very high standards from the industry.

I only buy eggs from the the farm shop that brings a little market to town here every Wednesday. I started doing this a while ago after watching a programme about the whole free range thing ( can't remember the name of the programme now)

I want to get some ex-battery hens but I'm told they like to dig up the garden. Is this correct? I've just started growing some of my own vegetables so don't want that effort to go to waste.

And are there rules about where you can have them, ie are they allowed in cities?

GrouchyKiwi - from my experience ALL hens dig. Give them some bark to play in and they're more than happy. I'm not sure about not being allowed them - I know cockerels are subject to area due to noise but hens make virtually no noise. I'd ring your council and ask. Honestly they're fantastic pets and all have really individual characters

Hens dig. In a small garden grass'll be gone in no time. Fact. But as others have said- great pets they make, characters like no dog can match!

But even in owning hens you aren't solving the male chicks being crushed problem. :(

What the fuck will our great grandchildren think of us?

We are beyond cruelty. We are sadistic, heartless, monsters, who don't deserve these beautiful creatures.

I only have a patio... I'd love one of those eglu homes though!

Pardon I meant hens in general, sorry. Communication is not my forte these days.

I don't think it would be practical to have them with our size garden, alas. Will remain a dream unless/until we own more land.

Couple of things to bear in mind:

1. Chicken have been bred to seriously overproduce eggs which is really bad for their bodies, maybe 200-300 eggs a year compared to roughly 12-18 a year in the wild (not that the chickens we have now bear huge resemblance to their Asian ancestors). Even backyard hens have still been bred this way so if you get hens please feed them special high protein food and encourage them to eat some of their own eggs as they would in the wild to regain nutrients.

1. Due to this and various other reasons, even free range and organic hens will generally stop producing at the same rate after a few years, so are then killed at about age 2-3 for cheap meat and pet food. Chickens can live up to 15 years left to their own devices, so this is a short as well as sad life. Maybe that's a good thing considering.

1. You may think about buying the top rate eggs you can when you buy actual eggs, but what about all the things you buy that have eggs in? Cakes? Mayonnaise? These ingredients could be shipped from anywhere, so you're still contributing to crueler practices through those avenues. People often seem to forget this.

With all this, along with the millions of baby boy chicks gassed or ground up at birth because they don't lay and are the wrong kind for meat (even in organic top range egg farming this happens) I'm afraid unless you have your own very well cared for hens at home, the only ethical eggs are no eggs.

Shit. I'm one of the clueless twats who's been buying Happy Eggs. Clearly I have not been paying attention. Thank you for this thread. I don't buy very many eggs so when I do, I will try to make sure I get them from a reputable local farm or similar.

What a wonderful thread, very enlightening. I knew Happy Eggs are not what they seemed to be, so have been buying organic for a few years (although they're often out of stock when I add them to my home delivery). I'll investigate local farms that may sell to the public.

I started buying Clarence Court eggs after a similar thread a few months ago. But to answer why more people don't keep their own hens, we'd love to, but the title deeds for all the houses on the estate I live on ban keeping any livestock (including poultry) - it's fairly common.