Consumers Prefer Free Range Eggs

by Sherry Morse

Consumers, becoming more and more concerned about animal rights and the way chickens are treated, are expressing themselves in increasing numbers by buying eggs produced by free range chickens.

Organic egg farmers who let their hens enjoy the freedom of the great outdoors are finding rewards as the demand for their eggs increases.

Serge Lefebvre, a farmer in Quebec, began producing organic eggs five years ago with just 2500 free-range hens. Today 18,000 of the 155,000 chickens on his farm are free ranging.

The free-range chickens at Mr. Lefebvre’s farm each get two-hundred and eighty-eight square inches of space, compared to sixty-four inches of space for each caged chicken.

The barns the chickens live in are big open spaces with a small area where they can go to lay eggs; they can roam outside during the day if they like.

Mr. Lefebvre says, "When it’s sunny, they really take advantage."

In the United States the demand for organic eggs has been growing by twenty percent each year, even though the retail price for the eggs are higher than that of caged birds - averaging close to three dollars more per dozen.

Marilyn White, editor of Canadian Poultry Magazine, believes that the demand for organic eggs is "an emotional, animal rights thing. People feel that chickens should be allowed to run around."

Whatever the reason, at the moment the demand for organic eggs exceeds the supply.

Eggs may be marketed through farm shops, farmers markets, organic wholesalers and supermarkets.

© 2003 Animal News Center, Inc.