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Chicken (Head)

Keeping Hens


As a child I was always in contact with pets, whether it was my own or my relatives, and consequently gained a love for animals.  My love for animals was the main reason for my turn to vegetarianism over two years ago.  Therefore, under my vegetarian diet the only animal based items that I use in cooking or buy are eggs and dairy products.  I personally do not believe in raising animals in conditions where they are unable to live a natural life: however vegetarianism does not fully dissociate itself from animal welfare, consideration still needs to be given to the animals producing the eggs and milk. 

Chickens and their welfare is something that is being broadcast widely throughout the media and on the television with celebrity chefs like Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittngstall with his ‘Chicken Out’ campaign.  The way in which hens are treated and farmed is the reason why I buy only free range shell eggs, however, there are lots of foods that contain eggs hidden away within them and unless otherwise stated they are most likely from battery hens.  Societies like the Vegetarian Society and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) label certain food to say that they contain eggs from certified free range sources.

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The RSPCA have produced a guide listing products that contain free range eggs which can be downloaded by clicking here:

I believe that many people are not aware of the lives the hens that have laid the eggs they buy live.  Most people will probably be driven by price when buying eggs.  The cheapest method for producing eggs is battery farming: this means rows and rows of cages stacked on top of each other containing around four hens per cage.  The farmers are not to blame for these low standards as it is the publics’ demand for cheap eggs and the power of the supermarkets to drive profits which results in farmers with few options to be able to make a living.  Before we got our hens our eggs our free range and come from a local farm which means cheaper eggs, high welfare standards, lower ‘food miles’ and no ‘middle-man’ supermarket taking the cut of the profits.

Keeping chickens as pets is becoming a modern day trend and a popular way of getting your own free range eggs.  Adopting ex-battery hens gives you the chance to give some hens a second chance and giving them the life that they deserve.  Hens reach a stage when their egg production drops and for battery hens this results in their death because they are no longer considered profitable?  They will have never seen the sky or had the chance to live a natural life so why not give them their second chance?  I am not saying the battery farming is right, justifiable or in any way supporting the trade but instead providing a home for some hens that would have otherwise been sent to the ‘chop’.

 

So whether you have your hens, are thinking of getting your own or buy your eggs chose local free range eggs to reduce food miles, support local farmers and to give hens a better quality of life.

 

 

The following pages are meant as a guide only and the information shown is by no means the only or correct way of doing things and is merely information that I collected and found useful when getting ready to get hens.  The information is from a point of view of keeping laying chickens and not for raising poultry for meat production.

Hens

 

 

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