Do you eggs taste better today

[pflaming]

When one considers the price of this land, the income from fruit, nuts, or grapes to count the eggs twice each day, seems someone is counting their chickens before . . . Or this is a subsidized program.

Edited April 30, 2016 by pflaming

[plymouthcranbrook]

Big market around Chicago for high priced free range chickens and also eggs. Cost in market is quite a bit higher than regular especially in the high class suburbs allong Lake Michigan and central Lake County where the money is. Upscale Markets are becoming very popular.

Edited May 1, 2016 by plymouthcranbrook

[55 Fargo]

I don't buy eggs, as youcan see what I have in my yard....

[DJ194950]

Not to much of a farm boy but do roosters lay eggs? Special breed?

[pflaming]

Only the fighting cocks when they lose!

[55 Fargo]

Not to much of a farm boy but do roosters lay eggs? Special breed?

10 hens and 3 roos, 2 standard Barrred Rock/Sussex Xs, the rest bantams, some pures, and the rest Xs.

I have a few more, with a total of 15 birds, plenty enough eggs....

[55 Fargo]

Only the fighting cocks when they lose!

I do not support or condone cruelty to animals to entertain people. Bantam roosters fight enough at times, but mostly tolerate each other..

[55 Fargo]

The eggs, the crew, a broody hen with eggs hatching soon, and the some direction..

[Dan Hiebert]

Tasted better only because I fried them in bacon grease...

[Niel Hoback]

MMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm bacon,,,,,,,,

[Plymouthy Adams]

Not to much of a farm boy but do roosters lay eggs? Special breed?

roosters lay chickens

[Brent B3B]

10 hens and 3 roos, 2 standard Barrred Rock/Sussex Xs, the rest bantams, some pures, and the rest Xs.

I have a few more, with a total of 15 birds, plenty enough eggs....

we have about 30 hens and zero roosters...... we don't sell the eggs, we give them away to family, friends, neighbors and at church.

we never thought of the "hobby farm" to make money......    

[rb1949]

50¢ dozen last week.

[Plymouthy Adams]

we have about 30 hens and zero roosters...... we don't sell the eggs, we give them away to family, friends, neighbors and at church.

we never thought of the "hobby farm" to make money......    

question, how do you tell which ones will be the regular recipe and what ones are extra crispy chickens...I get my farm fresh eggs from the chickens owned by a lady down the street..and to answer the original question, they always taste better when they are free...not necessary free-range

[Dan Hiebert]

The Missus just got back from visiting our kids in Texas and New Mexico yesterday evening (primarily for the arrival of grandkid #4 with our son in Lubbock).  Our daughter and her husband in NM have a mere 6 hens, but they have all the eggs they can handle and then some, so the wife brought about 3 dozen back.  Being of the more recent generation, they're not necessarily on the 100% organic kick, but they see no reason to be otherwise unless necessary (in other words, our daughter is surprisingly level-headed for being one of our kids).  They feed their chickens whatever is available, they'll apparently eat just about anything.  They fed them fruits, nuts, and berries for a few months to see what happens, and they got the neatest variety of egg colors, and my wife says they definitely taste better, but I've yet to find out - but if all else fails, we've got the bacon grease.  They're going to start selling their surplus eggs at a local market, they're already in demand just because they're "organic", and there aren't enough folks selling organic products in their part of New Mexico yet.  Theirs is a back yard operation, tho, nowhere near the layout that started this thread. 

[DonaldSmith]

Recently my vegan son praised up the operation of some organic farmer in Virginia who rotates his chickens with other farm animals and crops so that the fields full of  droppings and natural fertilizers (read bullsh...) are then used for organic crops.  So the free range field does get used to advantage.  Stubble from some crops become grazing for some animals. The guy has it all figured out. 

 

Does this type of farming compete with corporation farming?  I don't know.  Maybe the demand prices for organic foods keep the operation in the black. This sort of farming has gone on for eons in various parts of the world. 

[Captain Neon]

After working a year for an egg processor that raises its own chickens, the terms "free range" and "cage-free" have little meaning to me, and not something I would pay extra for.  I've no complaints or disagreement with the little guys that really do free range their birds.  If most of the people patting themselves on the back and paying too much for "free range" poultry at the local Albertson's actually knew how most of the products bearing the moniker of "free range" or "cage free" were actually made they might be disappointed.

[pflaming]

Some years ago, I toured an egg operation that had 800,000 hens laying and another 200,000 in molt. Itt had two birds per each small but not tight cages, lighting set up to stimulate dusk, dark, dawn, automatic every thing.

When a hen lays an egg, she lifts her body, so the cage floors were slanted and the eggs rolled out of the cages on to a narrow conveyor which via a series of conveyors delivered them to an electronic sizer which picked up each egg, weighed it, and separated it to its sale size. The first person to touch those eggs was the person who was going to cook them.

Every egg rolled under an electric scanner at the edge of each cage and the information gathered told them the hens health.

The sound of 800,000 hens was very unusual, high volume but "pleasant" to the ear.

[Brent B3B]

question, how do you tell which ones will be the regular recipe and what ones are extra crispy chickens...I get my farm fresh eggs from the chickens owned by a lady down the street..and to answer the original question, they always taste better when they are free...not necessary free-range

the extra crispy chickens are the ones that get to close to the electric fence for the pigs

 

thanks for the lob

[Captain Neon]

Some years ago, I toured an egg operation that had 800,000 hens laying and another 200,000 in molt. Itt had two birds per each small but not tight cages, lighting set up to stimulate dusk, dark, dawn, automatic every thing.

When a hen lays an egg, she lifts her body, so the cage floors were slanted and the eggs rolled out of the cages on to a narrow conveyor which via a series of conveyors delivered them to an electronic sizer which picked up each egg, weighed it, and separated it to its sale size. The first person to touch those eggs was the person who was going to cook them.

Every egg rolled under an electric scanner at the edge of each cage and the information gathered told them the hens health.

The sound of 800,000 hens was very unusual, high volume but "pleasant" to the ear.

 

That's about the size of it.  Cage-free means that there are no tops on the cages, and free range just means that there is a small fenced in area where the chickens can go outside, usu. not much bigger than the space of one chicken.  The chickens rarely leave the cage and never go outside.  It makes people feel better about themselves, some believe that they taste better or are more nutritious, but it is similar to a diamond studded dog collar.  They aren't any different than the regular eggs.  Same breed of bird, same feed, and, for all intents and purposes, the same conditions.  Pay extra, if it makes you feel better, but they are the same thing with just a bigger price tag.

[55 Fargo]

My birds free range, so more organic I suppose. In winter the yolks are yellow, and in summer more orange. I prefer yellow, as I am Canadian, the diets, are mostly wheat and not corn as in the US markets...

Free range eggs sell for $3.50 per dozen here, I do not sell any, our own use and for family and friends