mtbdrew’s Recent Comments

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  Always check the source!

  My wife and I just recently started selling eggs from our little homestead. I was amazed out how different our eggs looked from store bought and wanted to share as well as recoup some of the cost of feed bedding etc. I was concerned about labeling our eggs as "free-range" so I got online and did some research of the term. Boy was I disappointed in what some producers get away with! We take pride in our girls and the eggs they produce. Our girls roam over the 4 acres and the eggs show it. If your not sure if the eggs you get are truly "free-range" do a simple test. Buy some store eggs and crack them in a bowl with one of the free-range eggs. You should be able to tell very easily if the hen really does get to eat different foods. If the yoke is not a golden orange color but is the same pale yellow then don't eat it! And just because the eggs are brown don't assume they are free-range either.
  Another point, if the producer advertises tender free-range chicken meat you know their birds are not free-range. Sorry but you can't have free-range and tender, the two terms are mutually exclusive. A free range bird has to be able to move around to find food and this builds up muscle. A healthy bird has some nice firm meat. As state earlier, most producers are using Cornish-X birds for meat production and these birds have had all their instinct bred right out of them. They are so stupid they will die of thirst three feet from the waterer. So ask the producer what kind of birds they have if they say Cornish then go somewhere else. Look for something like Road Island Reds or New Hampshire Reds basically any bird that still has enough since in it to survive outside.
  Always check the eggs and the producer, don't believe what anybody tells you. Ask for photo's if you can't travel to the farm yourself. In this day and age they should have no problems sending them to you.
  On Umbra on free-range chickens and eggs posted 2 years, 7 months ago 13 Responses