are free range eggs cruelty free?

Put 50,000 caged chickens in a barn and their produce is called "eggs".

Put 50,000 uncaged chickens in a barn (cheek to jowl, just no cages in between), and their produce is called "barn laid" eggs.

Put 50,000 uncaged chickens in a barn and add a tiny door to a tiny outside yard, and their produce is called "free range" eggs.

The only way you can be certain about the origin of eggs is if you get them directly from the farm.

Here in Australia, audits regularly reveal that more people buy free range eggs than there are eggs produced by free range egg producers. This tells us that the free range egg market is one big hoax.

'Free range' is most often a scam. It conjures an image of small groups of chickens roaming free on a barnyard. The reality is that they are packed with thousands in a barn without enough room to really move around. In some countries there has to be access to the outdoors (even if only a tiny patch of concrete) to call the eggs 'free range', where I live even THAT is not a requirement. So no, these eggs are not cruelty free.

@Diggis Shobus: You are sadly misinformed. Yes, the eggs laid by egg laying hens are unfertilized and don't hatch into anything. But have you ever considered how these hens come to exist? They are bred, they come out of fertilized eggs that DO hatch. When breeding egg laying chickens, half the hatched chicks are male. Pray tell, what do you think is done with the 50% male offspring? That they are brought to a happy farm where they are allowed to live to the end of their natural lives in peace. No, they are killed. Try to use your mind a little, will ya?

They are not cruelty free. Free range chickens are still in cages, it's just that the cages are left open for the day. Most chickens don't want to come out of the cage, simply because there are generally coyotes and other type of evil animals lurking around farms ready to eat the chickens and their eggs.

That would depend on what you would consider "cruelty free". The words are subjective and everyone can express their own opinions and follow their own beliefs but that does not mean what they think is correct or acceptable to everyone.

It is sad that instead of providing real answers, some posters like to turn this section into futile bickering and debates, one trying to upstage the other in a manner that does not really help anyone.

I would say it's worse. The chickens are in horrible conditions, treated like property, constantly ill, and it's still just as dirty (maybe worse because it's 'too hard' to clean under the huge mobs of them all cramped together). On the other hand though, if you are talking about eggs from a farm, then they are defiantly better than factory eggs.

Either way, chickens aren't property. I know all people can't be vegan, but I would recommend trying! I'm on my first attempt right now, only a little while in and it's going great!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_range

they just get access to out doors and are not in cages. they need to move far to get water and they can have heart attacks easily due to the growth hormones. plus the title tricks animal rights activists into thinking they are okay. i would consider it worse.

Edit:

why do i always see this when exsft answers "FYI everyone, exsft is a middle-aged child molesting Catholic! He once molested his daughter!!" and what does middle aged catholic have to do with it? and I'm the cyber stalker.

Edit:

i forgot to mention. do you know what they do with most of the baby roosters? they literally throw them away, so i wouldn't give money to any factory farm even if that was the only bad thing they did. and diggis, she means the rosters that fertilize some of the eggs. they don't buy the chicks.

Free-range is a meaningless term. They may have "access" to the outside but that doesn't mean that all the hens can get it or how long the door is kept open. It doesn't ensure that they aren't crowded in barns (instead of cages). And it doesn't ensure the male baby layer chicks aren't killed once they hatch or that the hens aren't killed when their production declines.

The chickens are treated nicely while they produce eggs. But once their egg production goes down they all get sent to the same slaughterhouse.

In my opinion yes, free range eggs are much better than large farm eggs.

Lol someone posted "male layer eggs killed"?? egg farms do not have eggs that hatch into anything. Just another illogical post from a mindless fanatic. epic fail!!

"Free range" is not really an enforceable term. Meaning it is used loosely by producers often to take advantage of buying trends by consumers. You can look specific farms that market "free range" and decide if their standards meet your own personal standards of "cruelty free".

However, most smaller free range egg farms do treat their animals well; adequate natural feed, larger open spaces etc. And contrary to one post, a barn and fencing is actually good protection from the weather and predators. Hens will voluntarily go into barns and roost on their own will.