Caged chicken eggs

One wonders what else you are missing? I mean, how do you find out what's going on in the world?

Do they not teach about animal cruelty at schools anymore?

I remember watching a horrible video about turkeys too when I was in Year 10. No turkey twislers for me

We have just got rid of our hens they are easy to keep but stink to high heaven!

Ive had to start buying eggs again from the shops and they taste vile. Nothing at all like fresh ones.

han19- google battery hens. It's horrendous. Also barn eggs, the reality is very different from what it sounds like.

I try to avoid supermarkets when buying my eggs. There are a couple of farms around me that sell their eggs, so I try to get them from there, but if I can't I'll buy the free range ones from the supermarket or farm shop.

I like to hope that the hen that's laying my egg is having a good life, running free, and having a whale of a time with her friends. Not being shat on by some other hen because there's nowhere for her to escape.

You could also look in local butchers and greengrocers - they often have local farm eggs for sale.

Ours only stink if they've not been cleaned out regularily enough.

I used to not care about where I got my eggs. Now I'm much more aware, if not using my them from my mum's hens then I usually have ones bought from the butcher. They are so cheeky and quite funny wee personalities, I'd hate to think of them in a tiny cage. Mum's are free range to the point of taking the total p.... and wandering off round the village when they fancy.

I would love to get some ex batts & have them in the garden, til death do us part. But I dont think our landlady would approve. I've tried talking the folks into it too as they have 3rd of an acre, but its a slow process.

We always get our eggs from a farm up the road where you can see the chooks running around & enjoying life. (I did find out that after a year, they are all killed as they dont lay as many, but in that one year, they have a chance to be a real hen)

It saddens me that when chicks are born in factory farms, the boys are put on a conveyor belt & go into a mincer! Alive! Because they arent any use to the egg laying industry. Horrible! Beak are cut as well and this isnt monitored properly causing horrific injuries.

Two good websites are Hillside Animal Sanctuary (who have helped bring the horse meat scandal to a head) & Animal Aid. If you want to know the truth about where your eggs/meat/fish comes from, then I recommend a look.

That's the documentary I saw too Nursey. Didn't they do a week of programmes like this where a load of chefs tried to highlight the importance of free range? It wasn't that long ago either and was advertised on Ch4 all the time so hard to miss.

I think dads put off as we used to have a 'duck rescue aviary' in the garden. The council would bring orphans round to us & we'd look after them until they could be released back to the wild. They were messy as you like! But I have said that chickens scratch, not sieve around the lawn with their beaks messing the lawn up.

I'll keep plugging on though. I can usually wear them down. haha!

We had 6. We gave them away as we wanted to be ready to move after we put our offer in and we couldnt take them with us really as the garden is smaller. I hate having to buy eggs, they taste grim.

I can't quote everyone - sorry!

No I didn't learn anything about it in school. However I have looked up 'battery hens' as Mini told me and there were pics of just rows and rows of poor chickens, many in each cage and I am shocked to the core. I also ended up finding a website about KFC also being cruel to the chickens. I had always thought that the chicken didn't taste quite as good as it does when I make a dish at home - it's so fatty and horrible. The website is called 'Kentucky Fried Cruelty'. It says that they get their beaks removed, wings broken, they can't walk etc. It's absolutely horrifying ☹️

I have heard from someone at work that there is a video called 'Earthlings' (she's very pro vegan) and has told me to watch it...But another colleague who has seen it told me he had to turn it off a few minutes in because it was so disturbing. Anyone else seen this?

Totally. In all honesty I was on my phone when I made the thread and didn't want to explain how I came across the caged eggs. But I will now i'm on my laptop.

I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS buy eggs that say free range on the box. It's just what was always in the fridge and I just copied when I got my own place. I never buy the value eggs. However my ex step dad (hard to explain! He's not with my mum anymore) works in an egg factory (in the IT department) and he gets 24 eggs a week as a perk for working there. So...

As I was REALLY struggling with money this week I asked if he could get me a box as a favour. I usually get a box of 15 from tesco for £3.09 as it is cheaper per egg to buy a big box and to someone like me any savings I can make help.I go through a lot of eggs as I enjoy making cakes instead of buying them, OH likes an egg on toast for breakfast and we often have an egg with bacon for lunch in a baguette. I mean obviously £3.09 isn't that expensive but when I can get them for free if I ask nicely I might as well.

Anyway, he gave me a box of 15 which I was very happy with initially (from morrisons). I later realised (after eating two) that the box said caged hens and this is where my curiosity came from.

But yeah, I can see now after looking at the pictures how utterly disgusting it is. I have been contemplating being a vegetarian for a while now, but that wouldn't help this issue as you can still eat eggs when you are veggie. All I can do is not go near them in the future. My 17 year old sister is and a year in she is still going strong. I just don't know if I could give up bacon sarnies!

While on the subject this photo was taken while I was in Sri Lanka I cant believe it was just driving down the road......I guess at least they are more open about their treatment of animals and don't cover it up like they do here.

? oh my gosh were they alive??? Poor things. What makes us humans think we have the right to do that to an animal??????

Yes they sadly they were alive.

I've lost track of whom said it but they mentioned buying battery chickens and giving them a new life. I knew a lad who did this and he said they were so mentally disturbed by their experience that they didn't attempt to move around like normal chickens. He said they just seemed broken. He is a chicken fancier and I think he thought he would try and save as many as he could. It was such a sad tale to hear.

The term 'pecking order' relates beautifully to chickens , they have a complex social behaviour and they interact with each other in a specific way. That natural behaviour is entirely stripped away when they are in a cage.

Late to this (bloody work stopping me from getting on Hitched!) but always, always buy free-range eggs. I'd go without rather than buying caged eggs, They shouldn't even be allowed to sell them.

I I can't quote on my phone but I read something last night in the hens trust website (think that's what it was called) and it said that traditional battery cages have been baned. New comfort cages have been introduced but to me they don't look good.

what really upset me was the photos of the baby make chicks being put into a mincer alive. Horrific.

Funky- I saw a van much like that on the motorway just before xmas. It was freezing cold and they were squashed into tiny crates.

The chicken in cages pic reminds me of the dog meat trade in Thailand. A rescue called Soi Dog over there, intercept the lorries taking live dogs to Vietnam to be killed for food. They then keep them in the shelter. The situation is dire over there. Esp as many dogs have been stolen.

These are the lucky ones. I just can't get my head around humans sometimes and am ashamed to be part of this species! (I hope this pic doesn't offend anyone, but knowledge is power & it's only by education that we learn and see what is happening in the world)

I had nightmares after learning about the china fur trade. The fact that many of the cats and dogs have collars on so are clearly pets broke my heart how can people be so evil?

Quick follow on question for meat eaters, do you buy free range chicken as well as free range eggs?

Yep. Or organic.

Yes I like my chickens to have been happy.

I buy Boy's meat and chicken is always free-range organic. I never buy anything other than British-reared pork.

I have the same opinion of cheap supermarket meat. It's a false economy, as it doesn't taste the same. All of my meat comes from my family butcher (I know I'm spoilt in this respect) If I don't have any, I don't bother. Supermarket meat is more often than not pumped with water to bulk it out. If you buy bacon from the butcher, when you fry it you don't get all that white stuff running out it. It's not a difficult decision to make IMO.