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  • From: "Lynn Wigglesworth" <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>
  • To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Chicken Feed Quest.
  • Date: Sat, 3 Jan 2009 10:56:53 -0500

'Organic' doesn't necessarily mean they are good. It means that the hens aren't fed low doses of antibiotics (like commercial hens), and are fed grains raised organically.At least the eggs won't be overflowing with antibiotics and synthetic chemicals. It doesn't mean they get any access to grass...I think they have to have some access to sunlight, but they probably never walk on anything but concrete.

Even 'free-range' doesn't mean much...I've seen a large dirt pen called 'free-range'. Mine can literally go where ever they want, eat whatever they want.They regularly chase the cats away and eat the cat food. I've seen them attack a snake. I've seen them attack a nest of voles in the compost. That was scary...chickens running around with squeaking voles in their beaks. Chickens can be vicious things. I'm glad they are so much smaller than me.

Lynn Wigglesworth

----- Original Message ----- From: "bobf" <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
To: <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Saturday, January 03, 2009 10:44 AM
Subject: Re: [Homestead] Chicken Feed Quest.


Usually at the market they are close to $2.00 dz, here. But, the market has them regularly, on sale, for 99 cents per dz. Because I know (I wish I didn't) how chickens are raised, today, in big ag; I don't mind paying more for healthier eggs, but I just don't trust the market 'organic' eggs to be much different than the others. Roxanne said her tests showed they were similar. They taste the same. When I bought free range eggs, the yolks were more 'orange' like someone mentioned, but the market eggs all seem the same except for the carton and the price...............

----------------------------------------------------------------------


--- On Sat, 1/3/09, Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com> wrote:


I have the problem, also, of the local family store
undercutting my egg
prices. When I raised my price to $1.50/doz, they charged
$1.25. I know that
they have penned chickens, so they must be buying food and
selling at a
loss. They went up to $1.75 by the end of the summer. Now
neither I nor
they have any extra eggs to sell. In fact, last time I was
in that small
store, they had NO eggs, commercial or local.

My hens are free-range, too. I don't lock them up at
night. I don't seem to
have a preditor problem here; they roost on top of the
stalls and things in
the barn at night. I feed a couple handsful of layer
pellets a day in the
winter, but they find their own food in the summer. They
also find my garden
(who knew that chickens loved tomatoes?). I'm glad that
they are so
industrious in finding food, but I won't share my
garden with them...they
take a bite out of every tomato and squash, and pull up the
bean plants.
This year, it's either fence the chickens or fence the
garden. The garden is
easier to fence.

Lynn Wigglesworth
Tioga Co. PA




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