Oh, this is so tragically sad. 

Really, heartbreaking.

It's so nice to see people concerned for animals, there are too few people like you in the world.  This is well written and indeed heartwrenching and how lovely of you to take that poor bird home and look after her, people like you are truly inspirational. I feel the same about eggs and the horrible conditions in which they are produced.  But I really think you should be careful about making comparison between cage-free and battery eggs "if you are eating eggs, even cage-free eggs—especially cage-free eggs, actually—you must read it nevertheless".  You are sort of implying that people should eat battery eggs INSTEAD of cage-free eggs here!!  You should visit a caged/battery hen farm before you say how much worse the cage-free farm is.  You never said anything specific about the conditions for the hens in the cage-free farm that was visited, except for the smell, the sound and the lighting and ventilation of the barn itself.  Which is still awful, but if you were to actually see the hens there and then see the hens in a battery farm, I'm sure you would say buy cage-free please, instead of battery eggs!! we should be really encouraging people, (who are going to buy eggs anyway) to choose the lesser of two evils.  I know it is still not good at all, but it is SO MUCH BETTER, that battery hens, who are literally stuffed into tiny cages with no room to flap their wings or go to a private space to lay their egg.  Cage-free hens at least have this priviledge.  It is a step in the right direction, and all we can do to make the world better is change gradually and slowly.  Thank you and please continue to care, I would like to shake your hand for being a hero!XXX 

It's so nice to see people concerned for animals, there are too few people like you in the world.  This is well written and indeed heartwrenching and how lovely of you to take that poor bird home and look after her, people like you are truly inspirational. I feel the same about eggs and the horrible conditions in which they are produced.  But I really think you should be careful about making comparison between cage-free and battery eggs "if you are eating eggs, even cage-free eggs—especially cage-free eggs, actually—you must read it nevertheless".  You are sort of implying that people should eat battery eggs INSTEAD of cage-free eggs here!!  You should visit a caged/battery hen farm before you say how much worse the cage-free farm is.  You never said anything specific about the conditions for the hens in the cage-free farm that was visited, except for the smell, the sound and the lighting and ventilation of the barn itself.  Which is still awful, but if you were to actually see the hens there and then see the hens in a battery farm, I'm sure you would say buy cage-free please, instead of battery eggs!! we should be really encouraging people, (who are going to buy eggs anyway) to choose the lesser of two evils.  I know it is still not good at all, but it is SO MUCH BETTER, that battery hens, who are literally stuffed into tiny cages with no room to flap their wings or go to a private space to lay their egg.  Cage-free hens at least have this priviledge.  It is a step in the right direction, and all we can do to make the world better is change gradually and slowly.  Thank you and please continue to care, I would like to shake your hand for being a hero!XXX

Hazel, I think the author of the article is telling you that cage free is no better than battery.  They are both horrible. And the phrase "birds dying on every side" and "piles of dead birds" tells pretty clearly what condition the chickens were in, sick and dying!  Don't eat eggs!!!!

What do you think about using eggs from a friend who has a couple dozen chickens who roam around on her property and are treated as pets?

I don't eat eggs, but have used her eggs for baking. Is it still wrong? I have stayed at her house and watched her animals while she is away, and all of her animals are treated as family.

Just wondering what the vegan opinion of this type of egg is.
I have never liked the taste of eggs alone, but do like to bake. What do you use?

This friend has two dozen chickens. They have names. They are family. They lay over a dozen eggs a day and she gives the eggs to friends. What do you think? Is it still considered cruel?

I need more information on this subject and would like to know if it is wrong to only use local eggs like these? Please help me out..

I think "dont eat eggs!" is far too general.  I think Michael you know yourself what is right and wrong and you shouldn't have to feel like to need to justify your using humanly produced eggs, that would otherwise go to waste.  I read the rest of the article above (I didn't realize the article continued on to a much more informative and disturbing ending) and I apologize I didn't realize how bad the conditions were for these organic and cage-free hens and I felt sick at the thought that all this time I have been encouraging people to buy cage-free.  I am now determined to find out if all cage-free/organic farms are this bad.  Once again I blame labeling, how are people supposed to make an informed decision if there are clueless to what they are buying.  I still maintain that people are going to eat eggs just as they are going to eat meat and all this "DON'T" talk will not solve anything here.  I wish there was a way we could encourage people to buy humane eggs, and it is not fair to assume that all egg producers are cruel, and therefore eggs shouldn't be eaten.  Look at Michael's comment above here to see a great example of this.  If the terms cage-free and organic are being brutally abused and taken out of context, then we need a new term.  Something like "cruelty-free eggs" or "happy hen eggs"!! And people need to be informed of how cruel intensive egg farming is (and all chicken farming for that matter).  But we need to focus on a positive "DO" and not a negative "DON'T".  I just wish I knew how to do this!

No matter how well hens may or may not be treated, they still come from hatcheries that brutally, cruelly kill all male chicks--250 million per year in the United States alone. And anyone who's trying to make any money at all off raising hens in order to sell their eggs isn't going to keep the hens around after they stop being profitable either. Hens used for egg production, even in true free-range circumstances, still go to terrible slaughter once they're "spent"--that is, not when they're old and declining, but when they're still years away from their natural deaths, but they've stopped producing enough eggs to make money for the producer.

Hazel, people may not want to hear "don't eat eggs," but that doesn't mean people who are truly advocating on the animals' behalf should water down their message. Adding a "happy hen" label isn't going to do any good when it isn't true. That's exactly the problem we have already--labels that are meaningless. You can't exploit and kill animals "humanely" and without cruelty. And even the very, very rare instances that come close to being humane (e.g., the incredibly rare person--a fraction of a fraction of a percent--who keeps hens, uses their eggs herself, and also lets the hens live a full life after they stop laying eggs until they die natural deaths) simply could not ever supply the number of eggs people want.

The "don't" talk may not be what people who want to continue exploiting and killing animals want, but the increasing number of people who do stop eating animals and animal products once they learn the truth--including many people who once swore they'd never stop--would disagree with you that we just need to accept defeat and let people keep killing animals and just attach "happier" conditions and labels.

We can't just encourage people to purchase humane eggs when humane eggs are for all realistic intents and purposes nonexistent. And ultimately, eggs are simply not at all a necessity. People can survive and thrive just fine without them.

So if eggs aren't necessary, and egg production involves inherent cruelties, from the mass killing of male chicks to the ultimate killing of all hens, why not encourage people to stop eating them? People can change. But we have to respect them enough to be honest with them about these issues, rather than coddle them with half-truths, if we ever expect them to.

Wow, Ok you make a fantastic point and I am definitely rethinking the whole thing.  I mean you should know you have seen them first hand!  I wish I had the guts to do that.  I am definitely on your side here.  It saddens me to think that I spend half my time arguing with people who don't care about animals, and here I am arguing with someone who does!!  More than anything in the world I want the suffering of animals to stop but I've thought long and hard about how we can achieve this and just so you can understand where I am coming from, my opinions stem from this fact - Change is gradual.  I just want a realistic solution that would be better for the animals,  I would happy with an "improvement" in the situation, then an improvement on that improvement, until there is no more suffering.  Even if everyone were not going to stop eating eggs, that they source out real free-range eggs for themselves without relying on these stupid labels.  If we can't have an "all or nothing" situation (ie. "don't eat eggs") then we have to find a compromise.  In the hope that from that point we can then move even further towards our goal - which is ultimately that no animal would be exploited for our selfish use.  My only point, (and I totally agree with you aswell) is that we need to take baby steps towards change.  You are right killing an animal is never humane, but getting eggs from a hen doesn't have to be inhumane.  If only more people would keep their own hens and raise them humanely then the fraction you were talking about would increase, and people would not have to stop eating eggs.  I am from Ireland and live in England and the egg situation is a lot better there than it is in the United States, and lots of people keep their own hens.  Not everyone cares as much as you do, but lots of people will make "little efforts", and if that reduces the suffering a little, that's better than nothing