Hughes chicken run

[Jitterbug]

Our Tescos in Bournemouth have not had free range chickens for two weeks now and have now started offering intensively raised birds for £1.99.  Bit mean of them to start a price war don't you think..

Follow the escapades at http://www.chickenout.tv/

Jitterbug

[Jitterbug]

[Robert_Brenchley]

that's the way Tesco's have always operated. When I was a kid, the first one in Oxford opened right next door to a local supermarket chain, Butler's, which had three shops. They undercut them till they went out of business, took over their premises, then put the prices up.

[grannyjanny]

Does anyone have any knowledge of barn reared chickens. Our local co-op is selling them under the name of Elmwood chicken. Their policy is that they are hormone free & only given anti biotics when needed.
We used to be able to buy 2 free range chickens which were hormone free for £5.75 but they now have gone over to barn rearing.
Janet.

[Old bird]

Hi I don't know too much about the barn rearing method but I know that it is marginally kinder than the other way!  The Co-op is quite good though on animal welfare issues.

But at the end of the day only the organic way is the most natural and kindest for these birds!

Old Bird

[robkb]

As far as I know, barn rearing is NOT free-range. All it guarantees is that the birds are kept in barn! Possibly with slightly more space, and possibly windows for natural light instead of artificial lighting, and possibly with things to play with, but still no access to the great outdoors. So I'd say the free-range chooks you used to buy are much better in the welfar stakes than barn-reared.

Cheers,
Rob ;)

[cambourne7]

We get our chicken from Waitrose

http://www.waitrose.com/food/productranges/poultry/chicken.aspx

There are however other options

Well Hung Meat - http://www.wellhungmeat.com/poultry.php
Delivered to your Door
Our Organic Chickens are reared at Stream Farm in Somerset and Otter Valley in Honiton, Devon. Like all of our meat, our Chickens improve through the hanging process. The chickens are reared in a free-range habitat and like the turkeys we have at Christmas, they will be cold eviscerated (gutted) and dry plucked. Prepare for a taste sensation, unlike any mass produced product!


Clerkes Farm - http://www.clerkesgeese.com/
Delivered to your door used by Heston Blumenthal :)

But there are lots of small companies out there that fill the gap the supermarkets leave

http://www.higherhacknell.co.uk/?cPath=27&page=1&sort=1a&gclid=CM61n6m_wZECFQOIMAod2EA7Tg

http://www.aubreyallen.co.uk/catalog/4?ppcseid=4123&ppcsekeyword=free+range+chicken&mmtctg=413055943&mmtcmp=18944443&mmtmt=2&mmtgglcnt=0&mmtadid=1336336603

Cam

[robkb]

Just copies this from the Channel 4 website - it's the Co-Op's answers to Jamie Oliver's Fowl Dinners questionnaire:

Jamie's Fowl Dinners

The facts about the shops you shop in

Contents: Asda and Co-operative, Marks and Spencer and Morrisons, Sainsbury's and Somerfield, Tesco and Waitrose. Date Published: 11/01/2008 The following supermarkets were asked these questions, see their responses below (in alphabetical order).

Question 1
What are your different ranges of fresh whole chicken and pieces?

Question 2
Please outline the welfare conditions of the chickens in these different ranges (ACP standard, Freedom Food, Free-range, Organic etc.), what breed are the birds? At what age are they slaughtered? What is the stocking density at which they are kept?


Co-operative
Answer 1
In September 2007 the Co-operative replaced standard fresh whole chickens with chickens reared to the higher welfare Elmwood standard. From March 2008, this higher welfare standard will be extended to all Co-operative fresh chicken.

The Co-operative also sells British Freedom Food Free Range chickens under its Truly Irresistible label and British Organic chicken.

Answer 2
A dedicated group of British and Northern Irish farmers have been selected to rear chickens to our higher welfare Elmwood standard, exclusively for the Co-operative.

The chickens are housed in naturally ventilated and sunlit barns to give a fresher, brighter more comfortable environment (In excess of Freedom Food standards). The chickens are given 30% more space than standard chickens to allow them to move around (The same amount of space as required for Freedom Food and Organic standards). (This is plain wrong -  basic Soil Association standars for organinc poultry production stipulates the birds MUST be free-range - rob)

Each barn is furnished with straw bales, perches and pecking objects to keep the birds stimulated (The same as required for Freedom Food).

Our chickens grow slower through the use of a naturally balanced, high cereal vegetarian diet. Our chickens will never be given antibiotics unless they are ill and visited by a vet.

Our chickens will never be fed growth promoters or digestive enhancers designed to increase weight gain. Our chickens have six hours of darkness each day to allow them to rest. 50% more than standard chickens (The same as required for Freedom Food).

The age at which they are slaughtered ranges from 40 to 50 days, depending on the size of chicken needed.

The Freedom Food Free Range and Organic are the generic standards used by everybody."


Cheers,
Rob ;)
.

[caseylee]

I have seen first hand a chicken factory, and it not nice.  My husband and I both work with two kids, and run our shopping on a tight budget so I cannot afford to buy organic chickens.  I make sure we have a roast once a week, and the only reason I can do this is by buying two chickens for 5.50, otherwise we would no have a good sunday meal.  I try to be organic as possible by growing as many veg as I can before I got my allotment, but somethings are just to expensive for normal working class. I appriciated that if we all stopped buying farm chicken the price would go down on the organic ones, but chicken is the only real meat I eat, and I love it, so until the shopping markets start either dropping prices or doing good specials I will have to stick to the farm birds. 

[Barnowl]

Isn't free range  the more important welfare aspect rather than organic? And free range is about half the price of organic, though higher than battery.

(Mind you when lamb chops are £16 per kilo (the farmer gets £1.20) a 2 kilo chicken for a tenner doesn't seem such bad value)

[caseylee]

If i could afford it I would go all free range as no animal deserves to live like what I saw on telly, but unless I win the lottery all I can afford right now is farmed chickens, lets hope the supermarkets have a change in price

[hazelize_uk]

People have been treating chicken almost like a throw away item.  I know people that buy the ready cooked chickens and pick and the breast and throw the rest away or worse still buy one as a little treat for the cat!!!!  I'm not made of money but dont think £6 is unreasonable compared to other sunday joints such as beef or lamb.  What infuriates me more is people on television classed as being on so called low incomes and in the background are always ashtrays full of cigarettes (almost £6 per packet) and a few empty larger cans!  when the price of either of those items increases it doesnt seem to cause such uproar they just seem to find the extra pennies for them! ???

[Robert_Brenchley]

The breast is the least interesting bit; I don't understand why people think it's special. the leg has more flavour, and doesn't dry out. The best way I've found of making breast palatable, apart from smothering it with chilli, is to roast the thing upside-down. It doesn't look quite so pretty, but the juices flow down into the breast making it nice and moist, with a distintly different texture.

[killerflies]

Hugh's push on free range chickens has somewhat petered out dont you think!?

Im a massive fan and havent touched anything but freerange/organic since seeing his and Jamie Olivers programmes.

An article in one of the british papers calculated that approx 10million freerange birds had been bought as a result.

Just thinking that they should come out boxing a second time and keep it in the public eye.

What ya think??

[caroline7758]

I got a newsletter by email yesterday and I think they are showing the programmes again (or an update, I'm not sure) over Easter. Have a look at the website.

http://www.chickenout.tv/

[teresa]

Ok try and change peoples view even supermarkets but its the govement rules that need changing for any effect.
DEFRA is the body if you have more than 50 birds you have to be registered and they are ment to check up on breeders / farmers.
I think the 3ft per bird rule applies, but this is calculated by the lenght of barn X width X the height.
Now I dont know many hens that would jump say 6ft in the air to spread their wings?
So I think the rule of floor space only this would mean fewer birds on the ground and more space for them to move around.
As for the amonia burns there are powerders that can be sprinkled onto wood shavings to neutreise them or have them cleaned out regular by law?
The death rate would decrease and more birds would live to the slaughter date if better looked after.
.

[hoonteo]

Chickens are rainforest birds. They are wild in Malaysia where I come from and yes they can jump/part fly six foot into the air . They roost in trees. They wander everywhere and the home birds we do keep are part wild too, only not so skinny. They bring off their own young. I think the reason they're so expensive to keep in the UK and in Europe is that the chickens you get here are so far from the original version that there is no other way to raise them other then farmed/antibiotics/all the rest of the nonsense. My gran kept them in her backyard and other then chuck some maize at them she left them to forage. They may have been around in the UK a long time but they are not natural to this country. Do people not know this?

[Robert_Brenchley]

I remember chickens living at least semi-wild (the traditional meaning of 'free-range') when  was a kid; the farmer provided shelter and a little food, and they scratched around for themselves. We used to find nests in the hedges regularly. It's only in the last generation we've had these overbred battery hens. I've seen traditional varieties get six feet up many times, but I don't know whether the modern ones still do.

We used to cage them in with a three-foot mesh fence, and only the occasional one got over as they don't fly much. When they do, you can tell they're really making an effort. Is it the same with Malaysian ones? Where is it you come from, by the way? My mother grew up in Rangoon.

[ACE]

Having kept chickens once, I would be very suprised if the chickens knew what was going on. Those two twats who have jumped aboard another bandwagon, have been banned from my telly. Hugh Whateverstall, is this the same goon that cooked and ate a womans placenta. As for Jamie Lagerlout, what's in those sausages he feeds to the cabbies?

[yanto]

If the farmer only makes 3pence per chicken and he keeps say 2000 in a shed he makes £60 for a shed full.
If the farmer keeps 200 chickens in a shed and makes 30pence per chicken that's £60 for a shed full.
100 chickens 60 pence a chicken £60 a shed full plus 1900 chickens worth of feed etc saved.
So why does a free range bird cost more than the extra 57pence?
Am I oversimplifying or is someone overcharging?