From: amheater@BYE.SAILORcogeco.ca   
      
   Why don't we strongly object to being told that unsalted butter is more   
   expensive to produce than salted butter?   
   When cream is churned into butter it _  does not  _ have salt in it.  Salt   
   has to be added.  Wouldn't salt be an added cost in the production process?   
      
   So why does unsalted butter cost more to buy?   
      
   It doesn't in the UK and is in fact what the vast majority use day to day   
   (in case you've been over there and wondered why your morning toast tasted   
   'different').  In fact, from Land's End to John O'Groats, the exact same   
   brand name of butter, eggs, milk, bread and petrol costs (& cigarettes)   
   exactly the same.  We liked [what I called 'Tiger' bread .. had a tiger's   
   face on the package] a certain bread.  No matter where we were living, be it   
   Rosyth (Scotland), Hove, Gosport or St. Budeaux (England), that loaf of   
   bread was exactly the same price.  Not a ½d more or less. As far as I am   
   aware, this is still the case with those products.  So how come we cannot   
   have the same here, if not nation wide, at least province wide? .... region   
   and/or city wide?   
      
   Why don't we strongly object to being told that brown eggs are more   
   expensive to produce than white eggs?  Why do we believe 'Organic' or 'Free   
   Range' eggs should be even more expensive?  Does anyone even understand what   
   the latter truly means?   
      
   Are we truly this stupid ... oops ..  sorry ...  I mean gullible?   
      
   One thing and one thing only, determines if an egg is brown or white.  The   
   breed of hen.  A Leghorn produces only white eggs.  A Rhode Island Red -   
   brown eggs.  A Chinese Silky - a bluish egg (the birds also have blue skin).   
   A Buff Polish - a lighly speckled, usually brownish in colour, but sometimes   
   quite light (almost a white).  (Plymouth?) Barred Rock - if I recall, gives   
   a white,  most Batums - brown.  The run of the mill Robin - an aqua blue.   
   Eastern Thrush - a brownish speckled.  Leghorns will sometimes produce 2   
   eggs a day .. hence why they are the most popular with egg producers.   
   Leaner birds, only really good for the soup pot when culled.  On average the   
   other chickens will give one egg a day for several months, except the   
   Chinese Silky.  She'll produce one a day for about 10 days, then goes   
   broody, forms a nest and will sit there forever or until the eggs hatch.   
   Whichever comes first!  She will not get off the nest for anything in the   
   world, even to eat.  We had to take the food to our Silkys or they would   
   have starved.  They will even try to hatch stones!  You can give them any   
   type of egg to hatch and they will.  With our first, we gave her a lone duck   
   egg.  That's another story though ..  All chickens go broody and have a rest   
   period without producing any or very few eggs.  Depending on how warm you   
   keep them in the winter, they'll generally slow down then .. perhaps a egg   
   every second/third day.  Big time egg producers will cull their birds during   
   this period and the Leghorns end up in soup cans.  Most Leghorns are culled   
   by the end of their second year, I believe it is.  Sadly they usually have   
   dull short life spans.   
      
   One thing and one thing only determines the taste of an egg.  What the hen   
   eats / is fed.  Take all the birds mentioned in the last paragraph, keep   
   them in cages and feed them all exactly the same food and their eggs will   
   taste the same, with extremely little difference.  It will be so minute you   
   will not be able to tell which is which, other than possibly by size.  Feed   
   them a primarily corn based meal and all the eggs will have a darker yellow   
   yolk (ever wonder why some chicken you buy have yellow fat instead of the   
   usual white?  Corn fed chickens.).  Give them all fish meal and the eggs   
   will taste 'fishy'.  Give them meal without corn and the yolks are much   
   lighter in colour.  Give them only meal without crushed shells and the shell   
   of the egg is very fragile.  Give them crushed oyster shells and the shells   
   of their own eggs are much stronger / tougher to crack.   
      
   Take all the same birds out of their indoor cages, allow them to go outside   
   in the fresh air and sunshine, where they can peck at the ground, picking up   
   any crawling insect or if they are quick enough a fly winging by, toss them   
   some chicken scratch (very cheap! and a great supliment your wild bird   
   seed), and ... golly, gosh darn you have 'Free Range Hens', producing 'Free   
   Range Eggs'!  Or, as some fancier folk like to call 'Organic Eggs /   
   Chicken'.  Those birds are often penned outside.  If the chickens which   
   produce the eggs are outside eating all the grubs crawling by etc, isn't   
   that cheaper than keeping them indoors and paying for the food fed to them?   
   It most certainly was when we kept chickens (all the above, plus more,   
   excepting the Robin and Thrush of course - though I've eaten eggs from both   
   birds).   
      
   Just ask a local farmer what he thinks the difference is between the   
   supermarkets' (& others) Free Range Eggs and his own.  Though we have   
   noticed a trend with farmers who offer eggs for sale at their farm gates   
   ... the closer to a city, the higher the price for his Free Range and/or   
   brown eggs.  They are jumping onto the band wagon too, we are guessing.   
   Also home grown - minus commercial fertilizer - corn/millet fed birds are   
   called 'Organic Fed'.   Fertilizer is usually regular manure, which is   
   exactly what most/all farmers use it for.  [Don't get me started on 'Organic   
   Pork or Beef' .. we kept pigs too!  Do you know a human has to be present   
   when piglets are born?  The mother doesn't clean them or keep them warm.   
   They'd easily die if not for human intervention.  As me, I know .. I've   
   played mid-wife to our 8 sows.  Got to know exactly, to the minute after the   
   waters broke, when to expect the first little head to appear.  ~  LOL  ...   
   The Kipper and his bloody 'hobbies'!]   
      
   Am sure many of you know all of this (about chickens and eggs) already ...   
   so why do we just accept it and go on our merry way?   
   Let's form the NSGCA or FGC Union, to demand equal prices for all chickens,   
   their eggs regardless of colour, unsalted butter, etc .. list may be endless   
   ..   
      
   wrcn ..   
   ... the only old bird The Kipper's kept  ...   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)