Free Range
Quality and fairness are important to Red Hen.
The intensive farming of chickens is horribly cruel and un-natural. Most chickens reared for food live out their short lives crammed together in sheds without ever seeing daylight. 3 quarters of laying hens live in wire cages too small to stretch their wings in.
A system where the only factor is cost leads to animals becoming commoditised and effectively tortured, farmers struggling to make a decent living and an end product which is vastly inferior.
Happy hens lay far tastier eggs, healthy chickens make a much better roast. Even if this were not the case the treatment of factory farmed chickens is just plain wrong.
Please click the chicken out link and please, if you don’t already, choose organic or free range chicken and eggs.
Hotels with free range eggs for breakfast
A hotel breakfast is often priced at around £15 - £20, but much commercial catering uses the cheapest (and poorest quality) battery famed eggs, so you’re often being seriously ripped off. Ask them if their eggs are free range - refuse them if they’re not, then write on the questionnaire they always leave in your room that you expect decent eggs for breakfast. These are hotels John has used which serve (or claim to serve) free range eggs - they are too few unfortunately.
• The Copthorne Hotel, Slough
• Hilton, Strathclyde
• Ramside Hall, Durham
• Thorpe Park Hotel, Leeds
• Sheffield Park Hotel
• The Park Royal Hotel, Warrington
• Five Lakes Golf & Country Club, Maldon
• Huntingdon Marriott
Quite often the ‘chef’ doesn’t know whether the eggs are free range or not. You can find out by looking at the code printed on the shell - The first number refers to the farming method; 0 = organic, 1 = free range, 2 = barn, 3 = cage. This is followed by the country of origin and then the farm identification.
