no need to be nasty Afro.......


just because we might not see eye to eye on politics, doesn't mean I am stupid....

Not sold on this free-range vs cage argument, hey.

So after some reading, is this right?
- Free-range can have a huge amount of chickens per square metre (11-14) but must be within 9m of an exit they can use at daytime
- no dietary requirements to be considered free-range, can feed whatever

So the benefits stated in this thread about free range were:
- can go outside, scratch for worms and stuff, and get vitamins
- eat healthier diet

So the claim "free-range are better than caged" doesn't seem that cut & dried to me.

- Are you guys even sure that the free range chickens/eggs you buy are being fed any differently to the caged? Because according to the rules, they can be fed whatever the farmer chooses (which could be the worst, or best, for either free-range or caged).
- What is the probability that every chicken that lays the egg you eat actually makes it to the 9m exit each day?
- What are the actual odds of the chicken that lays the egg you eat actually digging up a worm to eat when it goes outside? We're saying that the worms they dig up are apart of their diet. How many times could you dig the ground up and be sure there's a worm there? And assuming the barn they are housed in is 9mx9m (to assume they're within an exit, it's just a rough figure) - that's 81m². So you've got potentially 891 chickens roaming the outside of the farm. If you're a chicken, you've left your main source of food and shelter, and are roaming the land with 890 of your brothers and sisters, what are the odds that these worms you're digging up which are so game-changing in your diet, you're actually going to find for yourself?

I'm just skeptical to believe free-range eggs are better than caged, particularly when you put it in that context

And maybe my barn size is a little off. If you had a rectangular shaped barn with 1 exit in the centre of one side, you'd be looking at one that's roughly 9mx7.8m - so 70m² roughly. So 770-980 (11-14 per square metre) other chickens after those worms.

all relevant and accurate questions.......some free range farmers are good some a just using the classification to their advantage.......I went on a bio dynamics course down in Bungendore a year or two ago and there was a freerange egg farmer who ran the course...he was a true freerange farmer....2000 hens on 5 acres protected by a couple of maremma dogs.....so the hens had a huge barn to lay the eggs in and go to for water and supplementary feed and access to pasture at their will......


in summary you are right to be sceptical...SOME free range eggs might be the same as the cage eggs....but at least the hen isn't inhumanely caged......also their is a minimum code for the feed that is fed to egg laying hens......

I must point out - I think I'm only arguing for the sake of arguing. I rarely eat eggs, usually only for bacon&eggs (which I probably cook once a motnh), use them in baking, and not a heap else. For some reason eating eggs on their own with nothing else triggers my gag reflex. The mrs has eggs every morning though, so I was curious enough about it all to dig deeper. The mrs just buys the eggs at the supermarket with the smiley faces on them, solely because they're quirky :lol:

I get my eggs bulk from a farm around an hour away because its cheaper and we're able to be sure of the quality of feed & welfare of the hens. If I'm in a pinch and need some from a supermarket, there are some good sites which review labels and cover whether hens are debeaked (which makes it impossible to forage), how many per hectare and whether they are independently audited or not. Most supermarket brand eggs (including ALDI) do not meet these standards.

Also must point out, I eat anywhere between 4-8 eggs a day, so it's worth it for me to make sure what I am eating is legit. I see the argument for someone that eats eggs once in a blue moon that it really doesn't make a difference.

how is your cholesterol????

that'd a load of eggs.......I would eat 1 egg every day or two

Dietary cholesterol does not increase blood cholesterol.

Since changing to a roughly 80-90% paleo style way of eating, my HDL, LDL & Trigs have never been better.

Since being diagnosed with Crohns last month, that imperative to be careful of what I eat has increased even more.

Ouch. Was just reading up on Crohns the other day as I've been having some stomach problems for months now.

Tying to control it with diet before have to resort to the awful medications. So fa, so good I think...although the wife doesn't really understand the idea of what happens when she uses soy or oyster sauce with gluten in it, and why it's such a big deal "it's only a little bit"

Cage eggs are better for the environment. The supply chain is controlled, waste is recycled into new products like manure, and the energy to produce is less, whilst being done on smaller footprint facilities that allow production to be closer to end consumers - thereby reducing also the comparative transport emissions. Note the price on the shelves next time you're shopping which is a factor of the cost to produce.

Eating free range makes you feel all nice inside, but cage eggs are better for the environment.

That's what I was wondering about...for your diet that would no doubt make a significant difference but when I'm going through 6-8 eggs a week I'm not sure if it would make a discernible difference?

what a load of horseshit.......nature is perfection...it's natural for hens to free range......you obviously know nothing about the process.....

Can you describe how he is wrong?

batfink disagrees with him. That's how.

give it away Afro........=;


well in cage systems the hens require lights to imitate the sun, they run the lights for around 16-18 hours a day to fool the hen......free range they roost in the shed when the sun goes down and when its sun up the shed flaps lift and they all go free ranging.....

In Caged systems they also require large amounts of sawdust & wood shavings to place under the cages,when it's time to remove the wood shavings they require a bobcat and machinery, often the manure Is left to pile up until it almost hits the bottom of the cages, in true free range setups no lights are required, the manure is deposited in the paddock, far less is left on the barn floor, the system we use rotates paddocks so once the hens have had a set amount of time in that area they are rotated onto another paddock......once they reach the new paddock, the old paddock is slashed and farrowed and then watered, the manure they have dropped is broken down and the cycle of nature starts again, the paddocks are left to recover for 4 weeks minimum to break the egg cycle of the parasites thus eliminating harmful chemical dosing of birds.....the only saving in caged systems is labour for the egg collectors.....the hens in a free range system live a lot longer and happier life and produce more efficiently than caged birds.....

Far more birds die in intensive cage systems.....so there is cost in incubating more breeding stock & egg laying stock,

both systems require transport to sell........

give it away Afro........=;

-PB

give it away Afro........=;

give it away Afro........=;

GIVE IT AWAY NOW!

pretty sure that should be

give it away, give it away, give it away now...!!!!!

Or it could just be "Give it away now" like the refrain at the end of the song #-o

#-o #-o alright then!!!!

This is all false. Industrial efficiency does not equal environmental efficiency. It's the same spurious reasoning that makes a claim that feedlot cows are better for the environment than free-range grass fed cows.

Batfink covered everything pretty well.

I actually think its pretty interesting that Mr, a man that argues heavily against marriage equality as its against the natural order, would make am argument that an unnatural process is better than the alternative.

I have actually stepped up to environmentally damaging levels my contempt for the planet. Hopefully my actions however small can contribute to the demise of the planet resulting in the death of all life on Earth.

Especially including the left wing hipster hypocritical douchebags who would dump their feminine ideologies in an instant if given fast cars, hookers, blow & obscene amounts of moolah. Like a normal person.

excellent post....:cool:

+ 2 :lol: =d> lollywood spot on !

:lol: @ righties applauding a post that doesn't even make sense.

:lol: @ Lefties abandoning their sense of humour...