Eggs for Sale!
Farm Fresh Eggs From Happy Hens
With the days getting longer, the hens are starting to lay a little more often and some new pullets have joined the ranks too. This means more eggs available! With that in mind, I figure a post about what you’re getting when you buy eggs from me is in order.
All of our eggs have been laid by hens that are raised on pasture with free access to sunshine, fresh air, grass and bugs (although grass and bugs are hard to come by in the winter months!). The only time the chickens are kept in their coops is when the weather makes it unsafe to let them out for the day, like when there is a hurricane or a snowstorm.
They have all day access to a commercial feed and fresh water and get a mix of whole grains and sunflower seeds as a treat each morning as well as of our kitchen scraps from the day before (mostly fruit and veggies) in the afternoons. In the gardening seasons, I grow food especially for them. They love zucchini, tomatoes and herbs, oregano especially. In the coming winter months, once I reclaim the space my Christmas tree is occupying, I’m planning to try growing fodder in an indoor greenhouse as well as sprouting some grains for them so that they can get the green food that they love so much but is lacking in the winter.
Basically, I could just say that these guys are spoiled and leave it at that! 😂 My chickens are so much more than “just chickens” to me.
Our Eggs
Eggs are sold unwashed to preserve the bloom on them – one of the major benefits of buying farm fresh eggs. Our chickens are in good health and their coops are cleaned each morning before the hens start laying so the eggs generally clean and look as though they have been washed already, even though they haven’t.
These eggs pictured below are all unwashed, straight from the nest box.
I know which chicken lays which egg so I mark them with the date and the initial of the hen who laid the egg on the side. Then I weigh them and write the size on the top so it’s easy to see when they’re in the cartons. Our eggs are currently mixed sizes. Most are large but there are some mediums and extra-larges in there too. If you’re curious about the hens that lay your eggs, you can see pictures of them here. You’ll also find pictures of our roosters, our dog and of us at the same link, just scroll up once you get there.
(I need to update some of the pictures, the birds grow fast!)
Right now (early January 2024), all of the eggs you receive will be brown eggs. One of our green egg laying Easter Egger girls, Artemis, has just laid her first egg. Once her eggs are up to at least medium size you will start seeing the odd green egg in your dozen. As her three sisters start laying, you’ll likely find a few pretty green eggs mixed into each dozen.
In case you are wondering, green eggs don’t taste any different than any other color egg. White, light brown, dark brown, blue or green – they’re all the same. The only difference is the color of the shell. At some point in the near future I’ll write a post about egg shell colors and link it here.
Our eggs generally have deeper colored yolks than you’d typically find in the store. In the winter months, when access to grass and bugs is removed, yolks are definitely a bit less vibrant than in the warmer months when wild food is in abundance and the chickens get more of their diet from free-ranging.
This is a peewee sized egg laid by Marigold in September 2023 when fresh forage was abundant.
This egg is a jumbo sized egg laid by Ginger in January 2024 after a month or two of less forage being available.
Aside from the obvious size difference in the yolks (just due to one egg being literally twice as large as the other) you can see a little difference in the color as well.
Handling Farm Fresh Eggs
First things first, put them in the fridge. Unless you’ve specifically requested un-refrigerated eggs, your eggs have already been stored in the fridge and they need to continue to be stored there. Yes, even though they have not been washed. A refrigerated egg placed on the counter will sweat and the condensation compromises the bloom protecting the egg.
What is “the bloom”?
The bloom on an egg is a protective coating that the hen places on each egg before she lays it. It seals the pores of the egg to prevent bacterial contamination and keeps the egg fresher for longer.
Unwashed eggs with the bloom intact will keep about three months in fridge.
When it’s time to use your eggs, just give them a good rinse and scrub with your hands under a stream of warm tap water. No soap or detergent is necessary. Always use water warmer than the egg to wash them as, once the bloom is wet and the pores of the eggshell are exposed, cold water can push any bacteria that may be on the outside of the shell inside the shell where you definitely don’t want it to go.
Once washed, they are ready to crack. It’s good practice to crack farm fresh eggs into a little bowl like the examples shown above instead of directly into whatever you’re baking or cooking. When you buy eggs at the store, anything that is less than perfect has been discarded before it gets to a carton. Backyard egg producers just don’t have the equipment to check the eggs in the same way commercial producers do so, occasionally, an egg with a small spot or two that look like grains of pepper in it might make its way into your carton. If it does, you can scoop the spot out and carry on. They’re technically harmless to eat but I still pick them out.
We have one hen, Hazel, who tended to have these little pepper-like specks (called “meat spots”) in her eggs when she first started laying. As a result I’ve held ALL of her eggs back for our use instead of selling them and that meant I had to pick a spot out of pretty much all of our eggs for a while as hers were the only ones I was keeping for us to eat. Thankfully, as she’s matured, she no longer seems to have the issue and soon I hope to be able to include her eggs in our cartons for sale. Her eggs are a pretty darker brown color, often with dark speckles on the shell and I always feel bad removing them from cartons. Hers are the prettiest brown eggs we get so far, in my opinion.
More about Meat Spots
Most meat spots are tiny pieces of tissue from the hen’s oviduct. They are usually brown in color, and found in the thick albumen, chalazae, or the yolk. They range in size from 0.5 mm to more than 3 mm in diameter. They are sterile and harmless. The spot can be removed with the tip of a knife, if you wish. The incidence of meat spots ranges from less than 3% to 30% or more. It varies with the strain of bird, increases with the age of bird and may be higher in brown eggs. Many meat spots are too small to be detected by candling, especially in brown eggs.
~ Taken from the University of Alberta’s website.
Are You Looking For Farm Fresh Eggs?
Currently (as of January 2024) all of my eggs are spoken for between our family and my regular egg customers. With days getting longer and more hens starting to lay, I will have more eggs available the closer we get to spring. If you’d be interested in eggs, either occasionally or regularly, please let me know as I already have a short wait list starting for them!
