Free range??

[Wildsky]

Not fair!

 

[Clay In Iowa]

Quote:
Thanks 'the simple life' you got the point of my post. It was all about free range. Like you I plan to let my birds roam and forage for as much grass, and as many bugs as they can eat. With this in mind I'm planning to buy older breeds that are known for their ability to forage.

I'll make no attempt to be no claim to be organic. But they will have access to pesticide and herbicide free forage in my yard.

Oh BTW the "free Range" eggs in question $4.99 a dozen in the New Pioneer Co-op where I saw them. There is another producer who ranges his chickens in a rotation following cattle. He sells his eggs in the co-op as well they are $3.39 .....for SIX eggs

 

[Sierra pachie bars]

I have paid close to 7.00 per dozen of free range eggs. I griped to my husband telling him they are in now way free range. He doesn't get how I could tell , but how could I not. Then I read this and hear that is what they call free range . Wow. My chickens are free range , spoiled rotten but I do lock them nice and secure at night. Once I wake I let them roam. You just can not compair anything you buy in stores anymore to farm grown.

 

[Skip]

All the food industry is modified these days; Modified to be industrial. My eggs are part-time free range. It would be free-range from morning to night, but I have cats and can only let the chickens run free when I'm out there. My chickens are freer than industry chickens, and I call that part-time free-range!

I loathe to eat anywhere but on my home turf. Stupid laws create stupider food.

I once compared my own eggs to storebought. These storebought eggs are the best thing you can get: Organic, 'free range'

, Jumbo size, 'cruelty free'

, so on. I cracked one in a pan. The shell was pathetically thin, and there was no thin membrane to speak of that would protect the yolk and whites inside. They had been WASHED three weeks prior (THREE WEEKS? WHAT SORT OF MADNESS IS IT TO EAT THREE-WEEK-OLD EGGS?!) so that there were traces of chlorine and chicken excrement. I'd rather eat eggs that were so coated in poo that you couldn't see the color than those health-hazard industry eggs.

That's why I raise all my own eggs as free as they can be, as healthy as they can be. They get daily attention and treats, and interaction with humans and a variety of other animals. I keep a daily log of my chicken's behavior. No industry can say HALF that much.

What's more: I'm allergic to eggs, believe it or not. I can eat my own eggs, but I'm much more intolerant of industry. I can actually eat one egg a week. I'm so happy!

Pardon me, I'm going to go post more about this on Random Ramblings so I can vent my emotions.

 

[lorihadams]

Okay, I let my chickens "free range", i.e. roam around FREE of cages or boundaries. They have a 10-10 run and a lovely coop (8 chickens) but I let them go out for at least a few hours every day when the weather allows. My husband commented on how much richer our eggs were and how he would never buy commercial eggs again.

We are trying to be "greener" if that means anything anymore, and recycle and do our part but our ultimate goal is to raise our own vegetables and meats and eggs. We want to raise meat chickens and turkeys and purchase a grinder so that we can further process our own meat...we process our own deer, duck, and goose meat now. Oh, and the occasional rabbit.

I just think that when your operations get so large that the only way to have that many chickens is to somehow confine them, even if they are allowed to roam in an enclosure just so that you can ensure the safety of the birds and to be able to easily recover the eggs. I am not condoning the use of the term "free range or cage free" but when you have that many birds you can't just let them out for the day, you know?

Lori