Free range eggs

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Y'all would have been so proud of me. I kept my mouth shut and just listened.
At the Wally this pm to do grocery's and was getting some eggs when I overheard a young couple discussing eggs. She was telling the hubby that free range eggs were the way to go-healthier and the chickens were happier. I perk up at this but say nothing. After they leave I look and sure enough "free range eggs" and they only sell for 50% more than the "cooped up in a cage until you die" eggs. I open them up and all they are are brown eggs. Which beg several questions-
1. Who inspects the egg farms to determine whether the chickens are actually free range?
2. What exactly constitutes free range? What about High fence yards? If they come in at night are they just suburban range?
3. Does it cost 50% more to raise a free range egg rather than a "cooped up in a cage until you die" egg? Are the "free range eggs" healthier?
4. Who thinks this s--- up anyway???

(Lee the word is "Stuff" it you want to know-I just forgot to put in another -

)

 

[Wheelgunner840]

Some people will believe anything!

I'd like to know who interviewed the chickens to determine which ones were happier. I mean there could be some seriously depressed free range chickens out there for all we know.

Who has done any testing to see if the eggs from happy chickens are healthier than those eggs from miserable bastard chickens?

Obviously the government needs to conduct a multi-billion dollar study to answer these very important questions!

WG840

 

[m1gunner]

When we had chickens, their eggs had larger yokes than store bought eggs. These eggs were richer and cooked up different in recepies than did the store bought eggs.

Chickens are omnivores, and they really do eat everything, especially if it moves.

Get yourself 2 or 3 chickens (no rooster needed) and you and your better half will have all the eggs you can eat.

 

[gregintenn]

Free range idiots pay more for free range eggs.

Actually, Farm raised eggs, that come from bred hens, have a much larger, darker yellow. There is a vast difference in the taste of these as opposed to store bought eggs. However, I thought the yellow was the unhealthy, cholesterol laden part. If it is bigger, how could it be healthier?

 

[pps]

Our eggs are free range and from my neighbor...free. We get an occasional rotten one, but the price is right. I can't tell a difference in taste. I certainly would never pay 50% extra for "free range" though.

 

[Smithhound]

I recently had a similar experience, only could not help but speak up. At the Kroger near my parents I was getting vegetables and a woman asked me what the difference between 'organic' and 'non' was. I told her that the zuccini's she was asking about were 'free range' zuke's. To which she replied "what's that mean?"
I informed her that free range zuke's could roam around the farm at will, but not the regular kind, they were tied up.
She said 'Oh!' and wandered off with her roaming zukes.
RD

 

[therevjay]

Free range eggs are better because the free range chickens* are stronger, happier, and healthier.

They can range over the land in huge herds, like the chickens of old. Challangeing the native American tribes, and pioneer chicken hunters to pit their courage against the minghty birds.


* Cribbed from Jeff Foxworthy

p.s. "free range eggs"and /or "free range chicken" don't taste a bit differnt.

 

[2Loud4You]

Originally posted by m1gunner:
Get yourself 2 or 3 chickens (no rooster needed) and you and your better half will have all the eggs you can eat.

I'll bet my parents wish it were that easy. They've been raising chickens since I was a small child and there have been MANY times when they had to buy eggs. They probably have 20 or so and when it's cold the output goes WAAAAYYYYY down. At that point they just become birds you have to feed and care for. I'll be honest, in all these years I still can't taste the difference but I can say free to me is good. I can certainly tell you my parents would save money if they just bought eggs but my dad enjoys his chickens so he keeps on buying feed.

 

[pred]

Free Range is a term that is well used,
"FREE RANGE" requires that each chicken has 1.5 Sq FT to move about in a shelter that allows them to get fresh air.
Let us look into this carefully,
Fence in the back of a full sized pickup.
Approx 5X8 ft right?
That = 40 SqFt,
1 chicken per 1.5 Sq Ft = 26 chickens living in the back of your pickup.
Here is a pic of FREE RANGE birds,,,, They look so darn happy

And to boot, They are fed corn from the GOVT grants,, Not healthy chickens.
Egg color if breed, Not health or food.
There are covered foot ball sized barns near me that are screened in and have unknown thousands of "free range" birds in them.

"Tree huggers" may never know!
Here are a few of my free range birds hanging out under a bush on a hot day with my Beagle napping alongside!

I have a few different breeds, and they lay different color eggs, The blueish ones are from Americana Chickens.

They do taste different than store bought "Free range" eggs, And yes, Chickens love meat!!!!
Peter

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

I KNEW someone would have the answer. This forum is great!!!!

 

[Rancher]

Pred hit upon my understanding of free range. Basically, there is an open door in the barn that a chicken could go through to get outside if it wanted to...

 

[Riccur]

Yep commercial free range is as described above. I have had upwards of 50 chickens free ranging in my yard. They roosted in the trees and were out all day. The eggs are much better tasting and the color is not from being bred but from consumption of green leafy plants. Chickens love red meat and will take a deer ribcage down to bones in little time.

 

[tdan]

Chickens love red meat and will take a deer ribcage down to bones in little time.

Yikes!..........This begs the question.........What is the weapon of choice when these free-range velociraptor wannabes turn on their masters???!!!

I'm thinking this would be the perfect time to get in a little practice with my 2 or 3 iron!

 

[charlie sherrill]

Tdan, a stump and an ax.

 

[ohiobuckeye]

For many years, we've bought our eggs from locals who let let their chickens run in a large feed lot adjacent to the chicken house, and for a while, from a fellow who let them run loose period...no fences. The eggs are definitely better tasting and cook up nicer.
The farm fresh eggs break out into the skillet nice and firm with a large yolk and the whites are thicker. The cold storage eggs from the caged and stuffed chickens are thin and runny when you break them into the skillet and the yolks are usually smaller.
The chicken meat is also different. The best chickens I ever ate came from a flock of "wild" chickens a friend of my father in law had running loose around his small hobby farm. His wife decided she no longer had the time to spend raising chickens and gathering eggs, so my FIL helped him kill and dress about 30+ chickens one Saturday. The chickens were too wild to catch, so they used 22 shorts to kill them with with head shots. The meat was firm and tasty, not like the slick slimy stuff from the grocery that's raised in a cage with no exercise.

 

[USAF385]

Whoa whoa whoa!..... You mean.. you guys BUY eggs?! Ah suckers... Just do what I do... Head down to the barn and see what the chickens left for me.

 

[lcdrdanr]

Pred, got any Ariconda chickens in that group? I used to raise them in South Texas and the urban myth was that Ariconda eggs, greenish blue outside, had less cholesterol in the yolk and were healthier for you.
The County Agent said it was BS, the cholesterol is necessary for the chicken to form (if it's fertilized, of course). I thought all my eggs were better tasting than those you could buy at the local HEB Grocery store though.
The possums and coons thought so too, they went through about a hundred chickens before I finally gave up with them. Had several hundred possums buried and coons skinned and buried down by the creek when I finally gave up though.

Dan R

 

[VAdoublegunner]

I had about 2 dozen free range turkeys for a while when I was in High School. They wandered around the garden and yard eating bugs when let out of their pen, often fell out of the trees they roosted in at night making an awful racket, and layed some of the richest, largest eggs I have ever had. It was kind of interesting raising them. Also were some of the best roasted turkey I ever had!

 

[billdeserthills]

Originally posted by m1gunner:
When we had chickens, their eggs had larger yokes than store bought eggs. These eggs were richer and cooked up different in recepies than did the store bought eggs.

Chickens are omnivores, and they really do eat everything, especially if it moves.

Get yourself 2 or 3 chickens (no rooster needed) and you and your better half will have all the eggs you can eat.

As a kid we had the same thing, our chickens were "free-range" as they ran around eating trash,bugs, etc... Don't forget about the blood spots you'll find in fertile eggs, might just turn you off to eating eggs!

 

[Wickahoney]

Believe what you want and do what you want. It's your money and your health.

We raise our own. No, we can not raise chickens and eggs as cheaply as the commercial producers. My wife takes them into church with her and her friends in fact do pay a premium to get them. I guess they are just stupid and being charitable.

If we have extras she drops them off at the Salvation Army Kitchen. Last year we donated slightly over 200 dozen.

Chicks cost $3.78. They don't lay till about 6 months while you feed them. Production goes down at the two year point and that's when commercial outfits send them to slaughter. If you think the commercial free range chickens are crowded then you haven't even thought about crowding at the standard facility.

Yes when it gets cold laying goes down. That's why you use a heat lamp in your laying house. Yes, mine are free range but they actually prefer a decent and draft free place to lay and sleep. If you want to continue getting eggs throughout the winter you need to add light. It's after all a reproduction thing and hens quit laying with less than 15 hours of day light. They are programmed to lay in the spring so they can raise chicks.

There is one other side to the equation and whether it matters to you is a personal thing.
I was taught by my grandfather that yes we raise animals for food. That being said there was no excuse for doing so in anything other than the most humane and cleanest and stress free method possible.

So we have chicken that are outdoors but have decent living facilities and free range grass fed beef with no hormones. There are in fact "rules" and I do recieve a premium for my beef. I now make slightly MORE with 900 head than I did when the the ranch supported 2700 head and we/they pushed harder.

I'm in the process of selling back or more accurately being bought out of BLM AMUs for 40,000 acres of open public range. We simply don't need it any more and I'd rather see deer and antelope on it than cows, even my own.

By the way your steak from feedlot cattle comes at a price. Cows were NOT evolved to eat corn and can only digest it with the aid of suppliments and huge doses antibiotics to keep from getting sick and ulcerated stomaches. Right now with enough of both they can fatten in the feed lot for 90 to 120 days. Of course you are the people eating the extra antibiotics and growth hormone with your beef.

Do you want to talk about milk??

It's your life, it's your money and it's your opinion and you are certainly welcome to them but I'd be a little less snarky about others that view the world differently.

My oldest bird dog is 12. She is slowing down and mostly rides in the pickup with me. I'm afraid to let her out without supervision because I KNOW she'll hurt herself.

The neighbor kills his cow dogs at 8. "They have slowed down too much and they start costng me money in vet bills".

to each his own. The only guy I have to look at in the mirror and like, is me.

Ross W Thomas
Great Basin Ranch
Owyhee County, ID