Farm Fresh Eggs

From Nest to Carton

I hatched my first flock with the intention of feeding our family eggs that were laid by spoiled hens who got fresh air, sunshine, bugs and grass and lived a natural life. Hens who didn’t spend their lives in tiny cages working as cogs in the egg factory but instead were loved dearly, have names and are treated like individuals. As it often happens with chickens, it turned out that I ended up with many more chickens than necessary to supply my family with fresh eggs and, what began as a way to feed my family, has grown into providing fresh eggs for many in our community.

The eggs laid by our happy hens are sold in mixed size dozens for $6. Quite a few of our hens lay BIG eggs (sometimes too big to fit in a carton!) and you will generally have a mix of large, extra large and jumbo eggs in your carton. Lately they seem to be mainly extra large sized with several jumbos and a couple larges in each dozen.

In addition to getting several different sizes, you will also get a mixture of different colored eggs. About two thirds of our hens lay brown or cream colored eggs. The remaining third lay either white or beautiful shades of blue and green. Occasionally I’ll get a purple tinted egg as well but they’re pretty rare.

I do my best to mix the colors up so that you get a little bit of everything. Roughly two thirds of each dozen is usually brown or cream colored with a few colored gems mixed in.

Our eggs go straight from the nest to the carton, unwashed, to maintain optimal freshness. Because the eggs are not washed, you may see tiny bits of shavings or small dirt marks on the shells. I’m a bit of a nut when it comes to cleaning the coops so our eggs are generally quite clean straight from the nest. A lot of the time they appear as though they have been washed already. If any eggs do end up being quite dirty they are not included in my regular cartons and are, instead, washed and either eaten by my own family or included in my seconds dozens.

To give you an idea of what to expect when you open your carton, all of the eggs in the pictures above are straight from the nest and have not been washed.

Since you are what you eat and all, if you’re curious about what we feed our chickens, you can check out my blog post called “What Do You Feed Your Flock?”. You may also be interested in my post titled “Do You Wash The Eggs Before You Sell Them?” although a lot of the information in that post has been covered here as well. Stay tuned for a post on proper egg handling, I’ll link it here when it’s ready.

MISFIT MONDAYS

Seconds Quality Eggs

Each week there are inevitably some eggs that don’t make the cut for our regular dozens for various reason. Sometimes they’re too big or oddly shaped enough that the cartons won’t close properly. Sometimes they’re too small. Sometimes one of the hens stepped all over them with dirty feet and they need washing to be presentable. Usually we eat these misfit eggs ourselves but there are times when there are just too many of them for us to use. When this happens I will be offering these eggs as “seconds” for $4/dozen.

There is nothing wrong with these eggs other than they aren’t perfectly sized and shaped. They may occasionally have a stain on the shell as well. All seconds dozens will be washed and refrigerated and, therefore, will need to continue to be refrigerated until they are consumed.

As an example, the eggs shown below are eggs from one of my misfit dozens. This particular dozen had a lot of blue and green eggs, another week they may all be brown. The colors will vary based on what eggs happened to be deemed seconds in a given week.

If I have seconds available I will post them on my Facebook page on Mondays (watch for “Misfit Monday” posts) and they will be available first, come first served. I don’t have the fridge space to hold tons of eggs for people so prompt pickup will be required if you claim them. I don’t expect you to run right here, of course, but please plan to pick them up within a day or two. If eggs are not picked up in a timely manner they may be re-offered to others so that they don’t go to waste waiting in my fridge.