are ex-bat hens eggs safe?

[marialittlebzz]

ok its really out of curiosity because actually I don't own any hens but were proposed to buy eggs from ex-bat by my organic shop online....
I do understand that with good food and happy life comes good products, but I was just thinking that some chemicals such as antibiotics might stay longer in their body??
Is anyone know or did some research about it?

Btw I am 100% for rehab the chicks and would love to do so if I had the space...which means it's just a "delayed" project if I can put it this way

[terrier]

I suggest you ask Sainsburys, Tescos and all the other rip off shops that sell them as fresh eggs. I'm sure they'd like to know if there's something wrong with them.

[Eyren]

I don't know about specific research, but antibiotics generally only stay in the body for a few days, so there shouldn't be any problem there. Can't speak for any other chemicals they might have been fed - but I would think that most commercial egg-laying hens get a similar feed regime, regardless of whether they are in cages, barns or "free range" (which often only means they have free access to a rather crowded outdoor run). Rescued battery hens probably get a healthier diet than any of them!

Hope this helps

[MaureenHall]

Do the battery hen farmers give antibiotics? I've never really thought about that before. All I know is that the eggs my girls give me are the best I've ever tasted with the yolks a deep golden colour all free form artificial additives

[Snadger]

Not antibiotics I know but...........I've been doing a bit of research of my own and have found out that organic layers pellets as opposed to ordinary layers pellets are about twice as expensive. I had toyed with feeding my chooks organic layers pellets until I found out that there is a cop out clause which allows the supplier to substitute inorganic material at will!

This is a statement from an organic feed supplier!


"If it’s labelled organic, is it 100% organic?

Not quite. With manufactured feed, there may be instances where it is impossible to obtain certain organic ingredients - often protein or oil sources such as soya, linseed or maize, or vitamin and mineral sources such as yeast, limestone flour or salt - in sufficient quantities. To accommodate this, the regulations permit manufacturers to include a small proportion of non-organic ingredients, and still label the product organic."

I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions!

[vicky]

A while ago one of my (ex batt) chickens had to have antibiotics for a cold, the vet suggested we did not consume the eggs for 14 days to allow the drugs to clear her system. So I imagine ex batts should be free of drugs once they are 2 weeks out. Incidentially the antibiotics would not do us any harm but a low level build up in human can lead to resistance by pathogens.
I don't thing ex batt eggs would be any different to any other chicken eggs kept in the same conditions, but if you buy them it would make it financially viable for them to be kept by your organic shop.

[Hilary B]

If a battery egg farmer is caught selling eggs from hens which have recently been given anti-biotics (14 days is the usual 'withdrawal' period) he is in SERIOUS trouble. As said above, the problem is that 'traces' of antibiotic in our food are a cause of bacteria which antibiotics cannot kill.

[CountryFayre]

I can't see how the eggs can be labelled organic if the hens are ex-battery. I thought that land and livestock had to be organic for about 2 years before the soil association would allow you to sell as such. I thought you could only buy day old birds if you wanted organic layers and had to rear them on from there. I may be wrong, but just what I have been led to believe.

[kirsty b]

I certainly hope ex-bat eggs are safe because they the only fresh eggs I eat. I don't buy eggs from shops while my girls are laying.
On the occasions I have had to give them anti-b's from the vet he has told me not to use the eggs for 7 days on the first one (Baytril), and 10 (Tylan) for the next. I suppose it depends on the medication I suppose.

[Snadger]

Do the battery hen farmers give antibiotics? I've never really thought about that before. All I know is that the eggs my girls give me are the best I've ever tasted with the yolks a deep golden colour all free form artificial additives

Once again I've had my head in the books Maureen!

Apparently because they are kept in such close proximity they are given antibiotics in their water JUST IN CASE an outbreak of disease occurs! Not sure, but I think that some growth inducing chemicals/antibiotics are added to broiler chickens feed as wel!

[Hilary B]

I think it is broilers which get 'precautionary' antibiotics (but chickens not being the area where I have encountered anti-b most often this may be a misunderstanding). The additives in other species (especially pigs, and to some extent turkeys) are given to the growing meat-animals, and withdrawn for the last week or two before slaughter, to avoid any residue in the meat. Cows are sometimes given anti-biotics for various reasons, and milk cannot be used until the appropriate time after the last treatment (yes it depends which product was used, some last a ridiculous length of time)

[marialittlebzz]

I am pleased to see that I am not the only one to question this!
I've read so much in a few days about "factory farming" I am really disgusted and so sad, so much cruelty... In one hand there is the condition in which the animals live, the great pains inflicted upon them, and then on the other hand all the additives, chemicals ( very long list of those! ) that they are fed... which of course we ending up by eating !
why ? what are we achieving by this ?

the argument is that there is a strong demand for cheap meat, all this fried chickens, Mc Donalds, and all the rubbish processed food served even in school cantines, stock cubes, baby food.....ahhhrrgghhh !!!
(Education-education-education)
My question is just revealing how little we know about what we eat, it is so difficult to have an access of info about what those battery chicks are fed, and when you found it, you quickly realized that no serious studies are made to assess the risks on the long term for the consumers.

A specific and major diclazuril impurity and/or metabolite has been identified in rabbit fat which has not been found to occur in laboratory animals. It cannot be ruled out that the accumulation in fat of this lipophilic impurity/metabolite might occur in other species, including the chicken and turkey. The safety of this compound has not been established.

"Opinion of the Scientific Panel on Additives and Products or
Substances used in Animal Feed on the Maximum Residue Limits for
Clinacox 0.5 % (diclazuril) for turkeys for fattening, chickens for fattening and chickens reared for laying "

That is just about a medication that is already given, but the toxicity as yet to be assessed by this comitee of scientists....meanwhile...it is consumed !
(profits-profits-profits)

Anyway guys, saving hens is at least something that powerless people can do !
I am sure somehow those poor chicks might have accumulated toxins from their previous life, but with all the rubbish we are fed ourselves...! we might be even more toxic!

[Hilary B]

If you've ever used the painkiller diclofenac, they you are highly toxic to the vultures which USED to be common in Asia (especially Pakistan).
This anti-inflmatory was also given to cattle out there, and the vultures are the main means of disposal of casualty livestock (one of the religions out there also relies on vultures for funerals, the bodies are put on high towers to be accessible to the birds). This drug has been established as the cause of the population of these birds now being less than 10% of what it was before the drug became widely available after it 'went generic'.
One knock-on effect of this is a doubling of the cases of rabies in those areas, because with too few vultures to tidy up, the population of feral dogs has rocketted. Anthrax is also more likely to occur, since vultures are the only creatures which can clear-up an infected carcase and NOT redistribute the infection around the area.
Vultures are not pretty, but the knock-on effects of their loss could well be disastrous for the areas where they ought to be.
Science has a bad habit of not realising what it is doing until things go badly wrong.

[Eyren]

Science has a bad habit of not realising what it is doing until things go badly wrong.

You can't blame science directly - it's the multinational corporations that are really to blame, with their focus purely on profits. AFAIK there's no requirements for these companies to consider the food chain into which their products are going to be released - it's only when things go wrong that other, often government-employed scientists are drafted in to work out what's going on...

Re the organic eggs, the shop may be "organic" but as long as they sell the eggs as "ex-battery" and not "organic" they are in the clear.

IIRC, the reason organic chicken meat is so expensive is that the regulations have been tightened and they have to have hatched from eggs laid by a chicken that was itself organically-reared.

Which came first - the organic chicken or the organic egg?

[Hilary B]

You can't blame science directly - it's the multinational corporations that are really to blame, with their focus purely on profits. AFAIK there's no requirements for these companies to consider the food chain into which their products are going to be released - it's only when things go wrong that other, often government-employed scientists are drafted in to work out what's going on...

Re the organic eggs, the shop may be "organic" but as long as they sell the eggs as "ex-battery" and not "organic" they are in the clear.

IIRC, the reason organic chicken meat is so expensive is that the regulations have been tightened and they have to have hatched from eggs laid by a chicken that was itself organically-reared.

Which came first - the organic chicken or the organic egg?

Yes, it is the big business rather than 'pure' science, but then no-one else is doing any research any more. It is this tendency for profits to come before 'making sure it is safe' which is why I am opposed to GM food products. There may be useful wonders to be achieved by the GM approach, but until a lot more experiments are carried out, it should be staying in the lab!
I sometimes think the extremes of the organic approach need an official 'middle ground'. What happened to 'conservation grade'?