Comments on: Healthy Homemaking: A Good Egg

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 13:40:50 +0000

You are so correct about the benefits of better eggs. My mother has chickens and sells her eggs to local restaurants and the community. They are fabulous! I never believed there would be difference in eggs, but there really is!

By: The Cottage Comtesse @ River Rock Cottage

The Cottage Comtesse @ River Rock Cottage — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 21:08:59 +0000

Sarah, our Golden Retriever has never harmed a chicken, in fact they walk all around her, sun with her, etc. I realize not every dog will do this, but if you know your dog and introduce the chickens carefully, it can work. Now she thinks she is their protector. Kind of reminds me of Nana in Peter Pan.

By: Brandi

Brandi — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 13:19:08 +0000

love this article. Many years ago we went and visited a farm ran by a home school family. They had their chickens out in the pasture but contained in a fence and they moved the fencing ever few days. They were saying to be careful with "free range" eggs in a store because the guidelines were so loose on this that to qualify for free range meant the farmer only had to give there chickens the ability to get up out of their nesting boxes and move around even if it is only on concrete. I am not sure if the definition has since then been better legally defined.

Move forward nearly ten years and we have our own farm and our own free range chickens. They have a coop they go in at night (for several months we locked them in at night and let them out in the morning. Now the door to the coop stays open 24/7 and they run free on 5 acres. There is no comparison in taste. We sell our eggs locally and our customers have become very loyal.

I recommend http://www.localharvest.org to find local farms to meet your needs. While it is not a comprehensive list, it is a starting place.

By: Kellie

Kellie — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 03:45:00 +0000

THIS IS SO TRUE! After such a long time of eating organic, free-range eggs I almost gagged when I ate a left-over store bought egg my son brought home from Easter! YUK! I will pay a few bucks more every week to avoid THAt! Great post!

By: Jodi

Jodi — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 02:43:54 +0000

We are currently in the process of building our chicken coop and hope to have chicks in a few weeks! We have been buying eggs from another family for awhile now and can't wait to have our own. There really is no comparison - fresh eggs from healthy, free range chickens are a treat worth finding!

By: Mab

Mab — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 23:45:26 +0000

I was going to raise chickens- for eggs but my intial look up of city codes doesn't allow me to but I'll give a call just to be sure.
Otherwise I am close enough to a nursery and several farms that sell eggs which I will happily buy.

I love eggs... Trying to figure out a cheeseless/milkless quiche that I could make- any suggestions?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:20:16 +0000

Ah, to raise your own chickens would be awesome. However, I am an avid dog lover and can't imagine our family without a dog (we usually have Golden Retrievers). Which means, I can't imagine our family raising chickens. I'm sure it could be done, but at the same time, our last dog was quite the hunter and killed a lot of our old neighbor's ducks.

By: Nola

Nola — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 19:09:17 +0000

I've been trying over the past few years to get better eggs but its sort of an up and down thing...for a while we could but then they were unreliable, etc. We try to buy the best we can, but I recently thought about trying, once again, to find another source. Its so hard. The free run eggs in my store are almost the same price as organic, which only the PC brand are available, which are not stated as free run. They are about $6 per dozen, which we cannot afford at all. So I will keep looking. For now I am buying eggs from a farmer that sells to the local store for about $2.25 that are free run but not organic. However they are not free run in the winter as its way too cold here.

By: Ruth

Ruth — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:51:11 +0000

So lovely to disover your blog and a wonderful post on eggs this morning. I thought I'd share are eggsperience. We free-range 50 hens who have access to pature, bugs, natural sunlight etc. And they are happy except for the terror they experience almost daily from racoons, eagles and the most ravenous, ravens who we've lost 12 chickens to this month. We have tried everything and as this flock quickly dwindles, that will be it for us and hens until we figure out how to keep them 'out' and safe. Our eggs are in big demand in the neighbourhood as most farmers gave up flocks due to same problems. We sell for $4/dz. Just finished our taxes and indeed, over the year we cleared less than $400 on egg sales. Worth our time and labour? No, not econmically and the costs are starting to outweigh the benefits as we compost carcass after carcass. But all to say, local free range is by the far the best but consumers must be willing to pay. Our grocery store sells free range for $5/dz. And these eggs would be in the quota system where the farmer is making a guaranteed profit. Some of our customers "complain" about our $4 dz. I just to smile and keep the thought " we make NOTHING on these eggs" to myself. All to say a backyard flock is the best way to go. Many municipalities allow it and if they don't, it is absolutely worth campaigning for it. Eggs are excellent food and your own are phenomenal.

By: Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home

Stephanie @ Keeper of the Home — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 15:43:29 +0000

Mary Ellen and Cottage Comtesse, thanks for bringing up the subject of backyard chickens. This is a direction that I would LOVE to move in, but unfortunately our city bylaws prevent it. Vancouver city has recently changed their bylaws to allow a certain number of backyard hens, but our suburb of Vancouver still limits it to those who live on lots over 1 acre. I love to hear of more and more people doing this, though!