To show you what your free range egg providers really look like?

[StridTheKiller]

That's all. Rescued a dozen ladies this weekend, ex-free range chicken farm hens. The photo shows the rest. Vile trade.

You don't need to eat eggs for protein.

You could use other sources of protein, beans and pukes, tofu, tempeh etc..

Pulses are generally better tasting than pukes though… 🙈

That is sad, but I don’t think they’re all bad. The three we ‘rescued’ were really healthy.

Just remember lots of hens have had to be kept indoors recently due to bird flu.

We have our own hens. The industry is hideous. I saw footage of ‘Happy Hens’. The hens were in an awful state 😢

DH gets livid whenever he sees those Happy Eggs in Tesco. He's even worse than me ranting on about the food industry. Somehow it's more anger-inducing because they're such liars and con merchants, getting people to think they have a good life.

we buy Clarence Court eggs, I hope they are OK.

thankyou OP for your generous heart, and taking in those lovely ladies ❤️

Would love keep/rescue chickens. But could not keep them safe from the wily foxes round here. They are smarter than me 🥹

Havent read whole thread but DH has organic eggs, I don’t eat them. They are better than the non organic one but not as good as say Riverford ones so I try to get those when we can.

I’ve rescues, get some each year and they are all in good shape when I get them, although some have clearly not been outside before as they seem a bit confused by their garden… still they are happy and friendly and soon get used to pecking in the grass and dirt (and my plants)

Once you have a safe area built or bought, they are so easy. I have ten currently. I feed them twice a day and change their water. Clean them out three times a week in winter and twice in summer. They are so so easy. You can even get timer doors so you don’t have to let them in and out, although we just do it ourselves as have to be out first and last thing with the dog anyway.

Welcome to supermarket animal produce. Profit above all, animals are a commodity to be used and abused and ditched when they are no longer valuable. We've been vegan for years and only regret is that we didn't do it sooner - doesn't have to be like this 🌱

A vet once told me organic can be worse for animal welfare as the farmers can't treat with certain medication and retain their organic status, so overall the animal can suffer even more sadly

I have ex-commercial 'free range' chickens, mine weren't as tatty as that. Scruffy, yes, but not as battered as yours. I've seen some truly horrific sights, 'barn' hens and caged are in an awful state, some almost completely bald, struggling to stand.

But, they are exhausted, I've lost two of them in the last couple of months, they are worn out from laying constantly for 18 months. This is them when they first arrived,

Hmmm I wouldn’t trust a vets opinion on organic food tbh, they push way too many unnecessary vaccines and meds on animals as it is.

Someone up thread said that organic producers couldn't afford lots of unwell animals if no antibiotic use - therefore organically raised animals need to be kept in much healthier and more disease free conditions than the mass factory farmed animals fed on hormones, antibiotics and chemically laden food.

I imagine there is a greater emphasis on producing animals with good immunity and disease resistance, rather than selecting for fast growth and meat deposition too.

Organic definitely better. Not just about feed and drugs, it's also a guarantee on welfare. A local farm might be OK but you would need to check carefully. We live near a big free range egg producer and wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.

I lived next to a guy with a really large garden he used to keep chickens.

Plenty of room for the dozen hens he kept. And I mean plenty as we kept our horse there for a few years before they moved there. The guy keeping them used to put ladders into the trees and hung stuff to keep them entertained (which I'd never heard of before).

However, two of the hens were pecked like the OPs. I was horrified but told this was the meaning of being hen-pecked.

No idea if that's true. The rest of the hens seemed in good condition and there was no shortage of eggs so maybe there are Mean Girls in all species.

I have long suspected that was the case with supermarket bought eggs. I am lucky as I can buy mine from the farm up the road - where you walk past the chickens out in the yard, pecking the ground and looking very content.

@Lovely13 you can keep, them safe from foxes if you have an omlet fox proof coop, but they are expensive, few hundred pounds. I had foxes in the garden but they were safe in the eglu cube for 8 years but they did get one from a wooden coop with netting over the run😪 I only let them out to free range the garden when I was home to protect them.

How utterly shocking @StridTheKiller
a all think we're doing the right thing but shocker, the farmers treat animals like they aren't alive. So what's the answer?

I wish we could have chucks, I'd have a few rescues here, but it's not allowed by covenant.

When I buy my next house, I'm having chucks only then will I know my eggs are from happy hens and once they stop laying they can live the rest of their lives happy too. I'm also looking forward to the free biofuel from keeping hens too!

Having just added a pyrenean mountain dog/spanish mastiff to the family - they are beautiful gentle giants with the family but hard nosed with any challenger! So, no fox is coming near my chucks when I get them! But I agree, eglu are the best hen houses for sure.

I have my own chickens and love my girls. Heart breaking to realise the state chickens are in to give supermarket eggs. Heart breaking. No easy answers except keep your own or buy from farm shop etc. These little darling creatures don't deserve this💔

Tell that to my vegetarian neurodivergent child who won't eat any form of vegan protein to speak of.

This is what my egg providers look like ….