I have wanted chickens for years. I have parted with a few pretty pennies over the last few years on free range eggs, so having my own laid in the backyard from free range, happy and healthy chickens has a lot of appeal (especially since I worked out eggs are a lot cheaper at home too).
Now that I finally have my own hens I can see they are a lot more than just a source of eggs. Watching their antics in the garden is a real time waster. The older hens gently purr to the younger hens encouraging them to explore the nest box, they follow me around the garden like a shadow demanding scraps and voice their disappointment when I have none. I have laughed to tears when they have been so relaxed from their sunny dust bath that they stumble around in the garden in a drunken stuper when disturbed.
I could go on and on (much more than I have below) about buying free range eggs if you cannot have hens of your own. Just have a really good think about what you're eating.
Take Farmer Brown with his smiley Egg Guy putting a happy face to the cruel reality of where your eggs come from. Heck, they brandish good, good, GOOD all over their website - but I challenge you to find the word chicken - yeah, we won't mention chickens so you just forget about where your eggs really come from. Go on eating your 'good' battery farmed eggs that come from very very 'bad' chickens.
Do you feel happy eating an animal byproduct from a chicken that has been disfigured (to prevent cannibalism), then caged and forced to produce a prolific amount of eggs by light manipulation and diet, wearing it's body ragged until it is slaughtered if it manages to live to 18 months old. If that's not enough, let's throw in a bit of forced starvation to force malting (malting slows egg production for up to 6 weeks when it occurs naturally). All the while, fed with antibiotics to keep it from becoming ill in it's atrocious living conditions where it would otherwise likely dye from respiratory infection and viral diseases?
You might be thinking, who cares - they're chickens? Forget the chicken and think about the egg, you are eating something that has rolled out of the feces encrusted cages that these birds live, and die, in - do you think your egg emerged nice and clean from the 'barn' it was laid in. Nope, a dose of detergent and sanitation is required before your egg is safe to eat. Yummo!
I know this may not apply to all caged eggs, but I think it's better to assume it does and avoid them.
Awe what cuties :O)
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