battery or free-range eggs?

[mr_pointment]

what do you prefere?i know some people might think its cruel to keep chickens cooped up,but i've always found that battery chickens eggs are always fresher and much tastier.

[reddoggy]

Then you have never tasted a real, fresh, free-range egg. The flavour is incomparable to a battery chicken's egg and the chicken which laid it has a half decent life. Next time you buy a non-free range chicken in the supermarket, notice how some have bright pink wings or parson's noses. That's where their urine has burnt their skin because the poor creatures are so tightly packed together.

[smurfchops]

Next time you buy eggs, think of the poor animals all cooped up together, the more people buy free range eggs, the less money will go to battery farmers, and hopefully eventually battery farms will be a thing of the past. Don't encourage them !

[spudqueen]

I ALWAYS buy free range. If you're ever driving around the country and see a sign for free range eggs sold here stop and buy some - you won't regret it.

[gary baldy]

Up until recently i never bought organic eggs (too expensive). But they were on special one week so i bought some. I would never buy anything else now - dont care how much more they are. They are lovely - actually taste like eggs and have a lovely bright yellow yolk.
Well worth the extra money.

[smudge]

We only buy free range eggs as they are well tasty!

Plus the fact the poor chickens have a better lifestyle!

[Pippa68]

Are you on a wind-up?! free range eggs are wonderful ~ so much more tasty with lovely dark yellow yolks (rather than the pale yellow awfulness of battery eggs).

We won't eat anything else...not even in homemade cakes.

[mr_pointment]

ok.ok.ok.seems i'm on a loser here so i'm going to give the free-range a go(one month probationary)and couple of stars for the chicken rights movement.hope their worth the extra of my hard earned cash.

before i embark on my experiment,is there a difference between free-range and organic eggs?also i believe that the farmers can give the chickens feed,that will determin the colour of the yolk.is that cheating?http://www.backyardchickens.com/images/wallpaper/BYC1-80 0x600.jpg

[clairelb]

I'm so pleased you're going to give free range a go. My primary school took my class on a trip to a battery farm and even now over 25 years later I still remember the horrible sights.

As for the feed, yes, free range doesn't necessarily mean that the feed is great - it could well be full of additives etc. I have a friend who keeps chickens and he feeds them on organic grains etc and says it is so obvious from taste and colour etc how much better this is for the hens. If you do live within reasonable distance to a farm shop who sells their own free range eggs, go there, they'll be fresher and far tastier and probably cheaper.

[spacechimp]

I think that your school trip was quite manipulative. Tesco value line eggs don't have pale yolks and they taste delicious.

[spacechimp]

"Bird brain" is an insult for a reason.

[joko]

How is taking the kids on a trip manipulative? They saw what there was to see, it wasn't 'set up'!

and so is 'monkeybrain'.

[spacechimp]

it was manipulative because young children are very impressionable. point taken with monkey brain, although, birds are definitely less intelligent than monkeys and most other creatures.

[joko]

i believe that children are our future, teach them well and let them lead the way...so says one of the greatest philosophers of the 20th century...oh no wait a minute, it was whitney houston...my mistake... anyway....yes it may well have been manipulative in that they were young and impressionable minds, but I doubt it was a deliberate attempt - 25 years ago few people knew about battery farming and free range and the rights and wrongs of it. The trip will probably have just been "and this is how we get eggs children...".
Anyway, surely that is the best time to show kids these things - because they stick for life and when these kids grow up they may have some power to change how things are done.

[spacechimp]

Would we have enough space to supply our current egg demand if all our eggs were free range? I'd have thought factory farmed chickens would produce more eggs for the amount of grain they are given than free range.

[surfbabe]

how anyone could buy eggs from a battery chicken is beyond me. the battery hen spends all her laying life in a crate crammed in with upto 7 other bird, she stands for life in a space smaller than a piece of a4 paper and her only exit is to the slaughter house. to stop birds pecking at each other the farmer custs off a third of the beak with a hot wire guillotine, this causes severe pain which can last for months. half of all chicks born are male, nearly all are killed at 1 day old by methods such as crushing mincing and suffocation. surely and extra 20p for a box of free range eggs is worth it

[spacechimp]

It's much more than 20p by my experience. Please could you substantiate your claim of "severe pain which can last for months"?

[surfbabe]

if you want graphic detail of the pain they go through just type battery chickens into your search engine there is plenty of info on there. local farms sell 12 free range eggs for �1.20 and i work in a supermarket so i do know egg prices. to be honest you obviously dont care about animals or their welfare or you wouldnt be whinging

[spacechimp]

I don't particularly care about hens' welfare, provided the maltreatment isn't illegal. �1.20 is cheaper than I expected but is still about �0.40 more than Tesco value line.

[joko]

legal or illegal, its still cruel.

lots of things are legal, but that doesn't make them ok.
try thinking about right and wrong, not the legal system.

[spacechimp]

Name something legal which I think is wrong please.