chestnutmare Posted October 11, 2011 Share Posted October 11, 2011 I've been to the supermarket late tonight so it was quiet and I was looking at the eggs... as you do when you have chickens of your own, with no intention of buying any. I felt the need to open a box of eggs to look at them as if these eggs came from a different species than the eggs I get from mine. The were all stamped and that ruined them because then they all looked the same but they were laid by different chickens. This is an insult to the chickens! Stamping them all, making them look the same and unnatural! And there they were - caged eggs. 69p for 6. Is that all their worth? Those poor little hens laying for our benefit - 69p for 6. I couldn't help but think of the ex-batt photos I've seen on here. I have always thought about where my food has come from but maybe keeping my own chickens has made me slightly crazy, as I felt sorry for the stamped eggs too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueandwhite Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 As long as people buy them they will be produced I guess. The supermarkets go a long way to make us think produce comes from a little farm somewhere with non stop sunshine! I hope I don't have to go back to buying supermarket eggs. Haven't since I got my two girls, just went without for a few weeks when it was freezing last year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jackian Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 I could not agree with you more! I was always careful when buying eggs before I had my girls , but to be honest not as careful as maybe i should have been. It was not until I had my own chickens that I observed more about the way eggs were produced and the effort going into laying one.. Fancy pushing all that time just to be sold for 10p . If you were a Battery hen not even being able to snuggle down to do it. My corner shop was selling eggs from a local farm and people thought they were free range or the least barn eggs..The farmer brought them in once a week and the shop owner was misled. It was not until a few weeks ago that in tiny writing on the box "Cage birds". Because we live in the countryside "Ooops, word censored!"ody had questioned it.He has now changed his farm . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Kate Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 I find it utterly heartbreaking. I can't eat anything that contains eggs now unless i know they're free range (which makes eating pasta and eggs quite tricky - thank god for M&S). I had a big row with my mum in a supermarket recently because she was buying caged eggs because the free range ones were "too small". Given that she has met my girls and thinks they're great, i just didn't know how she could do it. I ended up crying so, believe me, you are NOT the only one! Oh and i once broke down and cried in Asda because they were selling fish for £1. a whole fish for a pound. I know you can get a whole chicken for a pound too. it just seems so wrong. there is really not a guneuine need for meat in people's lives that justifies a life for a £1. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chookingham Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 I have 9 chickens, and this morning, no eggs laid at all with only 4 left in the fridge I refuse to buy supermarket eggs as much for the big lack of flavour than the associated ethical issues. Now how to encourage my chooks to let me have a few more..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chestnutmare Posted October 12, 2011 Author Share Posted October 12, 2011 blue and white - I was wondering if a picture of a battery hen on the front of the 'caged eggs' boxes would make any difference? Afterall, there's a healthy looking picture of a chicken on the 'free range eggs' boxes. I know that some people will buy the cheapest because they feel they need to or want to make savings. jackian - just goes to show how easily we assume, and it's excellent that the farmer had to change his ways. Kate, I know what you mean! I'm a veggie so feel for animals lives anyway. But £1 - I know exactly what you mean. And as for your mother, you can only do what you can. I know of family members who buy the cheapest eggs too but say how lovely the eggs from my 3 are, yolks so deeply coloured and better tasting. But it doesn't make much difference to them when they go to the supermarket - they go for the cheapest. Chookingham - uhoh... have you tried having a little word with them? The other option is, of course, to get a couple more hens... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angie Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Due to moulting and less daylight my hens are on strike, i actually needed some eggs and dallied with the eggs in the shop. I just couldn't buy them No i put them down feeling quite sorry for the chicks that had laid them. As reasonably priced as they were i walked away ......I went to the farm on the edge of town in the end for a dozen eggs, a real mixture of colours and sizes , freshly laid and all for £2. The farmer apologised for the price but he had just taken delivery of his feed and the grain had gone up last week, I didn't mind at all and promised to return the boxes on my next trip for eggs. Returning to the car with the precious eggs his fields were full of arks and his chucks were scratching away then i got chased by the guinea fowl and a few geese. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chookingham Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 @chestnut mare: Not sure the hubby would let me have a few more - still waiting for the three who arrived 3 weeks ago to start laying and we always knew the orps were more for their looks than their egg laying capacity But am very disappointed that our 3 established hybrids have gone on strike. Accidentally on purpose clicked the 'buy' button in the Omlet shop this afternoon and it's funny how many chook treats and tonics ended up in the basket.....almost like I have a chook sat on my should whispering in my ear: mealworms, peck block, mmmmmmm!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cranfield Kate Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 i bought some supermarket egss when Boad started laying softies (now laying hardies - god bless liquid calcium) and i agonised for hours over which ones to get it took me three attempts of going into the shop. i kept bottling out of the purchase as i just don't trust anything that says they're free range. Not after that film last year of waitrose free range ducks being swung around by their necks... anyway, in the end I opted for some that came from what looked like a small farm and the blurb on the back had a couple of typos in it. it seemed reassuringly non-faked somehow. i think putting a picture of a battery hen on those egg boxes is a great idea! they did it with pictures of diseased lungs on cigarette packets so why not be realistic about everything else. a pig in a tiny stall on the pork packets, with added images of the slaughterhouse... some days i get quite militant about it. sorry to rant. and i probably sound like a nutter... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majuka Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 I am one who has to buy eggs now our last layer of the three seems to have recently stopped. I try and get our eggs from our local saddlery shop. They have about 40 hens there - all ex batts and they are really well looked after, hen houses converted out of horse boxes etc and loads of perches and interesting things. Other than that I get the sainsburys woodland free range ones. I think it is time all supermarkets followed the lead of the better ones and ditched eggs from battery hens altogether - both as whole eggs and ingredients. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
blueandwhite Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 chestnutmare - I think a picture of a battery/caged hen might tug at a few heartstrings but a lot of people just don't have the same ethics as us (or feel the extra cost just isn't worth it/can't afford it). Look at the horrible pictures on cigarette packs and people still smoke! I'm a veggie too, have been for over 30 years and feel sad at the drop of a hat where animals and their welfare is concerned. It is nice to know that people do care though and think carefully about what they buy/eat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chestnutmare Posted October 13, 2011 Author Share Posted October 13, 2011 Angie, @ being chased by geese - yikes. That's what you get for buying farm eggs! Mind you, at £2 for a dozen - it's worth being chased by geese. Bargain. Chookingham, it's so easy to buy all these 'essentials' - online shopping is dangerous. How old are your hybrids? Kate, I didn't know that about Waitrose! Thats disgusting. It just goes to show we don't really know what we buying. I like how the typos reassured you. I'd probably be the same. Putting pictures on the packs might not stop everybody buying these products, but at least they've been informed or reminded. Majuka, your saddlery shop sounds fab! 40 ex batts!! That's impressive. And a potentially expensive way of housing them with horse boxes! But a good idea, I like it. I think this is where I have 'forgotten' about caged eggs - the ingredients used in other things. I've noticed Tesco are now using free range eggs in their own products. I don't know if this is for all of their products but I've noticed this on some packaging. bluenandwhite, I totally agree. I think we are at least getting somewhere - look at all of us here with our own chickens. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Space Chick Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Tesco use free range eggs in all their finest products, but not in everything, so if its not finest, you need to check the label Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
majuka Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Majuka, your saddlery shop sounds fab! 40 ex batts!! That's impressive. And a potentially expensive way of housing them with horse boxes! But a good idea, I like it. I think this is where I have 'forgotten' about caged eggs - the ingredients used in other things. I've noticed Tesco are now using free range eggs in their own products. I don't know if this is for all of their products but I've noticed this on some packaging.bluenandwhite, I totally agree. I think we are at least getting somewhere - look at all of us here with our own chickens. It really is lovely to see them all, they have a great area. The horse boxes are old and probably no longer roadworthy so I guess it is a good way to make use of them! As regards supermarket ingredients, I know that sainsburys taste the difference range use free range and their other ranges are also starting to use only free range eggs now as well so that really is great news! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
