Does anyone have any info on the health benefits of vegetarian vs. regular or 'cage free' eggs?
On the label for the cage free it says w/o animal by-products... that would mean to me vegetarian, no?
The only thing I find with the vegetarian eggs is that the split when I hard boil them, and the regular 'meat-eatin' eggs do not, lack of calcium?
Thanks for any insight.
Livvie~~~~~~~~~~~~~6b, NY

Well, it isn't as healthy for the chickens to not be able to eat meat. Birds that free range organically will eat worms, slugs, crickets, beetles...all sorts of meat, and the eggs from them are great, tough shells that can take a little knocking around, high, firm orange yolks, whites that hold together in a semi blob, instead of running all over.

My question is why buy vegetarian eggs? If you are vegan, you don't eat eggs anyway, and if you are lacto-ovo, you shouldn't mind the birds getting the bugs they need.

I am pregnant & with all the info out there on animals eating diseased animals, I thought the eggs *might* be heathier. Mind you, I still eat meat & despite the free range status, I am sure they may still be fed meat. So, this is not an exact since, but I figured it couldn't hurt.
The eggs are free range, so they must be getting worms, etc. somewhere, I just hadn't thought it through thoroughly... not that I have much chicken raising experience.
I would love to raise my own chick's but after a friends son got salmonella poisoning from their chicks I changed my mind- quickly. They are observant parents & I don't think they were just irresponsible, but things happen & now being pregnant I do not want to take any chances.
Anyway, Thanks for the info.
Livvie~~~~~~~~~~~6b,NY

If they are certified organic cage free they will be on a vegetarian diet by virtue of the organic rules.

that said lets go over some terms here

cage free means they are not in a cage and if organic have access to the out of doors but that usually means a 150'x 150' dirt run for 5000 birds

Free range means about the same as cage free if you are dealing with a large operation like organic valley or horizon or eggland's best.

Pastured means the birds are out on grass and have free access to bugs and green things to eat plus all the sunshine they can absorb. AFAIK there are no big pastured egg operations

pastured eggs have more nutrition than the cage free.

this intrests me because I just started buying grocery store eggs/ organic eggs/vegetarian eggs in the past 2 months after 6 years of raising pasture eggs. I gotta say I don't see any real difference between conventional cage free and organic cage free and I would love to have some real eggs again from hens that get to roam free on good pasture, not dirt. Eggland's Best claims to be the nation's best tasting egg. I don't think so, these people have never tasted a farm fresh pasture egg I guess.

If they are certified organic, cage free eggs it does not mean they are vegetarian. Chickens are omnivores, they need meat, usually in the form of insects. If they are truly free-range, they will eat insects in the pasture. The no animal by-products means they are not feeding the chickens processed chickens. Factory farms will "recycle" chicken parts into the feed to give the laying hens the protein they need. This contributes to salmonella and the overall health of the chicken.

The best tasting egg is the one my hens lay. By eating insects, weeds & grasses, layer pellets, and the occasional cat food they get from the carport (it is their favorite). The yolk is sooooo orange, store eggs are anemic in comparison.

Certified organic eggs do not guarantee that the hens ever get out on pasture. All certified organic eggs are laid by cage free hens by definition. Cage free in no way means the hens are out on pasture it just means they are not confined to cages and allowed to roam freely in a large barn with thousands of other hens

Almost all pastured eggs come from small farms (flocks under 500 hens) and backyard growers. Once you get above 2000 layers it is more effecient to put them in a big barn with an automated egg collection system and door open to a dirt run. So that is the way 99% of the certified organic eggs are produced.

So you see it would be most common for organic eggs to be vegetarian as the organic rule says no meat products in the feed.

I raised certified organic [u]pastured[/u] eggs for years. The eggs were much different than certified organic [u]cage free[/u] eggs because my hens were outside all day every day on green pasture, not dirt, among other things.

Thank you all so much for the information. I will look for pastured eggs & look into raising my own chickens when I am no longer pregnant.
Livvie~~~~~~~~~~~6b