Are Chicken Ark Eggs Free Range? Just What Are Organic And Free Range Eggs?
Posted on May 14, 2009 under Keeping chickens, chicken ark | 9 Comments
Britons are buying record numbers of Free Range, Barn and Organic Eggs. Research shows shoppers bought 2.04billion of them last year, up from 1.64billion in 2002 (Article from the Daily Mail - 09/08/2006).
With increasing media attention on battery chickens since then, most of the large supermarkets have moved to barn and free range eggs. Waitrose only sell barn and free range. Of course, if you’re keeping chickens at home, either letting them free range or keeping them in a chicken ark that you move around, then you have free range eggs.
if you keep your hens in hen houses with a run, your hens are not ranging free but if you look at the definition below they would count as free range. They may be organic too, if you provide organic food. The important thing about home grown eggs is that you control the conditions you keep your chickens in.
The Benefits of Eating Eggs
Eggs are low in calories and could actually protect against heart disease, breast cancer and eye problems and even help you to lose weight. Eggs are actually good for you. They are rich in nutrients, one egg provides 13 essential nutrients, all in the yolk (egg whites contain albumen, an important source of protein, and no fat). You should keep eggs in the fridge in their box and eat them by the use-by date.
We now know the benefits of eating eggs but does the welfare of the chickens matter?
Eggs are produced in 3 types of production systems.
1) Laying Cage System. Laying cages are the most common method of commercial egg production in the UK - representing around 66% of eggs produced in 2004.
Typically a laying cage system consists of a series of at least three tiers of cages. The cages have sloping mesh floors so that the eggs roll forward out of the reach of the birds to await collection. Droppings pass through the mesh floors onto boards, belts, the floors of the house or into a pit to await removal.
2) Barn system. Around 7% of eggs sold in the UK are produced in the barn system. In the barn system the hen house has a series of perches and feeders at different levels. In the deep litter system the birds are kept in hen houses in which all the floor area should be solid with a litter of straw, wood shavings, sand or turf.
3) Free range system. The free range system accounts for around 27% of eggs produced in the UK. And the Welfare of Laying Hens Directive stipulate that for eggs to be termed free range, hens must have continuous daytime access to runs which are mainly covered with vegetation and with a maximum stocking density of 2,500 birds per hectare. The demand for free-range eggs is also growing by 10 per cent a year. Somerfield will be the first supermarket in the country to switch to selling French free-range eggs. Tesco is also understood to be lining up suppliers on the Continent if it is not able to guarantee supplies at home due to this rising demand.