Caged Birds

They probably don't get a chance to moult, they're grown very quickly and that's it, short life. 

No ... I thought the complete opposite , the free range looked much better !

I have a friend who buys caged hens 6 at a time , the transformation in there health within a short period of time is a joy to see .

I thought this was going to be a thread about budgies in caravans.

The caged ones "looked" healthier, but I believe there's a lot more to animal husbandry and care than mere appearances. The cage system is certainly an improvement on the old horrible battery hen factories. But don't the birds have a very short life span and, as pointed out on the programme, no chance to exhibit any normal behaviours.

The concern was more the small scale free range farmer who said he'd been able to make a living at the moment, charging a small premium for free range eggs, but when free range becomes the norm the "big boys" will swoop in and he'll be left at the bottom of the pile and probably find it difficult to survive. That's a hard circle to square! 

The average age of a broiler chicken, the ones you eat for meat is about 39 days, less if the breeders can force on their growth. When we had chickens our baby chicks took months to grow, had nice strong bones and a proper outdoor life, their beaks weren't cut off and they had a good life. We sometimes had RSPCA rescue factory chickens, they were in a bad way to start with but we managed to get them back to health and they lived for many years. We've had all sorts of breeds, nice strong eggs with deep yellow yolks (no weak shells) and I always feel guilty when I buy chicken that I know has not had a good life. I hate seeing them being transported on the motorways too. Not good, enough said!

We inherited a buggie five years back .

Betty always joins us on our caravan trips and loves it especially the car journey she is away wiv us at the moment being very vocal .

I didn't see the original programme, so don't have any idea what it was about,  but I presume we're talking about caged hens. My best friend's son took on four ex-battery hens, who now live in his garden as free-range birds.  They lay three eggs a day, are virtually maintenance free (short of needing a fox-free compound), are obviously happy and full of feathers, and  provide them with enough income to cover the cost of the feed each week.

We buy all our eggs from the farmer up the road, whose hens run around the farmyard and have to scarper when we drive into buy the eggs - and the eggs are sometimes still warm when we take them home.