Don’t steal ‘posh’ supermarket eggs – raise your own hens instead, say readers – UK Times

Shoppers swapping cheap eggs for “posh” ones may think they’re getting a bargain, but our community knows the secret: nothing beats the taste and experience of keeping your own hens.

From collecting fresh eggs to watching birds roam and forage, keeping hens offers a string of small daily pleasures, say many Independent readers.

Many described how even tiny flocks can provide eggs for themselves, friends, or to sell locally, with a freshness and flavour that makes shop-bought eggs taste bland by comparison.

For several readers, raising hens is more than a hobby – it’s a way of life. The joy comes as much from observing their antics and routines as from the eggs themselves.

Keeping chickens, they said, is about more than just eggs. It brings self-sufficiency, a connection to the rhythms of daily life, and the simple satisfaction of enjoying something you’ve produced yourself – rewards no supermarket carton can match.

Here’s what you had to say:

A lifetime of chicken keeping

I keep hens. I’ve kept, bred, and showed chickens for around 55 years, starting with two ‘pet’ chickens (Gertie and Emma) back in the 1970s. I bred and crossbred breeds to produce large eggs with pretty dark green shells, in homage to my army upbringing. The cockerels had to be large enough to make a meal. My birds live a completely free-range life during the day. All birds roam free all day long, only shut up at night.

They scratch about in my little orchard, wander about in the paddock, go into the stables to turn over the substrate. They do get fed in the hen houses overnight. But in summer in particular, the amount of bought feed goes down, and they are amusing to watch as they gallop after flying insects, or chase each other if one finds a mouse and the rest want it. Late summer brings not only insects but apples and pears off my trees.

I’ve always sold my eggs at the gate for £1 for six. I make enough to cover my feed costs.

I don’t eat eggs. I just don’t like them, but I do like chickens. My customers come from far and wide in the hope I have some spare and tell me they are the best-tasting eggs ever.

I have to take their word that my girls, with their natural diet, lay eggs that taste better than supermarket eggs. Certainly, my eggs are much fresher, mostly being three days old at the most, quite often only a day old as they sell so fast.

Supermarket eggs are two weeks old by the time they hit the shelves.

fenwoman

A varied diet for happy hens

My four hens get layers pellets, dried mealworms, mixed corn, mixed salad leaves, wild bird feed, and leftovers as appropriate (including scrambled eggs) – a varied diet.

They also appear to eat dirt and have been known to investigate someone else’s poo.

They are really pets, but eating what they produce is a joy: a bit like growing your own veg and herbs.

Maverick1956

Eggs straight from the coop taste better

My minuscule flock (three hens) produce enough eggs with a few spares for friends.

Eaten on the day of laying or the day after, they are infinitely superior in flavour to any shop-bought egg.

MaxtheBrief

Lifestyle over breed matters

If you eat my mum’s chickens’ eggs, reared on household scraps and free range, you can certainly tell the superiority over anything you buy in the shops.

It’s a lifestyle rather than a breed issue.

Candyblossom

Natural diet gives deep-coloured yolks

Truly free-range chickens fed only supplementary feed, or none at all, have a completely different taste, and yes, have deep-coloured yolks because the birds eat naturally what they like and what they instinctively know is good for them.

Some years back, many farms fed some form of fish meal, and the eggs tasted and smelt awful!

leri

Welfare comes first

The only metric that matters to me when shopping for eggs is welfare, not taste.

Currently, Soil Association Organic certification carries the highest welfare standards widely available, far above standard free range.

Most “organic” eggs use a different certification with slightly lower standards than SA.

I couldn’t care less about the colour of the yolk or the barely perceptible taste differences.

jgeorgiades

Eggs are not ‘just eggs’

Eggs are not “just eggs.” Battery chicken eggs (free range is a bit of a joke, and supermarket eggs are rarely truly free range unless, like most cons, you regard one hour in 24 outdoors as free range) have a far inferior taste to organic eggs – and yes, I can taste the difference. I would also never eat anything less.

maneric3

Some of the comments have been edited for this article for brevity and clarity.

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