how about free ranged chickens ?

larry@stinescorner · Dec 7, 2011

read all the interesting discussion on beef,I was wondering what you all thought about the articals I have seen that say free ranged chickens provide an egg that is healthier and lower in cholesterol?

Daryl in PA · Dec 7, 2011

Chickens love to eat grass and bugs. The yolk of a free range chicken egg is usually much more orange in color. I buy my eggs from local farmer who free ranges at 1.00 per dozen. Sometimes we get double, even triple yolks! Dont know if their healthier for you...

Nebraska Cowman · Dec 7, 2011

All eggs are healthy. It's the margarine you fry them in that kills you. But your doctor never tells you that.

Dieselrider · Dec 7, 2011

As Daryl has mentioned the free range eggs will be much darker yellow to Orange in the yolk. That is the omega three fatty acids looking right back at you. Those are the good fatty acids. The color also testifies to the increased beta carotene in the egg. Yes they are much healthier then the eggs from chickens that never even see daylight or the outdoors. NC is right too in that it is healthier if you are cooking in animal fats rather then vegetable fats.

1936 · Dec 7, 2011

The eggs in the Chicago stores run 4.50 per doz. Bought a doz. that hit the end date for half price and hard boiled for deer camp - Very large brown and nice dark yellow yokes - could not tell from regular eggs with pepper.

All we had as a kid on the farm.

Dave in GA · Dec 7, 2011

We buy tons of free range chicken at the hospital I work at and feed it to the patients and in the cafeteria. We get it from a local/regional farm. The quality of the meat is better than that of caged chickens. It tastes better.
The chicken costs more, but it's a good product for the money.

Spook · Dec 7, 2011

After watching my chickens, I can believe that their eggs have less chloresterol, the little boogers run all over, trying to find something yummy, bugs, seeds, grass.

Traditional Farmer · Dec 7, 2011

I don't know about health benefits but Free Range chicken and eggs taste whole lot better

gene bender · Dec 7, 2011

Theres a huge free range comerical chicken place near me its a huge building like 200 x 400 and all they do is run around in that building there is so much BS about this stuff its downrite funny. I have a good friend who manages sever million chickens in Iowa the quality of the egg is determined by the feed and the list goes on. No one has enough green grass and clean place for several hundred or so to run let alone millions.

oldtanker · Dec 7, 2011

Gene that can't be legally called free range in most states....by definition in most states they have to have access to the great outdoors.

You can do some looking a reseaarch that shows a difference in animal health from confinment to pasture/free range. Look at what happens to humans that can't move around or have access to things like sunlight. The findings of a lot of research is there, all you have to do is look for it.

Rick

GNP Fatboy · Dec 7, 2011

I raise chickens here in MN. I have about 96,000 birds most of the time. They are free to run in my two big bird houses. True free range chicken is better(running outside, eating bugs),but the world couldn't afford to eat if that was the only way it was raised.

Zachary Hoyt · Dec 7, 2011

Ours are not free range but they are in a coop that I move every few days onto fresh ground. In the winter months they go into an enclosed coop that stays warmer. I have heard about the cholesterol too, I don't know about that for sure but the eggs are definitely yellower and nicer looking. Our coop is on wheels and has an upper level where the chickens roost and lay eggs and wire around the bottom so they can go on the ground on a 6x8' area. This kind of coop is easy to use and can even be used in town if there is enough lawn space around the house that you don't mind having torn up from time to time.
Zach

oldtanker · Dec 7, 2011

(quoted from post at 06:56:18 12/07/11) I raise chickens here in MN. I have about 96,000 birds most of the time. They are free to run in my two big bird houses. True free range chicken is better(running outside, eating bugs),but the world couldn't afford to eat if that was the only way it was raised.

I don't buy that with as much land here in west central MN that is under CRP......I'd say right now free range is impractical due to so much land setting idle. Kinda funny but the animal rights nuts would see all of em free range.....then would get really mad when farmers were out killing predators to protect their birds.

96K....thats a few birds....

Got a kid near us raising free range turkeys, best darn turkey I've ever eaten! Grocery store in Alexandria is now selling free range turkeys too. About 10 bucks more a bird than regular turkey of the same weight.

Rick

James Williams · Dec 7, 2011

I have a friend that raises free range chickens for meat.He swares he's had people clean his freezer out for 20.00 each and he furnishs a dvd to coustomers of how his chickens are raised.He also raises hogs for meat and actually cooks their feed before they eat it.I laughed at him but hes sincere and didacated to his job,he also is in partnership with his own retail store and slaughter house.

jimmy

Sid · Dec 7, 2011

That's why I cook mine with butter.

ChrisinMO · Dec 7, 2011

I am sure their eggs are great. I just don't like all the calling cards they leave around in rather unfortunate places. My wife likes them even less ;>(. During the growing season we keep our hens in a house built up on an old JD hay wagon running gear. We use electrified netting fencing to keep them in. We get most of the same benefits as free ranging, plus predator control, less having to find the hens' nests, less of course the equipment cost.

Christopher

Anonymous-0 · Dec 7, 2011

free range chinken eggs are good eatin!!

Anonymous-0 · Dec 7, 2011

My wife has free range chickens. I like them because I have to buy very little feed in the summer time. The color of the yolks are what you feed them. Bud

pat sublett · Dec 7, 2011

The dark yellow yokes in free range eggs is caused from the chickens eating what the cows leave behind.

jackinok · Dec 7, 2011

our little bunch is free ranged during the day and put up at night,and i do think it makes a difference in the eggs also.But ive always raised them that way,so i always thought it was the freshness of the eggs that made them different. I do know the meat has less fat on it,back when i was a kid my folks would pen up the old hens they wanted to make boiling chickens out of,and feed them up for a while to put some fat on them. The fryers were mostly the roosters we didnt want to keep and they were all free ranged to make them leaner. I still remember the first real chicken operation I ever saw,i was probably 12-13 and couldnt believe anyone would go to the trouble of raising chickens that way!LOL! Little bunch we keep now are all the grandaughters pets,I swear those things are fed gold dust from the price of the feed they get!

dhermesc · Dec 7, 2011

We have always had "free range" chickens. While I think their eggs are much better the actual chicken does not taste that good when butchered.

We always get a mixed lot of chicks and naturally there are usually more roosters than hens. The meat from these roosters (butchered at three months) doesn't seem to have much if any taste and and if you let them get much older they are extremely tough. It might be the fact we are buying layer breeds like Plymouth Barred Rock and Rhode Island Reds instead of meat chickens like the Cornish Cross.

Nebraska Cowman · Dec 7, 2011

That's the spirit. Butter or bacon grease. All the people with heart trouble eat margarine. Notice a connection?

oldtanker · Dec 7, 2011

(quoted from post at 08:34:42 12/07/11) That's the spirit. Butter or bacon grease. All the people with heart trouble eat margarine. Notice a connection?

Not true. MIL cooks with lard, butter and bacon grease....bout killed the FIL....quarldruple bypass 2 years ago.

Rick

John T · Dec 7, 2011

When we kept our own chickens for fresh brown eggs, the yokes were ORANGE NOT SICK LOOKIN YELLOW and the shells were tougher. I liked them sooooooooo much better then store bought anemic runny yellow yoked fake eggs. When we raised fryers for butchering however, kept them locked up n poured the feed to them for like 11 weeks (I forget exactly) and they were good eatin. We also kept a family milk cow, 1/2 Ayrshire, 1/4 Jersey 1/4 Gurnsey talk about rich milk yummyyyyyyy made me fatter n a hog too lol

John T

jackinok · Dec 7, 2011

they definitly taste different thats for sure,sort of like grass fed beef and one thats been fed up in a lot. They have more of game bird taste to them i think. we would always have a mixed bunch when i was a kid,company always got the best ones,and we would kill the roosters of the egg types when they were really young about the size of game hens. Once they get older they are not much good ,as you say,but they werent too bad if you were making tamales or tacos!LOL. We used to can some up for winter and a pressure cooker could make a boot tender so thats where a lot of the older roosters went,try to can a fat hen and often the fat would turn rancid. Of course to make proper fried chicken youve got to use old bacon grease anyway,and a old cast iron frying pan full of used bacon grease would make anything good!

Texasmark1 · Dec 7, 2011

Can't have around here. Live in gently rolling hills area with a lot of terracing for erosion control. Coyotes alive and well. Critters will lie flat on the ground on one side of the terrace, upper or lower side depending upon which way the chickens are.

When a chicken gets close enough.............

Mark

old · Dec 7, 2011

A true free range chicken is very hard to keep due to the fact they are prey to most any thing. Now then that said farm chickens on a small farm like mine do in fact taste better and are better for you but there is more reason then just being on a small farm. One thing few people know or understand is that the eggs you buy in the stores can be 6 months old or even older. Back when I was a kid I had friend that had a egg farm set up and they got around 10,000 per day but it still took a month or so to fill a semi trailer so when they lift there farm they could be a month old. From there they went to a ware house to be sorted and graded and then went to another ware house to be shipped to the stores so as I said they can be 6 plus months old before you buy them and no roosters in with the hens and they are kept in a 2X2 cage hanging about 3 foot off the ground. 2 hens per cage and those chicken when done laying go to make chicken soup of Campbell or did back then

chevytaHOE5674 · Dec 7, 2011

We currently have about a dozen free range hens and a couple roosters. They go outside unfenced when the sun goes up and go in when it starts to get dark. I've seen them about 1/8 of a mile out into our hay field on occasion. They eat anything and everything they can outside even in the winter.

We produce enough eggs for ourselves and then sell about 4-5 dozen a week currently. The shells are much tougher and the yokes a very rich color and very firm compared to store eggs where the yoke is often times runny. IMO they taste much better and when cooked are a much deeper color.

We butcher our older hens and roosters and vacuum seal them in the freezer. They are darker meat than store chicken and have a more gamey taste. But they are very good eating.

LJD · Dec 7, 2011

I never had one last free-range more then a day or so. Red foxes or coyotes take them all.

Last year we finally got a good sitting hen which is rare now-adays with many breeds. This was a Speckled Sussex. She insisted on leaving the barn and nesting on the ground. She lasted just long enough to hatch the eggs and the a fox got them all.

By the way, we also tried a outdoor chicken coop with no floor that we'd tow around the fields. Sort of "free range" in a cage. The chickens got so terrorized at nights from coons trying to bust into the cage, they stopped laying. So, back in the barn they went.

Rich_WI · Dec 7, 2011

(quoted from post at 12:38:25 12/07/11) By the way, we also tried a outdoor chicken coop with no floor that we'd tow around the fields. Sort of "free range" in a cage. The chickens got so terrorized at nights from coons trying to bust into the cage, they stopped laying. So, back in the barn they went.

The solution to that is simple, put a leghold trap on the perimiter of the cage. As the killer paces around the outside, looking for a way in they get snapped in the trap. You go out at day break and pop it in the head with a .22 short. Move the cage farther down the field and reset trap. Lather, rince, repeat. Dont forget, put 1/4 inch mesh near where you put the trap or the chicken will reach out and get its neck caught. Same if you occationally have chickens fly out, you will catch chickens as they walk the perimeter trying to get back in with the others.

You can do something similar with larger digging killers. Predig or start a hole making it look like the animal can dig into the pen/coop then put a 220 or 330 conibear on the hole. If there is good smell of chicken in/through the hole, the killer wont be able to resist trying to go through the hole dispite the fresh smell of human. Basically you are making a bucket set around the coop or run designed to catch the digging type killers.

Killers that make a habit of comming to the coop every night are the easiest to catch. They are a little harder to get if they wait for the chickens to wander away from the coop to ambush.

Mike M · Dec 7, 2011

I think you also need to have a rooster to have fertil eggs to be healthier.

chevytaHOE5674 · Dec 7, 2011

I live out in the woods and have little problem with predators with our free range chickens. Most predators hunt at night, and our chickens are locked in a coop. For the daytime hunters a few well placed traps and a little hunting go a long way.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 7, 2011

fox, coyote, cats, and wild dogs among other things think there just ain't nuttin tastier :shock:

got rid of my chickens when the birdflu scare made them all be kept indoors... What a relief... Bought eggs from the neighbors a little while for about 50 cents more than at stores but got tired of cleaning poop and feathers off mix sized eggs. Eggs in stores here have to be labeled as to how they are kept (caged, floor, freerange) about 15 cents difference in price, stamped with the date layed/gathered, uniform size, clean, and tasty. And never have to ask if they can spare a dozen.......

Commissary eggs are a different story.pale/flat yolks and bland......

JayinNY · Dec 7, 2011

I have free range hens, the eggs r better than store eggs. It goes in cycles here, I go for a while with no predator problems the I have a problem. Lost 5 laying hens this summer to a fox. Finally the fox got hit by a car, I let the hens back out for the days and they have been fine since august. Until the next predator comes along I guess!

RN · Dec 7, 2011

For real free range chickens try the Florida Keys and nearby areas-- feral chicken flocks abound and cross roads often in front of tourists causing minor crash"s. Lots of the munincipal areas had banned the shooting or taking of squirrels, rabbits and feral chickens, now the tow truck drivers have extra business. The wild ones aren"t afraid of humans much- a little cautious- and seem to be a lot of Old English Game blood mixed with various large and small breeds- makes for interesting colors and tail feathers. Released easter pets, escaped farm birds from 1930s descendants. The humans in area are allowed to shoot or trap dangerous predators in town- list includes possible rabies cariers so fox, skunk, racoons sort of controled, gaurd dogs chase big predators but not many of the chickens that peck thier noses when pups. Other free range practices from French Burgundy region have small farms and mixed crop and livestock so chickens wander pasture during days- farmers get premium price for their birds to feed tourists. Lots of small farms means predator control practiced, helps fat French hens survive wandering pasture with sheep and goats. RN

gene bender · Dec 7, 2011

I wouldnt know about that but thats what they are doing this free range thing is mixed up anyway. Have you read the sprcts on grass fed animals rely dont make any sense at all. All these health gooks will buy anything from anywhere as they realy cant prove where it comes from but the stuff does sell well and for more money just like the bottled water thingy.

Motorcraftman · Dec 7, 2011

I'm a "Hobby Farmer" on about 18A and have a Few Silkies,Chickens and Enjoy them for Pets as Much as anything,LOL!and Small, But Delicious Eggs enought for my Fam.. Larry KF4LKU

dhermesc · Dec 7, 2011

Agreed. During day time hours our dog keeps the 4 legged predators away but once in the while a hawk will swoop in and nab one. At night they return to their coop and we lock it up.

elmersooner · Dec 7, 2011

got out of the chicken buisness--neighbor kept complaing about his visitors--then next year his garden was infested with bugs, so he bought his own along with some guineas. the eggs are definitely better, meat not so much. prefer quail anyways.

BigMarv1085 · Dec 7, 2011

I thought that I had about 50 wild game chickens a few years back. I went out one night and caught a bunch of them and took them to the local animal auction. Ended up selling almost 300 hens and roosters. Guy came out a caught the rest a week later. I didn"t realize that they reproduced so fast. Had one hen left over that was setting and a rooster. Like to have never got rid of them chickens.

how about free ranged chickens ?

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