Free range equals not so organic eggs

[Sarylee]

Hello!!
I have 2 chickens that are free range. My yard is fully fenced so they just go wherever they would like and go in the little coop at night to sleep. I feed them their pellets, but they also eat random things in the yard! Of course they eat the worms and bugs.. but I've caught them eating styrofoam, a piece of glass, and even drank water that had some oil/gas residue from a car. I keep the yard as clean as possible, but I swear they hunt out the bad stuff. They have lived through all of this...but I'm wondering, is it bad to eat their eggs then??

 

[ChickenCanoe]

Definitely not organic.
Are the pellets certified organic?
None of the property they traverse can have had any chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides or other inorganic compounds applied to the forage territory.

 

[50-45-1]

The broken glass will just be ground up in the gizzard hopefully. The styrafoam will quickly pass.
The gas and oil, if it was not enough to kill them i dont think is much to worry about. Remove that possibility asap. Maybe discard those eggs for a couple days.
Your hens eggs are 100 percent better tasting and more nutrucious than the eggs cranked out by those poor hens in the factory farms, that get little sunlight, no exersize, never walked in grass or ate a bug. Had their beaks clipped so they dont canablize each other due to the boredom.
No, your eggs are better.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Technically the eggs aren't organic anyhow if their forage area isn't organic as well, but if these are for home use, I wouldn't sweat the details. "Organic enough" is the best most backyard flocks can produce.

It's probably impossible but I would try to clean up as much of the debris as possible, both for their health and well being as well as keeping it out of your food supply.

 

[BjaJra826]

Chickens are naturally inquisitive. I have learned to use it to my advantge to reduce bullying. I have hung coke cans with grit inside and cabbage from rope for them to peck at. They have also gotten watermelon and pumpkin treats. My hens have a particular love of plastic bags... probally because my kids give them bread after they have eaten their pellet foid to make up for not having fresh grass avaliable. Thankfully, i have always caught them with the bag before they eat much of it. Most of the time the bags are spread in town by stray cats. I know the bread is not very good for them so we make sure bread is only given when crops are full. The weirdest thing they've eaten was bone. A neighbor dog left the bone close to their cage and the hens dragged it in and spent weeks playing with it before they got bored of it lol.