chicken factory by Joe Dunckley, on Flickr

Here‘s a fascinating look into the life of a cage-free laying hen.

First, notice the buildings, not yards. Then down the page a little further, how tightly jammed the chickens are against each other.

From the text:

Here, in long plywood-sided barns with metal roosts hanging from wires and pine shavings on the floor, the Hy-Line breed of chicks spend their first 15 weeks of life scurrying around and eating a blend of corn, soybeans, canola oil, flax seed, limestone, calcium and more.

When you take the bird out of the sunshine, they stop making vitamin D for themselves and their eggs. Their production of Omega-3 oils drops and it must be added back in via their feed. So, roll out the genetically modified corn, soy and canola!

The 330-foot-long structures can be loud with an undulating chorus of clucks and coos, and hens occupy nearly every sliver of space, standing on perches, jerking their way around on the floor, drinking water and flapping their wings and tucking their beaks into their chests and sleeping.

That’s a football field long, hens occupying “nearly every sliver of space.” Do they ever get to open their wings and stretch? What are they breathing?

It’s warm in the egg houses, and pungent with the smell of chicken manure…

“Pungent” indeed.

Visitors must wear specially designed jumpsuits, and cover their shoes with plastic bags, to prevent them from bringing disease into the barns.

What does this say about the chickens’ immune system? Are they so frail that they would become ill being exposed to the healthy bacteria a foraging chicken would consume as they scratch for bugs on the ground? If their systems are so weak, would their chicks also exhibit this weakness? Is it a trait passed on through their genes, and therefore present in their eggs? When we consume these “weak” eggs, what impact will that have on us?

The birds don’t go outside, but they do sometimes walk down long, metal ramps to the “scratch area,” a long room with sand on the floor. All of the birds are free to descend into the scratch room, where they “dust” — lie on their sides and kick up sand. Chickens dust to coat their feathers in dirt and sand, which helps rid them of parasites.

Only a few hundred chickens tend to hang out in the scratch area, where they have the run of the place, compared with the barn above, where thousands of chickens congregate.

Only a few hundred take advantage of the extra room to move, the dusting that keeps their feathers and skin healthy, and the decreased stench. Why is that?

Hatcher said most stay upstairs because of proximity to food and water.

Or, perhaps it is because the first several weeks of life are spent in this house and the birds never “find” the scratching area once they are adults.

The scratch area, the perches, the absence of cages, the nests — all of it helps Morning Fresh Farms achieve certification from American Humane, a Denver organization that inspects, evaluates and certifies farm operations that treat their animals humanely.

It also allows them to sell their eggs as “cage-free.”

And here, I’ll bet you thought “cage-free” meant happy, healthy chickens in the sun and fresh air, scratching for insects and fed healthy grains.

Most of the Morning Fresh Farms eggs are sold under the Eggland’s Best brand, but other companies, too, buy the eggs and brand them with their own labels.

Packed into flats and cartons, slapped with labels, stored in refrigerated rooms, the eggs have 30 days before they must be sold.

Wow. 30 days. That’s one old egg.

So, let’s sum up:

  • Cage-free means no cage, but also no sunlight
  • Cage-free means GMO feed, “enhanced” by probably rancid Omega-3 oils to make up for the loss of healthful oils the chicken would make for itself given proper care
  • Cage-free means eggs stored for up to 30 days before sale
  • Cage-free means you pay more for the label and the Omega-3 enhancement
  • Cage-free means you are voting for more of the same with your food dollar

I can find a dozen pastured chicken eggs for $3 at my Farmer’s Market. There really is no comparison in looks or taste to old, grocery store eggs. If you haven’t tried real eggs yet, why not go search some out for your holiday baking? Be sure you scramble, fry or boil a couple to taste, too. I think you’ll be pleased. I know the chickens will be!

This post is part of Fight Back Fridays, hosted by Food Renegade.

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