Are your chickens free range or battery?

Question

Are your chickens free range or battery?

Answer 1

We have 12 free range chooks and three roosters (for some unknown reason). They are the best food recyclers and in return you are rewarded with the best tasting eggs.

Answer 2

IF a vegetarian were to keep chickens for eggs, I'm kind of doubting that they would keep battery hens.  

Answer 3

I don't own any chickens.

And I most CERTAINLY don't eat any.

Answer 4

I keep free-ranged chickies no little cages, but there are fences to keep them from wandering and foxes from wandering in. There are 2 main coops, one is split down the middle between hens and roosters, there's about the same number of each, and all roosters exist in the same enclosure without fighting. The other is 13 hens and 2 roosters, altogether. I might separate them out once they get a bit older, but they're still babies now, at a about 3 1/2 months old.  Chickens reach full maturity at about 6-8 months of age, but when slaughtered in most places they are only 6-8 weeks old, still very much babies. There are a couple of smaller enclosures with roosters that wouldn't be nice with the other chickens. We have a healthy mix of breeds (Barred Rock, Americana, Rhode Island, Silikie, and Japanese Bantam, to name a few of them. I like variety :) )

Please if you buy eggs, (Which when the hens aren't in a laying cycle, we do), buy local free-ranged eggs. Its nicer for the chickens.

If you want to raise your own, be sure to get enough info on how to take care of them. You need to feed them correctly, get the right breed or mix of breeds, etc.  I don't recommend the same strains used commercially because they don't live very long and are so geared towards production that they often aren't very healthy animals. go to www.mypetchicken.com for good advice on caring for them.  

Answer 5

Free Range...I Love how much darker golden egg yolks!

http://www.Ovabid.com

Answer 6

My wife and I generally buy the commonplace supermarket chickens. But today, just for the heck of it, we bought a Rocky The Range Chicken. My wife cooked it in one of our favorite recipes, Julia Child's Chicken With 40 Cloves of Garlic.

We found the chicken tough and rubbery, though the garlic sauce was very good. We won't buy Rocky again, though.

Answer 7

Well, I don't own any chickens, and I don't purchase chicken or eggs.

If I were forced to choose I'd clearly prefer free range chickens (what sort of person wouldn't, except the people making money off of the chickens by limiting how much space the poor things take up?).

Unfortunately, 96%+ of storebought eggs in America are from battery hens so most people unknowingly are buying eggs from battery hens, just out of lack of awareness of the harsh realities of the food industry. I'm sure if people were more exposed to factory farming, changes to the system and free range options would be much more popular.

The best option is to buy local or to raise your own, and do so with compassion and care. People that buy locally and support their local farmers or who raise and care for their own chickens are admirable. There's honor in playing a big part in the food that ends up on your table. There's no honor in eating the cheapest of cheap eggs and chicken and feeling high and mighty because someone else bludgeoned the bird to death or cruelly confined and abused it for it's entire egglaying lifespan.

Answer 8

I don't own egg laying chickens but instead buy them from a neighbor-friend's egg farm. He specializes in free-range chicken, duck and quail eggs.