Keeping chickens at home for eggs

Food labels on poultry are very confusing to many consumers. This is not only because there can be a multitude of labels all stating similar terms but also because most people have no concept of the definition of many of the terms used.

Labels on Poultry 

When purchasing poultry and especially chicken, it can be hard to understand the labelling and to figure out how the poultry has been bred and cared for prior to being processed for food. Initially it is important to understand what the impact of there being no label about the breeding, origination and feeding of poultry means. Basically, no label means that the poultry was raised in a conventional manner by the meat trade. It is also referred to as intensive farming.

Conventional or intensive farming indicates the poultry has been given regular food during its lifetime. That food may, outside the EU, include additives of genetically modified organism (GMO) or genetically engineered organisms (GEO). These organisms are altered using genetic engineering to effect an animal growth.

Conventional farming also allows use of pesticide, fungicides and fertilizers on the food grain fed to the animals. Finally, the animals can be given antibiotics to keep them healthy. Those antibiotics can stay in the flesh even after processing. Conventional or intensive farming is also reflected by keeping the animals in extremely limited areas restricting movement. This way as they grow, they do not burn calories running around. The food they consume makes them as heavy as possible to increase there weight which results in more meat and fat on the poultry.

At its most comprehensive, using additives and restrictive movement is referred to as battery farming. Instead of being kept in pens or coups, the poultry is kept in very small cages and even might have their beaks snipped short to avoid them pecking at each other. 

Natural of Organic Poultry

There are two requisites of the farmer in order to receive a labeling that the animals are Certified Organic Poultry.

•    First the farmer must only feed them organic food which is to be produced by the farmer himself. Thus no GMO or GEO can be in the food.

•    Second, the farmer cannot use antibiotics or other pharmaceuticals on the animal.

A large number of consumers who purchase organic poultry and eggs do so to do to know that their own food does not have such additives remaining from the raising and processing of the poultry as it does in conventional farming. There is somewhat of a misnomer in that although organic, the food certainly may not be the regular food that would normally be consumed by the bird.

Usually chickens would consume alot of grains and some grass and insects. Organic chickens, however, might get a basic organic concentrate made up of grains containing lots of protein and carbs but not necessarily fresh nor filled with vitamins. Organic poultry is required to be kept in large open range areas such as a barn, outdoor yard or pen. The animals must be given the ability to go outside in good weather and it is recommended that they have the ability to go outside for at least one third of their life spans.

The land on which they grow must also be organic. If for some reason they cannot or the farmer does not want them outside, the farmer must as an alternative feed them sprouted grain for the one third of their life that they might have been given outside access.

Free-Range Poultry Free-range poultry is often confused with organic.

They are not equivalent. This type of poultry is raised in a barn but must be allowed outside on a regular basis during the daytime. The birds cannot be kept in any area where the maximum exceeds 2,500 birds per 100 acres. Even at that density it is not a substantial amount of room for each bird. This could result in animals that are smaller, weaker and more nervous not wanting to go outside because of so many other animals in proximity or because larger stronger birds keep them inside.
Free range requirements also indicate that the birds should be inspected every day. That is not the same as having to look at each individual bird but the totality of the group. At least a farmer is going to the barn area once per day. In conventional or intensive farming it can be as sporadic as two times per week to see if there is sufficient food and water for the animals.

The Soil Association Label

The Soil Association issues an Organic label only to farmers who raise the animals in accordance with their guidelines. They require the birds to be raised on the organic methods set forth above as well as freely roam outside. The chickens must be able to swat or roll in the dust to bathe themselves which is called dust bathing. That is a normal routine of the birds where they sit and pull up the dust to their feathers. Most free range techniques do not allow for dust bathing because it ruins the soil. The Association's approved organic poultry are therefore raised in the poultry's most natural environment. The result should be birds that are the healthiest and have had the highest quality upbringing.