Free Range Eggs – What does it really mean?
May 19th, 2010
Do you purchase Free Range Eggs?
Why do you buy them? Is it because they;Free range chickens merrily picking their way over lush green grassy slopes
* taste better?
* are more nutritious?
* have a better ‘energy’?
* the chickens are more humanely housed?
All the above are reasons that many people shell out the additional sheckles for Free Range eggs but the sad truth is that there is little protection for consumers. This article, on the Green Phoenix Permaculture website, looks at the ‘definitions’ of Free Range Eggs, focussing on the housing requirements within the standards, and considers the question “Can bought eggs ever be considered Free Range?”
Check out the article here.
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Although we are pensioners with a careful food budget I do always buy “Free Range Eggs”, but the article and especially the videos certainly destroy the myth.I am so looking forward to picking up my girls and boy on 28th May and then watching them enjoy as free range a lifestyle as I can safely give them. Foxes prevent the ideal, even in daylight hours.
Whilst I would agree that chickens in a ‘dome’ don’t meet our conceptual ideal for ‘Free Range’, I do think that we can lump this sort of husbandry into the free range mix. OK… admittadley they can’t go anywhere they want, as there are walls in the way, and they are reliant predominately on us for food but I think that the chicken dome/tractor idea supports being called free range from a couple of different perspectives.
1) The animals are not maintained at a rediculous stocking density leading to pollution and anti-social behaviour.
2) The chickens have unlimited access to sun, shade and fresh air.
3) The chickens source a great deal of their food from the beds they are grown on via digging and hunting (which is normal behaviour for chickens)
4) Most importantly, the chickens can behave as chickens without artificial intervention from humans such as beak trimming or de-clawing.
I think that the idealised picture we have in our heads of a flock of birds picking over a lush green field is nice, but it isn’t the only form of ‘Free Ranging’ available.
Thanks Shane. I like your concept.My dome is all set up except for the perches which will happen tomorrow morning before we collect the chooks.I am confident it is secure, with the rim and the extended wire skirt all pegged down and then the skirt weighted down as well with hay bales on top all the way around the dome.Unless foxes can dig “The Great Escape” type tunnels from a distance outside the dome and up under then I think it should be OK.I do so hope so – my hubby sees foxes almost daily on his early morning walk and we often hear one announcing “this is my territory”.