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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to think WTF?

255 replies

missbonita · 09/04/2018 12:11

I have a small holding and keep free range chickens.

Dropping DD at a friends this morn I took a box of our multicoloured eggs as a little thank you. When I handed them over she handed them straight back with a look of absolute disgust on her face and said "Oh, no thanks, I cant eat them when I know where they've been" and made a gipping noise/sick face. I thought it was pretty rude but just smiled and apologised "sorry, I didn't know you didn't eat eggs". She then said "I we eat eggs, but I wouldn't eat those" and turned away. She then opened the fridge to put away groceries she was unpacking and I saw a huge box of every day value eggs from tesco.

I didn't say anything else and left but why on earth would anyone eat eggs from caged hens and not free range eggs?

OP posts:

Chrys2017 · 09/04/2018 12:49

In the US where they wash/bleach and scrub eggs they allow caged hens to fester in piles of their own crap then just wash the eggs. The 'no wash' UK law demands hygienic practise and healthy well cared for hens.

This is also why eggs purchased in North America are refrigerated in the supermarket (and must be kept refrigerated at home).

Chrys2017 · 09/04/2018 12:50

... Apparently the washing removes some sort of natural preservative eggs have.

Tika77 · 09/04/2018 12:51

Oh, what a silly moo... I misss my multicoloured eggs. When I had them I treated them like gold and only gave them to the ones deserving enough. A lot of hard work goes into nice tasting eggs.

wombatron · 09/04/2018 12:51

I'm so jealous of your lovely fresh eggs! Stupid woman.

Can I ask though @missbonita ... how come supermarket eggs are so clean if they can't wash them?

FlatTopVera · 09/04/2018 12:52

I’m puzzling over the no-wash rule.

I always buy free range eggs and they’re always clean. Am I being duped?

Original poster

missbonita · 09/04/2018 12:53

Supermarkets egg growers have 'roll away' nest boxes so the egg is laid and immediately removed. The eggs come out totally clean it's the chicken behaviour - rolling, turning and brooding the eggs that dirty they
If the hens are free range so have dirty feet.

OP posts:

UpstartCrow · 09/04/2018 12:55

Also, UK hens are vaccinated against salmonella. And washing allows the transfer of bacteria more easily - the shell is porous. I'd never eat washed eggs.

elisenbrunnen · 09/04/2018 12:56

My ds2 used to work on an egg farm and the only eggs that are washed are the very dirty/pooey ones. Then they are hard boiled.

My neighbour gives me chicken and duck eggs - lovely! Even if a bit dirty they are ok so long as they are not washed. (Shells are porous)

wombatron · 09/04/2018 12:57

Ahhhh! Thank you! So they are free range but just they roll away sometimes? I always buy free range and I do get the odd feather, they just always look clean

Copperbonnet · 09/04/2018 12:59

Such a rude woman, but such an interesting thread!

I’m British living in the US and I had always wondered about the difference in refrigeration.

snewsname · 09/04/2018 12:59

That sounds better for our hens. Even the poor battery ones.

Iwannasnack · 09/04/2018 13:00

I have a couple of friends who keep chickens and I love it when they give me eggs. She’s clearly a bit barmy!

halfwitpicker · 09/04/2018 13:00

Rofl at eggs being painted.

Easter was last week, folks.

alwaysthepessimist · 09/04/2018 13:01

she is nuts - years ago I went on a hen do for my soon to be SIL - everyone but me was vegetarian, as the evening progressed I asked them why they chose not to eat any meat but fish was ok, the collective response was 'because the fish are free to swim and have a happy life', once I educated them on fish farming they all looked slightly dazed and horrified.....people have funny ideas about the food chain imo

snewsname · 09/04/2018 13:02

Oh no I posted that before the roll away information. So the battery hens could still be in dirty cages.

Coldilox · 09/04/2018 13:02

Can I have some of your eggs OP?

amusedbush · 09/04/2018 13:03

What a rude (and stupid) woman!

I'd have been delighted with a box of eggs from your hens.

Ivorbig1 · 09/04/2018 13:03

What a batshit thing to say. I expect she washes her eggs before use.

MyHairyToe · 09/04/2018 13:06

I have a friend who’s the same with our eggs... she also won’t drink milk from a farm that produces their own, but will eat both from the supermarket!

MammaAgata · 09/04/2018 13:07

We live quite rurally and on our road probably 1 in every 3 neighbours have eggs for sale in the front garden with an honesty box. They are virtually always sold out as they are soooooo much nicer than the supermarket ones, even the super duper expensive free range ones. The colour of the yokes is something to behold. And so fresh.. we love them. We often get one neighbour gifting us a box of eggs to say thanks etc.

I did have a chuckle to myself once as one of the neighbours asked for the boxes back (to recycle) or asked that if we bought from the supermarket could we give her our empty egg boxes so she could reuse them. I noticed one neighbour "donated" her empty Tesco value plastic boxes (you know the type, 15 eggs for 50p in awful plastic packaging). Seems like she missed the point completely in donating her caged hens plastic box to the free range recycling neighbour.. made me laugh for quite some time that did!

AlbaChick · 09/04/2018 13:10

Nothing to beat home grown, free range eggs. Apart from anything else, you know what goes in to them. No chemicals or additives and the taste is fantastic. Love the coloured eggs. Looks really lovely stacked in an egg basket. Her loss!

MrsHathaway · 09/04/2018 13:11

They weren't dirty as I change the nests daily and keep it all very clean. It is illegal to sell a washed egg in the UK so mud/dirt on an egg is a good sign of free ranging birds being allowed time to lay, rearrange the nest and practise all their lovely hen behaviour. In the US where they wash/bleach and scrub eggs they allow caged hens to fester in piles of their own crap then just wash the eggs. The 'no wash' UK law demands hygienic practise and healthy well cared for hens.

You learn a new thing every day! Is this regulation at risk post-Brexit, do we think?

I'd love to have eggs with a known provenance, and surely salmonella is only a risk if the egg isn't cooked through even if they hadn't been vaccinated? I do love a runny egg though - the other day I had eggs fried in the pan the DCs' bacon had been cooked in. Amazing.

It was rude of her to turn up her nose at your gift whatever she thought of it, much less to say that particular phrase.

WeShouldBeFriends · 09/04/2018 13:11

I love it when my friend gives me eggs. I also know someone a townie who keeps chickens for the novelty but won't eat their eggs as she likes to think supermarket ones are made in a machine/lab and are somehow cleaner

pencilhoarder · 09/04/2018 13:15

She was quite wrong of course, you don't need to keep eggs in the fridge.

LittleMysPonytail · 09/04/2018 13:15

The only thing I can think is that she’s like my grandmother who loves eggs but can’t eat the ones from their neighbouring farm because she’s seen the chickens. There’s no logic to it, and she knows that, but the supermarket removes a part of the journey that she finds ‘icky’ - she says it’s literally the knowing where they’ve come from.

But she can eat a chicken if one gets brought over so it must be something about eggs that somehow seems ‘unclean’.

I know people who grow vegetables but won’t eat them themselves. They give them away and eat supermarket veg.

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