Anyone here who won't eat cage eggs?!

[citychickx6]

For ten years I have gone with only using eggs from the store for baking. NO I will NOT eat them anymore. Not even in my baked goods.
Thanks be that they changed the laws here and I can have hens.

Please dear chicken gods hear my pleas. Let there be eggs in the nest boxes tomorrow.

 

[Achickenwrangler#1]

Well it's good to know alot of people care about what is happening with chickens, you know they only keep those birds for a year and can be adopted out to a new life from someone who could show them what they missed...think how happy they'd be then.
It took many years for the agriculture system to develop into what it is now, with obesity as the leading cause of death in america, it will take alot to turn it back around, maybe having a few chickens is a really good start.

 

[epeloquin]

I think it is kind of cool that most if not all states have banned battery cages and require space for roosting, sitting, standing etc. Plus people are becoming more educated about what they eat so cage free/free range eggs are becoming more and more popular and, of course, the back yard chicken movement is growing like crazy.

I don't know about you all but it was not extremists who, if they had their way, would make us all vegans, who convinced me. I learned and made a reasoned choice for myself and my family.

 

[Fierlin1182]

In regards to egg products... I couldn't live without my cakes and biscuits! But there's no way of telling what kind of egg's in them. I find it a lot harder to avoid that sort of stuff

I suck at baking, so that's out of the question. I bake, cake either goes rock hard or droops and becomes a pancake.

 

[Ole rooster]

In regards to egg products... I couldn't live without my cakes and biscuits! But there's no way of telling what kind of egg's in them. I find it a lot harder to avoid that sort of stuff

I suck at baking, so that's out of the question. I bake, cake either goes rock hard or droops and becomes a pancake.


Me too, that's why I keep the wife busy. I just finish a coconut cake she built for my birthday. Saturday morning is pancakes and Sunday is the biscuits. Don't cha just love it?

 

[sheaviance1]

What a lively discussion this is! There are very valid points in almost each and every post.

In my household, we hunt and fish for most of our meat. I started raising chickens last year for eggs and meat, and rabbits this year. I would love to have a small farm, but do not have the land i would need to do it on the scale that i would like. We do what we can with what we have. I still occasionally purchase pork at the store, but have not purchased beef in 15 years. It has been 9 months without purchasing chicken. We raise a garden every year, and provide most of our own veggies. There are a few things that I just cannot grow. Everyone around me can, but I am not doing something right. I buy those at the store. Most of my purchases at the store are things like oil, flour, salt, pepper, etc. I do purchase some items for quick fix meals when we are time constrained, or (more likely) when I haven't planned ahead. We have lots of little life emergencies with 5 kids ranging in age from 12 to 27 and a couple of grandkids.

Having said all of that, I still spend a significant amount at the grocery store every week. We do have a farmer's market near by, but it typically has the same items that I grow, so I don't frequent it much. While I don't like the way battery hens are treated, or the cramped conditions that cattle are raised in, I do see the need for the producers to offer more for less. I used to hear my parents and grandparents speak all the time about life when almost everyone farmed in one way or another. My granddad used to complain all the time about farmland being gobbled up by expanding cities, etc. Another thing is that Americans, as a general rule, are lazy. I have several friends who don't garden at all, because, in their own words, they don't want to work that hard. I can see that my lifestyle is more involved than most of my friends. I spend a lot of time dedicated to improving the soil, weeding, sowing cover crops, composting, feeding, watering, preserving, etc., but, to me it's definitely worth it to appreciate the life that eventually sustains you, whether it be plant or animal.

To answer the original question, would I eat cage eggs, yes, if I had to. I hope never to have to.

 

[Chickenaddict]

I can't and will not eat store bought eggs! I haven't been able to eat them since I discovered Youtube and the videos if the battery caged hens. I have a flock consisting of all bantams, altho the eggs are small they are super tasty. I can't use them to bake with because I always screw up the recipe trying to figure out how many eggs I have to use to make up for one store bought egg. I buy eggs from a lady down the road who sells standard chicken eggs if I need to bake anything, for breakfast I eat my own eggs. I have been trying to talk the bf into raising meat birds next year, so far I haven't made much progress on that lol. He too will only eat our eggs. In fact we would go without if the only eggs we could find were in the grocery stores.

 

[Tiss]

I never eat store-bought eggs. My 2 year old niece will not even touch them.

That being said, there are a lot of people who cannot afford to raise chickens or to spend $3 a doz on free range or cage free eggs. As we all know, eggs are a great source of nutrition and a dozen large from the supermarket is one of the cheapest sources of protein one can buy. I love my chickens like pets, but I understand the need for cheap eggs. Not every family has the luxury of free range and organic food and I think it's irresponsible of those of us who can afford it to raise the costs of food for those who can't.

 

[southerndesert]

Quote:
Point well taken!

We as humans have a tendency to forget that everyone else is not "just like us" and therefore should not be forced in that direction whether we think it right or not....

Sometimes it is better just to give advise, shrug, and walk away.

I think if economic times worsen to the point some predict farming skills will again me a necessity rich or poor.

 

[Atomic Ranch]

Quote:
A friend's 14 year-old son came by to see my chickens and asked, "do they sleep upside-down?". Seriously, I thought? What do kids think-- eggs grow on trees?

And this kind of education will only get worse LOL. Fortunately I live in a farm/ranch area and all young people are very well versed in the way's of farm animals so we don't get much of the urban city type, what came first the cow or the egg type inteligence.

I'm here between Corona (citrus town), Norco (livestock) and Chino (dairy farms). Or more accurately, used to be, with the exception of Norco (still going strong). Kids used to know. Even a decade in Los Angeles convinced me they knew too. I've noticed those who don't have parents who don't take them to the zoo, the museum, the science center, the lumber yard, on road trips, camping, usually don't have pets or back yards. They're too busy saving a buck on eggs so they can afford the box seats at the Stadium. But alas, they don't really watch the game because they're posting photos on Facebook! Lol