If you have never eaten really nice eggs, please try and get some!

[BadGardener]

OK I'm going to be a bit evangelical here.
About 9 months ago dh brought a box of eggs home which were a gift from one of his colleagues who keeps chickens.
They were a complete revelation - enormous dark yellow yolks, and flavour which made us realise we had been eating crap eggs all our lives. It was like the difference between instant coffee and real coffee. I made a batch of perfectly normal fairy cakes for dd's birthday party and all the grown-ups were raving about how nice they were, simply because of the eggs (I am not that great at baking.)

We had always bought free-range/organic eggs where possible, but honestly, the ones you buy in supermarkets are nothing like these were.

In the end I had to get my own hens, just to ensure our supply

It bothers me that there are so many people going through life not knowing how nice eggs can be. Please, if you have never had Really Nice Eggs, find a neighbour who keeps chickens, or stop at one of those places by the road where a backyard chicken keeper sells their eggs from their gate, and get some that are only a few days old and just see how nice they are [deranged evangelical smile]

I'm not sure hens would be too happy on a totally gravelled over garden

(plus I'm not sure I'd have the patience for looking after them.........)

in belgium they're giving people 2 chickens to eat kitchen scraps to reduce people's waste. (but they have to promise not to eat them for 2 years).
we recycle most of our waste in staffs, should i suggest the chickens to our council?
p.s. our coop sells luverly eggs.

Crikey, they could never do that in this country. Imagine the welfare issues from all the lazy and deranged individuals out there. Poor chickens!

Those Ocado Cotswold Legbar eggs seem to get good reviews.
I imagine they are less hot on animal welfare in Belgium than here - def the case when it comes to conditions that are allowed in raising pigs.

MIL spends a lot of time in Belgium and she was the only person who was negative when I said I was going to get chickens - turns out she had a traumatic experience when the family she was staying with killed and ate one of their hens which turned out to be crawling with lice!
I assured her that my hens would be properly looked after and no way would they be allowed to have lice or any other parasite

I do love the way the chickens eat up the kitchen scraps for me - we have loads of stuff like crusts, bits of banana etc which I don't want to put in the compost because of attracting rats. Now the compost just gets coffee grounds, teabags, potato peelings and masses of lovely chicken manure!

mamagoblin
"I recently started getting what I hoped were Nice Eggs from our local farm shop of a friday, at the same time as I dropped in to buy a chicken for the weekend. "

just

toccata
"I'm not sure hens would be too happy on a totally gravelled over garden

(plus I'm not sure I'd have the patience for looking after them.........) "

they wouldn't mind totally gravelled over: they like scratching around! as long as you leave them a bowl of dry soil.

and i know all the chickenkeepers will back me up when i say that you won't find "patience to look after them" is a problem! they're very very addictive!

BG "I do love the way the chickens eat up the kitchen scraps for me - we have loads of stuff like crusts, bits of banana etc which I don't want to put in the compost because of attracting rats. Now the compost just gets coffee grounds, teabags, potato peelings and masses of lovely chicken manure! "

i wouldn't worry about attracting rats, personally.
you'll probably get a few mice, but not usually rats.

I like Happy eggs they are always nice and have real yellow yokes. I think you can definately tell the difference between free range and battery eggs.

We have "real" eggs from a friend who has a smallholding. They are far nicer than any egg I have ever bought in the shops. And they cost me £1 a dozen!

I buy a tray of eggs every couple of weeks from our local garden centre/farm - you can see the hens running around in the field next to the car park - not sure what they are fed though - the eggs are defo better than supermarket.

In this country its actually illegal to feed them kitchen scraps. Go figure

We found a farm near us that sells their free range giant eggs with dark yellow yolks for cheaper than the supermarket one (which I have to drive 1/2 an hour to get to!)

Only problem is the farmers wife won't sell to me any more cos I'm pregnant and she says you have to get ones that are screened

They are delicious, I'm a massive boiled egg and dippers fan. My son doesn't share my love unfortunately...

bronze it's only illegal if you plan to sell the eggs.
if you're keeping them for your own consumption, then it's fine.

Not according to defra

Then DEFRA can sod off (

I'm not able to get 'good' eggs that easily now, cant make it to the farmers mkt and local farm eggs dont seem to be that great

I hate, hate, hate eggs with blood clots in them, tesco eggs are the worst for them (I only ever buy free range) and tbh i think my kids arent keen on eggs because the ones we get are a bit rubbish

I of course listen completely to defra

and then choose to ignore it

A local garden centre has started keeping chickens, they run around freely all day, and their eggs are yummy, last week they'd just been collected when we got there.

I love that poster Bronze! Want to get one (instead of Keep Calm and Carry On). I haven't found it yet but it seems one can buy a cushion.

yep. Nice Eggs here courtesy of my step brother's hens. he has 8 chickens, 2 of them are rescued battery chickens

Sorry, Nickelbabe! Yes, I get a lovely free-range chicken from the farm shop at the same time as buying eggs.

(but this is the Food topic, not Chicken Keepers!)

Does anyone know what causes those awful blood clots in egg yolks. It seems to be par for the course these days (I buy own brand free range eggs from Tesco normally). Recently I've been buying the 9 for 6 Glenrothes eggs though which are a lot better.

I cannot, cannot understand anyone who continues to buy battery eggs. God knows how bad they must be if there's such a difference between supermarket and "proper" free range eggs. The welfare issue goes without saying.

I get eggs from a local farm every week, used them up this week and had to buy some from the supermarket. Oh yuck. Never again.

I think the blood clots are when a hen bursts a blood vessel at some point during making the egg.
A lot of battery eggs go into processed foods and readymeals so we eat them without realising.
Xenia on Mumsnet buys battery eggs despite being v v rich - she will tell you all about it if you ask her

no - I mean properly gravelled over with a lining underneath the gravel - there isn't a tiny bit of soil in my entire garden