At 09:53 AM 10/18/99 -0500, Donna Fezler wrote:
>Can someone explain the compositional difference between true free-range
>chicken eggs and grocery store eggs? One can observe the greater intensity
>of the orange color, the better flavor and the much thicker shell in the
>free-range egg, but are they really more nutritious?
>
>I came across an article about some small scale farmers getting $2.00 per
>dozen for unfertilized free range, $4 for fertilized and $6 for green
>Araucana eggs. I know the $2 price is accurate, but the other two are a
>shock.
>
>I have 35 free-range chickens and 11 ducks prowling 4 wooded/pastured acres,
>2 of which are an enclosed rhea pen. (Why 35 chickens? I raise rheas which
>are very fragile as chicks and didn't expect the chickens all to live. They
>did. I also wanted to try pastured poultry but never got the pens built and
>then the kids became animal rights activists.)
>
>In the meantime, I have discovered the chickens keep the rhea pasture
>immaculate by scratching and probably finding food in the manure piles. I
>have two multi-acre rhea pens. The food consumption per pound of animal in
>the rhea/chicken pen is about 37% less than the pen with better grazing but
>just housing rheas and a guard (another topic-that title is disputable)
>llama.
>
>Although conventional wisdom says we should not combine these avian species
>on the same farm, it appears to have a symbiotic effect. The rheas in the
>chicken/rhea pen have grown faster and neither chickens nor rheas have
>feather lice, which are considered ubiquitous in ratites. The noisy ducks
>seem to be serving as a predator alarm system because this is the first year
>I have had no loss to predators in that pen. Maybe we just got lucky, but
>so far this looks like it could be a good sustainable ag model.
>
>It didn't take much math to figure out that I could have healthier birds,
>cleaner pastures, and a source of income from eggs to pay for everyone's
>feed bill from the free-range chicken eggs.
>
>So, other than the knowledge that the eggs are from a natural clean
>environment and taste better, what other justification is there to support
>the price?
>
>Is there a market and price for edible duck eggs?
>
>Donna Fezler
>GCR
>Jacksonville, IL
>
>http://www.rhealiving.com
>
>
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