My SIL just gave me a copy of Prevention magazine May 2011 issue and there was an article about Prevention investigating egg farms conventional versus organic-to find out how safe your breakfast really is. Pretty scary!! Glad that I raise my own. I just spoke to a friend from Chicago and found that they are allowing chickens to be raised in yards in Chicago and surrounding suburbs.
Here is what I gleaned from the article, not sure if it can be read online or not. I can't imagine my girls living like this!! We pick ours up and pet them daily, they eat from our hands, we clean them and oil their combs.
The cage free pictures disgusted me, I was thinking cage free meant they walked around outside, NOPE they are packed in a 450 square foot hen house with 23,800 chickens running around in that small building!!! They can go outside, but most stay in and walk on the floor of the hen house. According to the article Cage Free means hens must live in an open space, not a cage or coop, but the open space can be inside a crowded hen house, both organic and conventional hens can be labeled cage free.
Pasture raised means that they spend hens are allowed to range on fresh pasture, often housed in trailers that can be towed to different fields (this is how we raise ours using what is called chicken tractors and then we let them out to walk around and then they go back in the tractor at night to stay safe from animals).
Free range according to the article means similar to cage free, except that birds have some degree of outdoor access, though the amount, duration or quality of that outdoor time is NOT specific. (so 5 minutes a day outdoors could mean free range).
Organic according to the article means hens must be given organic feed, which contains no toxic pesticides, herbicides or fungicides and no GMOs or slaughter house by products. They must NEVER be caged and they must have outdoor access. The USDA certifies this designation (but they do not certify any of the the other types such as free range or cage free).
All Natural according to the article means the hens eat vegetarian feed with no animal slaughterhouse products (which as a chicken rancher I can tell you that these produce less than great eggs, since chickens need to eat more than vegetarian feed, they need worms and bugs for added nutrients unless you are giving them vitamins in their water).
Certified Humane Raised and Handled according to the article means Meets the standards of the Humane Farm Animal Care Program, an independent nonprofit. The standards include being cage-free, and having sufficient space to engage in natural behaviors such as dust bathing (which keeps mites, fleas and other pests off of them-I wonder how they keep those pests under control in those hen houses of the cage free and free range birds?) and being able to perch.
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