First, my story.
When we moved from California to our present home, which is on an acre of land, the first thing we did was build a chicken coop. In fact, it's an insulated chicken coop. My husband built it so that just in case he was in the "dog house" he could sleep in the "chicken house." Anyway, we raised some new chicks, feed and watered them and 9 months later out popped our first fresh eggs. We now have 22 hens and 2 roosters. But over the years chicken food has more than tripled in cost and so I started looking for alternative feed. They were eating lay pellets from IFA and I thought all was fine until I looked into free-range to cut down the food bill.
First, let me say, we have happy chickens.
We had our chickens in a nice roomy chicken coop with a fenced in yard because of the various animals that would come lurking - fox, racoons, skunk, stray dogs, we even had a mountain lion come visit once. But now we are surrounded by homes and the original animal lurker population has split the scene. And so my thoughts on saving on chicken food and free-ranging began to spread. This is what I found out.
Eggs from hens raised on pasture may contain:
1/3 less cholesterol
1/4 less saturated fat
2/3 more vitamin A
2 times more omega-e fatty acids
3 times more vitamin E
7 times more beta carotene
Of course the "Egg Board" doesn't agree - they want you to buy their store bought eggs. But independent studies has shown differently.
BTW - It's nice to post again. The computer and I were having sign-on issues. Dumb computer - it couldn't have been me! ~ Karin