Re: Free range eggs
- From: Oleg Lego <rat@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 08 Jan 2008 13:52:00 -0600
On Tue, 08 Jan 2008 14:40:19 +0000, LFS posted:
I have just been tidying the fridge (displacement activity: there are
more important things that I should really be doing but don't want to)
and noticed that there is more to free range eggs than I had hitherto
suspected.
Eggs from ASDA come in a box marked: "laid by hens that are *free to
roam* on *British farms* in the *fresh air* from dawn to dusk". (The
asterisks indicate words printed in a much larger font.)
Eggs from Sainsbury's are "Woodland" eggs: "free range eggs from hens
free to roam in the natural shelter of trees". Inside the box we are told:
"Like their wild ancestors, hens still prefer the shelter of trees.
These eggs come from hens with access to established woodland or where
trees have been planted to enrich the range and provide natural cover.
This encourages them to range more and live fuller and more active lives
exploring and foraging beneath the trees. A more natural free ranging
life means healthy hens and high quality eggs."
I do wonder how the preference of hens for ranging under trees is known.
It is known because that's where we find the wild ones. Since chickens
don't fly worth beans, they prefer areas where there are places to
hide, and where they can get up high, as in the tree branches. In a
henhouse, chickens will always roost as high as they can get, which
means that the facilities must take that into account. If you don't,
you'll find that they'll still choose the highest places they can
find, which may or may not be suitable for whatever lies below them.
And why does it matter whether the trees are established or newly
planted?
I don't think it matters, of course, but more to the point of English
usage, Sainsbury's does not suggest that it does matter; only that the
trees be there to provide cover.
"Dawn to dusk" suggests that the ASDA hens get called in at
night but presumably the Sainsbury's ones sleep out under their trees.
Indeed, this is very common in free-range operations. Many predators
are nocturnal (or crepuscular), and if the farmer wishes to reduce the
expenses by denying easy meals to them, he will usually close them in
at night. Chickens will come "home" to roost before it gets very dark,
allowing the farmer to protect them.
In the case of the ones in woodland areas, if they are allowed to
roost naturally, they will roost in the tree branches, which reduces
the risk of predation. Unfortunately, it also means that a fair number
of eggs will be lost because they are laid in hidden areas and never
found. When a hen feels that "home" is where the nest box is, she will
usually go there to lay.
Are the Sainsbury's eggs generally more expensive than the ASDA
product?
Obaue: range is used by the Sainsbury's marketing people in both verb
and noun form. It seems to me that the noun form is relatively unusual
in this sense. Except of course in the song, which mentions free range
bear and antelope but not hens.
"Range", as a noun, is quite common in North America, and its use in
the Sainsbury's blurb is not, to me, remarkable.
--
WCdnE
.
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