What is so great about vegetarian fed chickens? ... aren't the omnivores... can they be healthy on a totally veg diet?

I guess

balagan_imma, I just moved next door to a woman who sells me eggs for $3/dozen straight from her coop. They are amazing. If I weren't so lazy about cleaning up after them, I'd totally do it. There is a world of difference between the color and the taste.

And I was going to point out the "free range" issue too, but you beat me to it.

Free range is a huge misnomer. It doesn't mean that the chickens run outside and live happy chicken lives. It means that a few if them have access to the outside but their conditions aren't much better than regular eggs. Unless you have a farmer from whom you buy.

If you want to buy store bought eggs from chickens with happy little chicken lives, look for "pastured" chickens. In general these eggs are really expensive - Whole Foods sells them for $7/dozen! brown only. We run a chicken co-op and have added an egg co-op as well. We sell ours for $4.50 and the colors of the eggs are amazing (rose, whites, buff, tan, browns and greens.) The yolks are also almost orange from the amazing foraging and veggies diet they eat.

Labels are so misleading... I hate the way we are lied to all the time. I looked this up in consumer reports once and it said that it's "supposed" to mean that the chickens aren't fed animal by-products. In other words, when other little chickens die on the farm, the live chickens dont get to eat them. The only species where it is forbidden for them to eat their dead counterparts is cows - to prevent mad cow disease. Other animals, its ok. Pigs eat dead pigs, turkeys eat dead turkeys and chickens eat dead chickens. This label means this didnt happen... At tleast that's what the article said... But I find it hard to believe any label any more... It's like the "all natural" label. I mean, wth. Botchilism is all natural. Want some of that???? LOL

I find it funny people care if their chickens are vegetarians, while they continue to consume meat.

Exactly. It's because "Natural" equals sales.

I'm wary of the "vegetarian" label for chickens. Especially if it's coupled with "free range" because then I KNOW is a pile of BS.

Chickens scratch up worms, bugs and even frogs every now and again. That's their "free range" chicken brain behavior. If someone is touting "vegetarian" chickens I automatically assume chicken mill.

Well I buy free range vegetarian fed so they get bugs cause they run around.