Are your free range eggs safe?

Bearfootfarm · #21 09/22/10, 10:36 PM

Quote:

The OP says: Are your free range eggs safe. I never said anything about anybody else's eggs, you guys brought up the mega farms not me.

LOL

Who are you trying to convince?

Quote:

I was glad to see his tested clean

Of course they did
The article itself said only 1 in 10,000 is infected under the worst conditions

Quote:

Even in areas of high contamination, only one egg in 10,000 will become infected because infected hens shed the bacteria intermittently, according to Patrick McDonough, a bacteriologist at Cornell University's veterinary school. McDonough added that my chickens probably arrived at my coop from the hatchery as healthy chicks and had never been exposed to the bacteria.

Quote:

wish he would have said in the article!

Take a wild guess

Quote:

Patrick McDonough, a bacteriologist at Cornell University's veterinary school.

haypoint · #22 09/22/10, 10:37 PM

OK, Patt, let's start over.
You say your interest is in knowing if your eggs are safe. I can only believe that if I don't attach that simple question to the web site you included. However, if I ignore the editorial, I risk being accused of not reading what you posted.

It is likely that free hange home flocks have salmanilla at a similar rate as all other housing methods. Our small flocks are seldom tested. There is a higher rate of disease among swap meet, flea market, local auction, county fair chickens than exists in commercial Factory Farms. Given that truth, begs the question, who are the bad guys in all of this?

Check with your State's Department of Agriculture or your extension Agent. They should be able to test some of your eggs.

Heritagefarm · #23 09/22/10, 10:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by springvalley

I often wonder why some people that are on HT, are on here. they never have a good thing to say about the back yard farmer or homesteader. Everything needs to be raised in confinment and under government testing and regulation. Heaven knows everything that comes from the super market is 100% safe for us and we should never question where it comes from or who grew it. After all if the USDA is keeping an eye on things it will all be ok. Sorry for the rant. >Thanks Marc

I don't know. But, no one likes their method insulted - it is far easier to just keep doing something than to admit it's wrong. That's aimed at both sides BTW.
PS with enough bickering, this topic might as well get flushed due to the arguments. I don't know why an honest debate about this can't be hosted without extreme childish behavior. I've read some of the political threads, some of it's ridiculous, but most is pretty mellow... Why can an Obama topic have less slam than a FOOD topic? Hum...

springvalley · #24 09/22/10, 10:44 PM

Around here if you sell chickens, show chickens, or go to swaps, your chickens have to be tested by our state Vet. Hmmm I`m still going to eat my farm raised eggs. > Marc

Heritagefarm · #25 09/22/10, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haypoint

OK, Patt, let's start over.
You say your interest is in knowing if your eggs are safe. I can only believe that if I don't attach that simple question to the web site you included. However, if I ignore the editorial, I risk being accused of not reading what you posted.

It is likely that free hange home flocks have salmanilla at a similar rate as all other housing methods. Our small flocks are seldom tested. There is a higher rate of disease among swap meet, flea market, local auction, county fair chickens than exists in commercial Factory Farms. Given that truth, begs the question, who are the bad guys in all of this?

Check with your State's Department of Agriculture or your extension Agent. They should be able to test some of your eggs.

Good idea. Maybe I'll do that. Somehow, though, I expect my eggs laid in hay will have a much lower contamination level. But, it never hurts to check. Maybe I'll call tomorrow and send an egg or two in.
What about antibiotics, though?

springvalley · #26 09/22/10, 10:52 PM

Heritagefarm, I sorry I offended you, I didn`t mean to derail the thread. I am very offended when a few on here think the Government knows better than we do about the health of our livestock, and the products we sell from them. > Marc

springvalley · #27 09/22/10, 10:55 PM

Heritagefarm, I sure hope your kidding about the antibiotics???? > Marc

Patt · #28 09/22/10, 10:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by springvalley

Around here if you sell chickens, show chickens, or go to swaps, your chickens have to be tested by our state Vet. Hmmm I`m still going to eat my farm raised eggs. > Marc

Ours have to be tested before you can take them to the Fair. They just test chickens though not eggs.

springvalley · #29 09/22/10, 11:00 PM

Well I`m leaving, so the thread won`t be shut down, Thank you Patt, good thread for awhile. > Thanks Marc

Harry Chickpea · #30 09/22/10, 11:01 PM

Being pedantic, I am still trying to envision a "free range EGG." I just can't warp my mind around the idea of eggs rolling around on the grass or pasture, going "I'm FREE!, I'm FREE!!"

AFAIK, the eggs of free ranch chickens still have to pass out the same orifice of the chicken. Those eggs then get to lie in whatever place they were laid. If a free range chicken laid her egg on an operating table or other sterile place, I would be suitably impressed.

Therefore, we seem to be discussing the general health of the chicken, and whether or not that chicken is a carrier of disease. In the open, that is a game of roulette. The odds may be really really good, but it is still a game of chance. In a controlled environment, the game is rigged. If the croupier is crooked, the eggs will be tainted. If the croupier is honest and the place is inspected, then I'll bet on the henhouse.

Patt · #31 09/22/10, 11:08 PM

I have to admit I honestly expected his to come back with something in them. I tend to think that one of the reasons our raw eggs don't bother us here is because we are constantly exposed to them and other raw foods, plus our own stuff from the garden and our own home butchered meats. So we should have built up a decent tolerance to our own foods here even if they did have a low amount of something naturally occuring like salmonella. I distinctly remember an adjustment period we went through when we started drinking our own raw milk. Nothing serious but a few mild stomach issues. So I have always wondered what is in our foods, just never really thought about sending it away to be tested.

I do think though that being exposed to minute amounts of milder forms of bacteria build your immune system. Sort of like dairy maids and cowpox. I think if we were exposed to a nastier bug we would stand a better chance of fighting it off.

Anyways like I said it was just interesting to me.

Patt · #32 09/22/10, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Harry Chickpea

Being pedantic, I am still trying to envision a "free range EGG." I just can't warp my mind around the idea of eggs rolling around on the grass or pasture, going "I'm FREE!, I'm FREE!!"

AFAIK, the eggs of free ranch chickens still have to pass out the same orifice of the chicken. Those eggs then get to lie in whatever place they were laid. If a free range chicken laid her egg on an operating table or other sterile place, I would be suitably impressed.

Therefore, we seem to be discussing the general health of the chicken, and whether or not that chicken is a carrier of disease. In the open, that is a game of roulette. The odds may be really really good, but it is still a game of chance. In a controlled environment, the game is rigged. If the croupier is crooked, the eggs will be tainted. If the croupier is honest and the place is inspected, then I'll bet on the henhouse.

Good point!

arabian knight · #33 09/23/10, 12:09 AM

There was a show on The Travel Channel, called Food Tech.
They broke a CHeese Burger apart, and went to every place that any part of that sandwich was made.
Starting with the cheese, then to the beef processing plant to make the burger.
And one comment made during the whole show was. "I am so glad this plant and meat, or cheese, or even the wheat that makes the buns were inspected by The USDA". And So Am I glad the food is inspected. period end of story.

ChristieAcres · #34 09/23/10, 02:27 AM

Our chickens have a chicken house, nestboxes 5 feet off the floor (another story, another time) that open from the outside (I have to stand on the back deck...), and their chicken pasture has an electric mesh fence to protect them. We gather the eggs daily, wash, and refrigerate them. Len likes his sunny side up while I prefer mine scrambled. Neither of us has been sick. So, I consider our eggs safe, that is, until we win the Salmonella Lottery- what are our chances? 1 in 10,000, hmmm, and I would wager they may be less due to handling, anyway, and since I eat mine fully cooked, Len is more at risk. Neither of us are concerned in the least.

Lazy J · #35 09/23/10, 05:08 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heritagefarm

PS with enough bickering, this topic might as well get flushed due to the arguments. I don't know why an honest debate about this can't be hosted without extreme childish behavior.

It is tough to have an "honest debate" when the topic based on a slanted opinion piece designed to subtly attack, not to provide facts.

Had the OP posted an article with a study which tested multiple backyard flocks which was accompanied with a discussion of the results then we would have a solid foundation for a "honest debate".

I find it funny that I and others who defend commercial agriculture and food production are cast as anti-homesteader when we have repeatedly defended one's right to raise food as they want. In fact on our own farm we have a flock of 20 laying hens, raise our own broilers, and buther our own hogs. However, we also understand that less than 15% of the US population (don't quote me) lives in a rural setting and that less than 1% is involved in Agriculture and Food Production. We can lament the fact that people are too removed from food, but it is a fact. The Consumer in the First World does not want to raise their own food, aside from a miniscule portion who may be hoisted as icons of a food revolution which really isn't happening. I know that my mother, sisters, and brothers plus their neighbors in suburbia have absolutely no interest in having backyard chickens.

I am a huge proponent of producers like Highlands on this board, Greg Gunthorp of Indiana, SevenBrothers of Indiana, and others that produce meat and eggs for direct sales from their farms. They have a story to sell and they are selling it. I do not support the spreading of mistruths, lies, and misinterpretation of the facts about agriculture and our food production system.

If you want to have a small backyard flock, go for it. I applaud you for having the initiative.

Jim

Lazy J · #36 09/23/10, 05:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patt

I have to admit I honestly expected his to come back with something in them. I tend to think that one of the reasons our raw eggs don't bother us here is because we are constantly exposed to them and other raw foods, plus our own stuff from the garden and our own home butchered meats. So we should have built up a decent tolerance to our own foods here even if they did have a low amount of something naturally occuring like salmonella. I distinctly remember an adjustment period we went through when we started drinking our own raw milk. Nothing serious but a few mild stomach issues. So I have always wondered what is in our foods, just never really thought about sending it away to be tested.

I do think though that being exposed to minute amounts of milder forms of bacteria build your immune system. Sort of like dairy maids and cowpox. I think if we were exposed to a nastier bug we would stand a better chance of fighting it off.

Anyways like I said it was just interesting to me.

I whole heartedly agree with you on this point, Patt. I am afraid we in the First World live in too clean an environment which doesn't build up our immune system, we are not as hardy as we once were partially because we don't stress our immune system as we once did. I am talking about vaccination against disease, rather, as you mentioned, the little things like low levels of bacteria in foods, eating dirt as a child, etc.

Jim

tinknal · #37 09/23/10, 05:56 AM

Economies of scale.... sort of.

Hundreds of thousands of caged chickens that are salmonella free will lay millions of salmonella free eggs that will be eaten by millions of consumers with no ill effects, BUT, if 10 of those birds carry salmonella they can infect hundreds of people.

10 salmonella free back yard chickens will produce eggs eaten by one family.

If one of those chickens carries salmonella the potential is that they can infect only a very few people.

If you ( and a thousand other back yard farmers) get sick from eating their own eggs, it is not news, or an epidemic.

Heritagefarm · #38 09/23/10, 08:04 AM

So then, the chance of bacteria could be the same. Well, I love my cookie dough, and I've made eggnog. I would trust a backyard egg sooner than one from a factory, simply because it seems the backyard farmer can have tighter quality control. It's also for taste, something just tells me there's something nutritionally wrong with a pale tasteless blob of mush vs. our vibrantly orange firm TASTYTASTY eggs.

haypoint · #39 09/23/10, 09:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heritagefarm

So then, the chance of bacteria could be the same. Well, I love my cookie dough, and I've made eggnog. I would trust a backyard egg sooner than one from a factory, simply because it seems the backyard farmer can have tighter quality control. It's also for taste, something just tells me there's something nutritionally wrong with a pale tasteless blob of mush vs. our vibrantly orange firm TASTYTASTY eggs.

SEEMS, seems, seems.
That is the point I'm trying to make. Some folks have this unfounded belief that if they have happy chickens (I'll save the details of that myth for another thread) then their chickens will produce only healthy eggs.

Some believe that the backyard flocks are better cared for than those in large operations. I have seen that to be a lot of wishful thinking. In the real world, poultry diseases are passed around in small hobby farms. Check with your state's Department of Ag, Poultry division, see where the disease outbreaks are. In my state it is the backyard flocks, often people that have bought from several places, flea markets, county fairs, Craigslist, etc.

It would be a rare event that a commercially raised chicken was attacked by a raccoon, stray dog, hawk, owl, weasel, fox or coyote. Disease prevention, Bio-Security, is the norm at a commercial farm, but rare in a backyard flock.

The owner of a back yard flock doesn't have better control. The environment prohibits that. Back yard flocks do not get freshly fed and watered like commercial automated systems provide. Human nature proves this.

Many eggs bought in stores are old, some are very old. Fresh eggs are better. Chickens that produce more eggs lay eggs with reduced yoke color. Chickens that produce fewer eggs lay eggs with a more colorful yoke.

Home grown spinach, homemade cheese, free range eggs (yes it sounds funny to me, too, but we all know what that entails), raw milk and home processed ground beef all SEEMS to be safer. But facts prove those feelings are false.

There are plenty of reasons I choose to raise much of my food. But to create food safety myths isn't on my "to do" list.

Curtis B · #40 09/23/10, 09:58 AM

It is nice to see a little more civility on this thread.(I am not trying to start anythin) I seem to be reading all too often arguments, with no one giving an inch. I love my freerange chickens and their eggs, but I have seen some backyard flocks that would have been much better off in a comercial setting, because of the conditions they were in. The same goes for comercial birds that would be better off in a good backyard flock. It isn't always the setting, it is usually the person/people tending that need to be blamed for what happens. As far as person in the article that is quoted that has his own flock, he may be biased, but that isn't always bad. Who are you going to believe when deciding on what car to buy, the salesman, or the mechanic?