Breeder fibbing about free range chickens!

[adubsroit]

Quote:
The thing with organic is that many states also have different definitions on organic. Here in Oregon you can label your product as organic as long as you make less than $5,000 a year on your enterprise and not be USDA certified. By that standard I could label any eggs sold as organic, which they are not. free range yes, organic no.

My guess is that they are using the USDA or some other State or specific certification company's definition of what free range is. So in that case they technically are free range. When we built our poultry pasture we consulted the USDA requirements for free range, as it turns out the birds got a massive pasture that always has good ground cover and trees. Well above minimum requirement. Plus our more adventurous birds hop the fence and become true free rangers foraging the 50 acre alfalfa field that boarders their pasture.

 

[Gypsy07]

I'm actually in the UK so I wasn't sure what the USDA was. Just googled and now know that as far as large scale US chicken farming is concerned, 'free range' doesn't really mean anything at all! Wiki quote: "The U.S. Department of Agriculture has no standards, and allows egg producers to freely label any egg as a free-range egg." That's awful! So I checked out the UK's 'free range' standards too, and they're better, but not much. Over here, it just means continuous daytime access to open air runs which are mostly grassy. So that breeder's hens ARE technically free range after all. Hmph! There's something not quite right about that...

When I say my birds are free range, they are genuinely free to roam wherever they like. But I suppose I don't let them out of their run till 11am, so maybe some people would think I was fibbing a bit too. I used to let them out at 7am, but they took to laying in hidey holes all over the farm and I was getting hardly any eggs. Some of them still do, and every so often I'll find a pile of eggs hidden round the back of a straw bale. Silly chickens!

I sell my eggs as free range, and my regular customers (all five of them, LOL!) tell me they're ten times tastier than any other eggs including the so-called free range ones in supermarkets. They ask me what I feed my hens, and I always mention vegetable peelings, fresh grass and handfuls of corn. I DON'T mention the giant bones from the local abbatoir that they love to chase my dogs away from and the heaps of horse poop that they spend most of their days rootling around for beetles in. Ahem...

 

[TennesseeTruly]

We have chickens that both are both free ranged (on our 35 acres) and some that are cooped for breeding. Our eating eggs are all free ranged. Our breeders aren't but do have access to outside runs. The ones that aren't free ranged are fed daily greens that we purchase in 3 lb bags at Walmart usually after the growing season is over.

We usually feed our poultry 5-3 lb bags of greens a day. That's for our ducks, geese, and chickens. Is it expensive? Yes! Is it worth it to keep them healthy? Yes!

Laurie

 

[Ridgerunner]

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I would not be all that upset about this breeder without checking out the operations. I agree that terms like free-range, organic, and cageless are only as good as the people using them. Same thing can be said about the term breeder too. Each legal entity can have its own legal definition and each of us have our own perceived definition. Then in between there is what the people actually do.

If you think about it, a breeeder has to keep his breeding chickens separated. He/she cannot allow just any old hen to mate with any old rooster. Some keep one specific rooster with a very limited number of hens and some may keep all roosters and hens of the same breed together in one pen, but unless they only have one breed, they cannot allow them to mix on the playground. You won't really know unless you check it out, but this may be a very ethical humane breeder doing the best they can. It is also possible they are not being totally honest. You really don't know. After all, you met them on the internet.

 

[bufforp89]

I would still go check out the pullets, just because they are "free ranged" in a large pen will not change the overall quality of the birds.

 

[Firearia]

The rules are rather sad, I mean one guy in Vancouver has these 'free range' chickens that are in just as bad as a place as battery hens! They have practically no room but have a poor excuse for an outside 'run'. It's horrible. I mean I would love to let my girls free range but it's impossible for the dogs in our area the cougars, hawks and cats. Otherwise I'd love to free range mine. Though I do let them out at least twice a week when I'm there.

 

[growinupinfl]

I agree that the term free ranged is misused and abused. Even here in Florida where they do "license" as organic and free range, from what I have seen is a flipping lark of reality one on what the license is required, and what they consider "free range"...

One to be able to sell the eggs you must have an egg processing license, which cost $150.00, and you must prove that you have a three metal sink washing stand enclosed separate from living quarters, which must be inspected by a certified state inspector. This is to sell any eggs, great lengths making it almost impossible for back yard chicken raisers to sell eggs..

Then for them to be considered free range they have to have access to outside for at least 15 minutes a day...

I find this ridiculous that a person cannot even sell there own eggs.. If anyone on here knows of different let me know.. But yes at least in this state, unless you want to treat animals inhumane, is almost impossible to make selling eggs legally/financially possible..

Christal