[Fleecewife]

IMO a lot of them could do with eating some dirt too 
Never did me any harm, nor did the worms I ate as a youngster - I used to collect them in a little wicker basket and eat the ones that wiggled out....
I also recall my mum telling me that if I ever found half a caterpillar in my salad to "Just eat it, you've already eaten the other half"

I love it Mo   

[egbert]

As I was until a year ago chicken less, I am going to play Devils advocate here 

A large proportion of JP are skint or on a budget - when I was a lowly student I went for the cheapest eggs, not the kindest 

Up until probably 7 years ago, I never really heard about or thought about chicken welfare. Living next to my MIL who is on the mailing list of every animal welfare charity in the world, I have learnt more about the horrors around the world than the majority of JP have dreamt of 

I don't think JP are necessarily idiots, just uneducated and never had to think about where food comes from. If supermarkets had to put a picture of a battery hen on the packaging more people would be put off.

Of course, since having my own chooks I am much more aware of both the chicken welfare and the egg taste, and after finding this forum I am also more aware of how supermarket prices are affecting the free range market    Its all about exposure to the problem!

[andy harris]

Hi all the question i get asked alot is.....well an egg is just an egg isnt it. The thing is people are so use to buying and eaing the crap from the supermarket and scared to buy anything else.

[ellisr]

I had a women knock on the door for some eggs and I explained that I had none as it was winter and they were currently moulting. She looked at me in disgust and told me not to be silly or there would be no eggs in the supermarkets at this time of year, I explained the difference of free range chickens working with the seasons and farmed chickens having lighting and heating to force laying and she told me I was silly again so I took her to see the chickens who looked a bit worse for wear as they were in the middle of the moult and she turned and said that I wasn't looking after them properly and that is why there feathers were falling out and they weren't laying. I had to get a poultry book from my book collection to show her that this is the natural cycle of the chicken and it was actually healthy for them to have a rest from laying and a good old moult once a year so that they could look and feel there best for spring and the start of the breeding season. She then went to another neighbour who keeps chickens to ask him for eggs and when he said he had none as his chickens were off lay she turned to him and said that we all must be doing something wrong.

[Cinderhills]

Ellisr, I admire your patience with this crazy woman. 

[doganjo]

Ellisr, I admire your patience with this crazy woman. 

Me too, I'd have told her to phone the animal welfare officer and bring him round the next time she came!  Can't believe there are such ignorant people around

[ellisr]

I don't need the animal welfare officer any more he has been 4 times in the last 2 weeks I even know how he takes his coffee.