What is the difference between cage free eggs and fertile eggs

And this matters not just at a macro level, but when it comes to individuals' spending decisions about eggs. The level of egg production — and thus the number of hens who suffer through this — is highly responsive to changes in consumer spending: 0. Put another way, each caged egg you don't eat prevents about a day of chicken suffering by helping reduce the number of chickens who are raised for this kind of treatment.

Free-range birds and organic birds face even higher death rates than non-free-range cage-free birds, and those differences probably are a consequence of differences in how the animals are treated. Free-range birds are at very real risk of predation, which leads to them registering similar stress levels as caged birds. They also face a greater danger from parasites.

This can be overcome to some degree through predator protection measures like tall wire fencing, but merely knowing that eggs are "free range" doesn't tell you that the hens had that kind of safety.

They argue for considering free range an "optional component" of cage-free production. In other words: don't go actively looking for free-range eggs. Cage-free alone is good, and in some cases even better than free range. Producers of organic eggs in the US have to provide some outdoor access, raising similar concerns as non-organic free-range eggs; they must be cage-free as well. But organic producers also aren't allowed to provide synthetic amino acids to chickens even though those acids significantly improve chickens' nutrition and overall health , and are restricted in their usage of antibiotics.

As a result, hens suffer. A number of animal scientists in the US believe organic production is cruel to hens for this reason. Add in the fact that organic eggs aren't any better for you — just like most organic foods — and you have a pretty good case for preferring non-organic cage-free eggs to organic ones. Organic's still better than caged eggs, to be sure, but the policies toward antibiotics and amino acids are cruel.

The most rigorous animal welfare certification program when it comes to eggs is Animal Welfare Approved. Their logo is a white sun with blue rays over a green pasture:. As the Humane Society of the United States explains, AWA has the highest standards of any private animal welfare auditing program for eggs.

It prohibits producers from beak cutting, in which farmers remove part of newborn hens' beaks to prevent pecking, and from starving birds to force them to molt, another unfortunately common practice. But AWA-approved eggs can be hard to come by. A second-best option is Certified Humane, which bans forced molting but not beak cutting.

Both AWA and Certified Humane free range require outdoor access, for better or worse Certified Humane has different levels of certification; the basic level doesn't require outdoor access. In the UK, most hens bred for laying eggs have part of their beaks removed with an infra-red beam to reduce the risk of injuries in flocks from feather pecking. This process is called beak-tipping or trimming. The only way to guarantee your eggs have not been laid by beak-trimmed hens is to buy those certified organic by the Soil Association.

Free range hens have unlimited daytime access to runs that have vegetation, and at least four square metres of outside space per bird.

At night, free-range hens are housed in barns furnished with bedding and perches, with nine hens allowed per square meter of inside space.

However, there is no limit on flock size. Beak trimming is commonly practised and the routine use of antibiotics is permissible, even it if is low level. This is to ensure access to pasture is not restricted. Cramped battery cages were prohibited in the EU in January These hens lose feathers through stress and die at an earlier age. Commercially produced eggs are laid by hens who are either in cages, barns or pastures - but without access to a male chicken.

A hen is perfectly capable of laying eggs without having a male. A young, healthy hen bred for egg-laying will start laying at about 21 weeks old and will lay at approximate 24 hour intervals. Other breeds may lay less frequently.

The gap between lays becomes longer as the hen gets older. During moulting and winter , laying generally slows or stops altogether.

But it has nothing to do with having a rooster UK cockerel in the flock. But for a hen to lay a fertile egg, she has to mate with a rooster. The rooster supplies the sperm. It's exactly the same process as for us humans.

So if you buy eggs from a farm shop , for example, where hens have feee ranged with a rooster in the flock, the eggs may be fertile. A hen does need a rooster to lay fertile eggs. What's the process of making them fertile? Basically the same as for most other species: the male mates with the female. His sperm travel into the hen's oviduct and fertilise the yolk of any eggs laid within the next couple of weeks. There's no romance in this for chickens. No courtship, no flowers The male simply mounts the hen from the back, gripping onto her side with his spurs and using his beak to hold onto the feathers on the back of her neck.

It can leave hens seriously damaged: roosters often have one or two "favourites" in a flock, who can then become over-used. The process can leave her with damage to her skin and a loss of feathers on her back and neck. For that reason many backyard chicken owners decide not to keep a male in their flock. If you decide you do want a male in your flock, consider buying a " hen saddle " which will help protect the hen from the worst excesses of a rooster's advances.

Not necessarily. Generally speaking, a hen who has mated will be fertile between 7 and 10 days after. It takes that long for the sperm to reach the oviduct where eggs are made. He also said that, because organic rules forbid antibiotics, they also force producers to keep a healthier, cleaner environment to maintain their flock's health. In a real way, "organic" might be the most important label, because there is actually an enforcement apparatus at the USDA for it; many of these other labels are governed more by fear of false advertising suits than actual inspectors.

Vegetarian-fed: The definition for this comes from a reader, Jollysapper , who commented that, "'Vegetarian fed' means just that. The food that I the farmer buys and feeds to the birds contains no animal byproducts.

So the chickens can forage for worms and beetles and mice I've seen the chickens swallow an occasional field mouse. But I won't feed my chickens dead chickens, cows, ducks, whatever. But the label "vegetarian-fed" in itself doesn't have any bearing on how much freedom the birds are given. They might well be caged. Which brings us to Pastured: In theory, "pastured" refers to eggs produced the way you imagine they should be -- the birds are allowed to roam on a pasture, foraging for seeds and insects, and come home to a sheltered house at night.

Their foraged diet, among other things, makes for egg yolks that are bright orange, and far tastier. Again, though, this is another label that has no legal binding power. They may or may not be organic or they may not be certified organic, but still be produced in a way that "organic" or beyond, since certification itself is prohibitively expensive for many small farmers.

Usually they are produced by small farmers, and, as Mark Kastel suggests, meet an egg farmer at a market and ask if you can come visit their chickens. If they're proud of how they raise them, they'll probably say yes. Omega-3 enriched: This label also refers only to the hens' feed, not how they are otherwise treated. To enrich their eggs with Omega-3 fatty acids, the birds' food includes kelp, rapeseed, flax or linseed, or sometimes cod liver oil.