Keeping chickens a dirty thought

Free-range eggs are gaining popularity.

One of my favourite things about living in Whanganui was walking down to the River Traders' Market on a sunny Saturday morning and buying a dozen free-range eggs for $5.

I have bought free-range eggs for years now, although occasionally still bang heads with my husband over it, as he says it is a waste of money.

My response to hubby is that if I kept chickens at home - as an increasingly large number of Kiwis do - he would be aghast if I kept them locked up in cages all the time. While the life of a free-range egg-laying chicken in commercial operations isn't quite the blissful open-air existence I'd like to imagine, it's a damn sight better than caged chickens.

My sister and her partner keep two chickens at their place in Mount Albert, Auckland - named Kate and Pippa in honour of the royal wedding. Friends in Whanganui keep chickens, too, which get a fair bit of unrequited love and dressing-up from their children.

Most councils let people keep chickens in urban settings as long as they don't cause a nuisance. In New Plymouth, you can keep up to 12 and the run needs to be at least 10 metres from a dwelling and 2m from a boundary.

I'm happy to buy free-range eggs rather than keep chickens - mainly because I can't be dealing with more poo! Dog and toddler poo is enough - and chicken poo has some particular nasties. I was knocked down for a week by campylobacter while at university and it was a pretty unpleasant experience.

In New Zealand, about 13 per cent of all eggs sold are free-range, according to the Poultry Industry Association. It's been going up 1 per cent a year for more than a decade, so I'm not alone with my preferences.

Research shows this could be over a tipping point threshold. First published in 2011, scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York used computer models of social networks to show that once an idea was held by more than 10 per cent of a population, it spread exponentially. Let's see if free-range eggs are on the cusp of becoming the majority.

People often vote with their wallets, but if they shop around they can find free-range eggs for a similar price to caged eggs. And the financial bottom line is not the only driver of consumer decisions - many people put a value on a standard of treatment of animals they find acceptable.

For me, choosing to buy free-range eggs is a simple thing I can do until I cross the line into The Good Life and start keeping chickens in the backyard. My children would love it ... but pity the chickens.

Another thing that puts me off keeping my own chickens is dirty eggs. I sound like a fussy urbanite by even noticing dirty eggs when I get them from the in-laws' farm, but I'm conscious of the germs, particularly for my children.

There is, of course, an easy solution - hand-washing after handling eggs or chickens.

Even though I may be apprehensive about chicken poo germs, I am not a fan of over-use of hand sanitiser or disinfectant sprays in the home. It seems we knock back our immunity when we set unrealistic standards on cleanliness.

My son Riley seems to be already aware of this at age two, so insists on sharing his food with our dog - one bite for you, one bite for me - and is showing signs of a cast-icon constitution.

Back on eggs. Don't be tricked into washing dirty eggs yourself - eggs can be semi-porous, especially when newly laid, and disease can transfer through the shell if you wash them. Commercial operations that wash their eggs do so under carefully controlled conditions.

So just be careful when cracking dirty eggs - and keep washing those hands.