Current Events > Expensive eggs pushed me to Free Range

(+) Yeah! (+)

With a dozen eggs costing $10 even at King Soopers, I might as well pay a little more for eggs where the chicken was treated more humanely and given more space to roam. And after eating those eggs, I do notice the difference in both taste and yolk color.

I remember having a package come through work one night (FedEx) that was damaged. I worked QA at the time so it was up to me to inspect it. It was fresh eggs and meat from a small farm. A couple of the eggs had broken and the yolks were extremely orange. I'd never seen anything like it and we had chickens growing up.

Sadly I just buy whatever is cheapest. But I should be more conscious of what I'm buying..

You should check out the Twin Experiment on Netflix. It's about two biological twins taking on different diets and seeing which one ended up being healthier. It also explores the industrial farm and food industry.

TL;DR - "free roam" literally means that for like 5,000 chickens there's a 3 square foot piece of grass outside that is technically accessible through a hatch.

TL;TL;DR - Gotta do some more exploration beyond just the product labeling because companies can and will exploit loose definitions of things.

Hexenherz posted...

You should check out the Twin Experiment on Netflix. It's about two biological twins taking on different diets and seeing which one ended up being healthier. It also explores the industrial farm and food industry.

TL;DR - "free roam" literally means that for like 5,000 chickens there's a 3 square foot piece of grass outside that is technically accessible through a hatch.

TL;TL;DR - Gotta do some more exploration beyond just the product labeling because companies can and will exploit loose definitions of things.

I'll have to check it out. Btw, do you know anything about the integrity of Happy Eggs?

Free range is a muddied term, always check the "hens per hectare" part. Free range just means they're not caged but it doesn't actually mean they're necessarily what you imagine for free range. For true free ranged you want to find eggs with the lowest hens per hectare, it'll cost more but it's a sure sign they're truly cared for birds.

I'm Australian and went with "premium" free range eggs about five years back (they cost me about the same price Americans are paying for bog standard eggs nowadays, worth it for the knowledge the hens have true roaming at 85 hens a hectare). Literally cannot eat even normal free range eggs anymore, the taste is insanely different. The yolks are the most brilliant of oranges and the flavour is so intense and good I don't even need to season them, they're that good.

M1Astray posted...

Free range is a muddied term, always check the "hens per hectare" part. Free range just means they're not caged but it doesn't actually mean they're necessarily what you imagine for free range. For true free ranged you want to find eggs with the lowest hens per hectare, it'll cost more but it's a sure sign they're truly cared for birds.

I'm Australian and went with "premium" free range eggs about five years back (they cost me about the same price Americans are paying for bog standard eggs nowadays, worth it for the knowledge the hens have true roaming at 85 hens a hectare). Literally cannot eat even normal free range eggs anymore, the taste is insanely different. The yolks are the most brilliant of oranges and the flavour is so intense and good I don't even need to season them, they're that good.

Yeah, I was about to say as a USDA employee Ive got some bad news for you on the term free range.

How do free range chickens work? Why don't they wander away?

I feel like they're probably too dumb to run away, but that just makes the wandering problem seem more probable.

For the record, the brand I bought was Happy Egg. Their yolk is the brightest orange I've ever seen. Google says it's about 21.8 square feet per bird. Stupid question, but that's good, right?

nocturnal_traveler posted...

For the record, the brand I bought was Happy Egg. Their yolk is the brightest orange I've ever seen. Google says it's about 21.8 square feet per bird. Stupid question, but that's good, right?

Googling says they're about 1500 hens per hectare and they have proper free range conditions, so yep they'd be good. Plenty of room for each bird to move about and roam.

ReturnOfDevsman posted...

How do free range chickens work? Why don't they wander away?

I feel like they're probably too dumb to run away, but that just makes the wandering problem seem more probable.

They have paddocks with fencing around the paddocks.

https://www.seriouseats.com/what-are-the-best-eggs
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/01/AR2010060100792.html

There's evidence that fresher, "better" eggs aren't actually better in a blind taste test.

But since we also eat with our eyes, if you think orange eggs taste better, they taste better.

Brown eggs are also cheaper now. Or maybe they always were, and I didn't care before?

nocturnal_traveler posted...

For the record, the brand I bought was Happy Egg. Their yolk is the brightest orange I've ever seen. Google says it's about 21.8 square feet per bird. Stupid question, but that's good, right?

Color of the yolk means almost nothing now. Since people think its better, farmers can add stuff to feed to make the yolks more orange (ie. paprika, turmeric).

Cuticrusader09 posted...

Color of the yolk means almost nothing now. Since people think its better, farmers can add stuff to feed to make the yolks more orange (ie. paprika, turmeric).

fuck yeah

self spicing eggs

ReturnOfDevsman posted...

How do free range chickens work? Why don't they wander away?

I feel like they're probably too dumb to run away, but that just makes the wandering problem seem more probable.

They generally tend to go back to a home to roost for the night I believe. Also they wouldn't want to leave a place that has safety and food. Googling it seems to give that impression at least.

nocturnal_traveler posted...

With a dozen eggs costing $10 even at King Soopers, I might as well pay a little more for eggs where the chicken was treated more humanely and given more space to roam. And after eating those eggs, I do notice the difference in both taste and yolk color.

I had local suppliers who did that. They were always better.