No quitten we're whelan onto chitchat 12.

Jb1989 · 07-02-2026 08:03PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124215649#Comment_124215649

Most free range hens around here anyway are locked in because of bird flu in the past, it's much easier to keep them locked in than chasing the stragglers in at dusk. So dunno what colour your looking at.

whelan2 · 07-02-2026 08:12PM

That's the point I was badly getting across, there's not much to say what is free range about the chicken, at least if it's organic it should have been fed irganically but free range is a very broad term

chooseusername · 07-02-2026 08:14PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124215721#Comment_124215721

If they're kept locked in they're not free-range.

whelan2 · 07-02-2026 08:15PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124215749#Comment_124215749

Yes but who's to say if they're out and with bird flu alot of bird have been housed

jfh · 07-02-2026 08:17PM

Any one else having difficulties logging into agfood today? Have tried different browsers, through the my gov id, internal server error

whelan2 · 07-02-2026 08:18PM

I go to the butchers to get sausage meat. Buy a bag of it every week or so and make sausage meat stuffing and sausage rolls. Stuffing goes in the fridge and kids make sandwiches when they come in hungry. Most supermarkets only sell sausage meat at Christmas and easter for some reason. Posting on here reminded me I'd stuffing in the oven that was supposed to be taken out an hour ago.... nice and crunchy now

Jb1989 · 07-02-2026 08:19PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124215749#Comment_124215749

Exactly. But they've the free range sticker on the egg carton

chooseusername · 07-02-2026 08:21PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124215750#Comment_124215750

Yes, that's true, but you'd expect the industry to regulated properly.

Wasn't there a lad who bought barn or cage chicken eggs and just stamped them free-range and did it for years.

whelan2 · 07-02-2026 08:23PM

YYe, Which is why I thought it was madness paying double the price for a chicken which may or may not be free range

Jb1989 · 07-02-2026 08:41PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124215769#Comment_124215769

Sure the housing lock up period has not been lifted yet.

Base price · 07-02-2026 08:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124215756#Comment_124215756

I was checking on cattle that I bought in through a mart later this week and they are not showing in the herd. I have the mart receipt showing the herd number. There must be a issue with Agfood.

_Brian · 07-02-2026 08:47PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124215773#Comment_124215773

The €8 chicken is probably the problem rather than the €16 chicken.

farawaygrass · 07-02-2026 09:33PM

a lad sells free range chicken and turkeys not far from me. A neighbour of mine for a chicken one time and it seemed wicked expensive but they said no t alone was it a lot tastier, there was a lot more eating in it, that it would do two dinners instead of one

naughto · 07-02-2026 10:11PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124215664#Comment_124215664

I must be only herself an a dog to feed

Mehaffey1 · 07-02-2026 10:16PM

One food I do not eat is eggs but I do plenty of shopping.

Local place out the road does the cheapest eggs in the county out of their own machine in the farm yard. Non organic, non free range etc.

Would take two eggs to equal one medium sized free range egg in the supermarket. Only really makes sense financially for baking buns etc wouldn't be getting much of an omlette out of one.

RockOrBog · 07-02-2026 11:20PM

I get proper eggs from a nice lady who I sometimes do some work for. She lives way down the end of a lane and the hens are outside most days wandering around freely.

There is no comparison with a shop bought egg, thicker shell and bright yellow yolk. All different colours and sizes of shells.

visatorro · 07-02-2026 11:43PM

I wouldn't mind a couple of hens around here, had them years ago between the mink and fox i couldn't keep them alive. Iv a clown of a dog here that I wouldn't trust around hens either.

Water John · 07-02-2026 11:53PM

The free range chicken would most likely be older and heavier. So the diff might be more like 50%. Still if someone wants to give me a 50% premium for my beef, reared on an organic, biological farm, please contact me😁.

Cushtie · 08-02-2026 12:22AM

Mother on her mid 70s still keeps a few hens. Out around all day picking and scratching, Any time I visit I come away with a half dozen. No comparison to the shop bought eggs.

Keeps her going aswell making sure the eggs are collected and they are closed in to the hen house at night for fear of foxes.

carrollsno1 · 08-02-2026 02:24AM

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZNRUsHpxS/

Re the chicken and the egg discussion

Im on duck eggs lately, €5 /1/2dozen, they were only €3 1/2dozen before they were pulled from the shelves until they appeared back lately.

There's fair eating in a duck egg compared to a hen egg.

I see a fella on the socials over in England showcasing rearing free range broilers and selling them online and even raffling some of them off doing well off them. Takes a lot more rearing on them than conventional chickens.

I've seen other homesteaders rearing them for their own consumption I think they were cornish game hens and the meat on them was a lot darker and the fat was yellow like butter on them too.

_Brian · 08-02-2026 06:18AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124216397#Comment_124216397

Pine Martin stopped that here. Loved having chickens. Eggs were so good

have2flushtwice · 08-02-2026 10:53AM

We lost the odd one to a fox and it was OK to keep going with a cage thay kept them safe during the night, fox paid the odd day visit.

Then one night a pine martin arrived and wiped out the lot..

farawaygrass · 08-02-2026 11:37AM

we had hens and ducks here years ago. Herself loved them. They would come runnng to her when she’d pull up home after work. The fox started taking one, then two and then wiped the whole lot out on night where he got into the shed. Herself was heartbroken. The fox has got so plentiful around there, and brazen. It’d be hard to let them roam around the yard now. The fox would come day or night.

DBK1 · 08-02-2026 11:53AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124216825#Comment_124216825

Same around here now, foxes gone very common.

I’ve one makes a nest in the silage in the feed passage every night and s**ts everywhere too. Could be time to eliminate that problem now.

Tileman · 08-02-2026 12:04PM

mother had hens here the whole time until last Sunday the whole lot (6) were wiped out. Not sure was it a fox or pine Martin or stray dog. Happened between 5-5.30 in evening.

50HX · 08-02-2026 12:21PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124216858#Comment_124216858

Are DB1 are you calving.

I got Neospora 10 years ago & ended up culling just under half the cows in the herd

lmk123 · 08-02-2026 01:51PM

Places are moving with foxes and they’re not that afraid of people anymore, they keep coming into my yard eating from the dogs bowl which is outside a large glass door, we could be inside the door looking at them and they don’t care, I’ve shot 2 and now there’s another calling until he meets his demise

DBK1 · 08-02-2026 01:57PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124216940#Comment_124216940

No all dry stock but I’d still be worried about disease from them all the same. I’m putting wetter silage into the feed passage now and he doesn’t seem to like that to nest in as much!

Castlekeeper · 08-02-2026 02:00PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/124215649#Comment_124215649

That's incorrect, organic standards are primarily for animal welfare and are higher than free range or industrial.

All organic poultry have to be free range as a base point.

As pointed out, it's a moot point anyway when bird flu restrictions are imposed.

whelan2 · 08-02-2026 07:36PM

Mad game there at anfield

No quitten we're whelan onto chitchat 12.

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