Standard or Free Range Eggs?

I usually buy the standard egg because we are on a very strict budget.
But I am going to get some chickens in the spring (I have mentioned this before)
to go with my goats. Rhode Island Red seems to be the best choice for me. They forage for a lot of their own food and are good for meat and eggs. Since my goats are not dairy goats it should be a good combination.

Have you ever done a float test on your eggs? You can put them in water to tell how fresh they are. If they float to the top they are very old, flat on the bottom= fresh.

Stories Guide to Chickens has pictures.

Whichever are on sale. I doubt there is a difference.

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I usually buy the standard egg because we are on a very strict budget.
But I am going to get some chickens in the spring (I have mentioned this before)
to go with my goats

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That's excellent, I would love to have a few chickens, though I need a bigger space for that. I bet you notice the jump in quality hugely.

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Originally Posted by Virgil

Whichever are on sale. I doubt there is a difference.

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There is a difference; both in the way the birds are kept and in the colour and taste of the egg. I would argue that there is even greater difference when it comes to chickens farmed for meat perhaps, but there is still a difference when it comes to the egg too (see Pren's post in regard to diet of the chicken).

On a side note I think it is great that more people are buying the free range option rather than eggs from the caged birds, I thought it would be the other way around.

I can't say I've noticed a difference in taste between standard and free range eggs. Actually, I have no idea why we use only free range eggs to eat (boiled, scrambled) or make mayonnaise.

@Virgil: Ohh! I wouldn't have said that if I were you. Animal liberationists around here are going to tear you to shreds. ;)

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Originally Posted by prendrelemick

If you shop at the Co-op they only sell free range eggs. Also they only use free range eggs in their baked goods.

All battery egg production will be out-lawed in this country in 2012, so your choice will be removed.

As to taste and colour, it is all down to the diet of the chicken, a truly free range hen has a dark yellow/orange yolk, due to the carotene in the grass. (Yes, hens love grass) Their eggs also have a strong taste - delicious once you get used to them.

Feed companies can prvide the farmer with a ration to produce exactly the yolk colour he wants, at a price, the deeper the yellow the more expensive.

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Yes, can I bang the gong for the good old Co-op? I have always shopped there, to the puzzlement of some of my family who see it as expensive. I like their ethics though, and they seem to have been at the forefront of Fair Trade products for a very long time, which I try to buy when I can. I buy their Simply Value range of eggs, which are free range, but are not all the same size, so a carton of 10 eggs, of different sizes, is cheaper. I've bought free range eggs for so long, I can't recall if they taste any different, I just did it for the animal welfare side.

Free range. The way other chickens are treated is horrible. Mass produced chicks - males gassed - females stuck in a cage for life. Truly horrible. The taste just doesn't figure.

I don't blame anyone for buying the standard eggs. I didn't know at one time - and most people won't know about it. There's also an extra cost to factor in as has been mentioned. It's good that battery hen poduction will be stopped in the UK. It's got to be better, even if it costs a little more.

I eat a lot of eggs (hnnnnggg!) and there's no doubt that free range eggs are much richer in flavour than battery ones. The battery eggs usually have a much paler yolk - perhaps that has something to do with it, i dunno. The more orangey the yolk, the richer the taste. And the prettier the dish!

Would always go with free range anyway, even if they tasted worse and were more expensive than battery eggs. Battery chickens have the worst life imaginable.

I bought eggs today and surprisingly, there seems to be a third category, namely "deep litter" (Bodenhaltung), where hens aren't kept in cages but in a floor pen. Anyone know the difference between these and free range?

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Originally Posted by Themis

I bought eggs today and surprisingly, there seems to be a third category, namely "deep litter" (Bodenhaltung), where hens aren't kept in cages but in a floor pen. Anyone know the difference between these and free range?

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It sounds like our barn variety maybe? These are the half-way house between the free range and the caged hens. The barn variety are free to roam within doors, but not outside. They usually have fairly decent space inside, probably with natural light and things to keep them occupied. Definitely better than the cage variety, but not as good as free range. Anyone who is on a budget though, they could at least stretch out to this second option perhaps?

My uncle used to have a commercial chicken farm. He raised meat birds.

The feed was delivered by the buyers, as were the chicks. Did you know they put arsenic in the feed to make them grow faster? When they were ready he had to sell them before they began to die from cardiac arrest. It took about six weeks from chick to fryer.

The egg farms had the hens in cages stacked on top of one another. When the top hen pooped the droppings never hit the floor. It was eaten.

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Originally Posted by altheskeptic

My uncle used to have a commercial chicken farm. He raised meat birds.

The feed was delivered by the buyers, as were the chicks. Did you know they put arsenic in the feed to make them grow faster? When they were ready he had to sell them before they began to die from cardiac arrest. It took about six weeks from chick to fryer.

The egg farms had the hens in cages stacked on top of one another. When the top hen pooped the droppings never hit the floor. It was eaten.

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It doesn't resonate much with the advertising associated with the products does it.

I see that most of your are from the UK. I buy Eggland's Best in the US. They claim they are vegatarian feed. I don't know if they are free-range but they seem to taste better to me than other eggs I have eatten. I will check tomorrow to see how dark the yolks are.

For further enlightening on safety and our food see these two excellent documentaries:

The Future of Food (I found this on Hulu on the internet - free)

Food, Inc. (Excellent movie - got it at my local library)

Both shed a great deal of light on food and it's 'production/manufacturing' in modern society. The documentaries focus on genetically engineered food....a real eye-opener indeed.

I always buy free range eggs.

@Janine, is it not compulsory for the egg producers to declare the conditions the animal are kept in (correct preposition?).

It's simply disgusting what the food industry does to our food.

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Originally Posted by altheskeptic

My uncle used to have a commercial chicken farm. He raised meat birds.

The feed was delivered by the buyers, as were the chicks. Did you know they put arsenic in the feed to make them grow faster? When they were ready he had to sell them before they began to die from cardiac arrest. It took about six weeks from chick to fryer.

The egg farms had the hens in cages stacked on top of one another. When the top hen pooped the droppings never hit the floor. It was eaten.

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Sounds lovely, arsenic, poop and arsenic yum. Six weeks from chick to chicken is shocking.

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Originally Posted by Janine

I see that most of your are from the UK. I buy Eggland's Best in the US. They claim they are vegatarian feed. I don't know if they are free-range but they seem to taste better to me than other eggs I have eatten. I will check tomorrow to see how dark the yolks are.

For further enlightening on safety and our food see these two excellent documentaries:

The Future of Food (I found this on Hulu on the internet - free)

Food, Inc. (Excellent movie - got it at my local library)

Both shed a great deal of light on food and it's 'production/manufacturing' in modern society. The documentaries focus on genetically engineered food....a real eye-opener indeed.

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Does it not say on the box or stamped on the egg? I think they have to do that in the UK.

I've seen clips of Food Inc, but I'll check out the other one thanks.

I would not go too crazy on GM foods. Some of them can be a real benefit to mankind. We have (here in the U.S.) "roundup" ready corn and soybeans. They are used for "no till" farming. The farmer does not plow the ground, he simply seeds over the previous years crop residue conserving not only the soil but saving petrol.
He sprays the crop and it kills the weeds. Everything goes back into the ground the dirt makes the chemical (roundup) inert.

And don't forget GM rice. Yellow rice has beta-carotene. It can help reduce blindness in third world countries by supplying much needed vitamin A.

A GM food is much better than no food.