NOT ALL EGGS Are EQUAL! - How Much Do You Pay For EGGS?!
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I've wanted to do this article for a long time. Homesteaders and farmers barely if ever break even when it comes to selling eggs. The local farmers market has vendors that sell home grown eggs and road side signs all around are easy to find offering eggs for sale. Where we live, eggs are everywhere and almost everyone has chickens.
I learned a few years ago when we started raising chickens, just how much money we paid for feed. It's a lot and that is mainly the reason why its hard to make any profit selling eggs. The only way you make money is to have a HUGE operation where thousands of eggs are laid by your flock daily.
But why?
What ticked me off was the REASON that a simple farmer or homesteader can't make a small profit on their eggs. Store eggs are priced cheap. Why should I pay $3.00 or $4.00 for your eggs when they are so much cheaper at the store? Well, this is literally like comparing apples to oranges. Sure you can buy cheap white shelled eggs for almost nothing. But you're paying for nothing and that is what your getting. Nothing! No taste and no nutrition.
The egg business is full of a bunch of liars. Cage free is not cage free. It just simply mean by regulatory definitions, they have a 1 square foot cage as opposed to a 1/2 sq. foot cage. Organic Free Range only means they have them outside for a certain period of time and only during certain times of the year. The biggest difference is the freshness of the eggs you buy. Many eggs you buy won't include "born on" dates showing you how old the eggs are.
Everyone wants fresh tasty eggs. But very few are willing to pay for them. Walmart is a discount shopping experience but even Whole Foods is misleading to you about the living conditions of their chickens and the age of their eggs and the time it takes to bring them from farm to table. Take your most expensive Whole Foods egg and crack it open to lay next to a yesterday laid farmer's egg. See the difference?
Take a look at this package of the most expensive Walmart Organic (supposedly) Cage Free dozen. The cost is going to be well over $4 once you take into account tax. The average schmuck is going to think just looking at the price and labeling that, "heck, these eggs are the best eggs you can buy". The schmuck wants fresh tasty eggs, but he drove past the farmers market on the way to their local grocer. He could have had eggs laid literally yesterday at probably a cheaper price.
How Old Are These Eggs?
Now here is the kicker. Take a look at the "Best By" date on the package. The carton didn't give a born on date. This photo was taken on December 18th, 2017. The eggs are considered "Best" until a whole month later! The eggs were not laid on the day I took the picture on the 18th. How long did it take the eggs to get through the farm, travel to packaging and sit in a truck before being put on the shelf. 1 week? 2 weeks?
Again, people will pass over roadside signs at farms "because their eggs are too expensive" and drive to the grocer to pay for older, less nutritious and MORE EXPENSIVE eggs than the farmers around them!
This time of year, the egg laying season is ramping up for local area farmers! Find a farmer with chickens and buy their eggs. They will be healthier than anything you will find in the store, they will taste better and be cheaper than the most expensive "Organic" eggs your grocer will carry. Enjoy!
Happy Chickens Produce Happy Eggs!
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Our girls are on a slow-down at the moment, so we're putting $4 or $5 worth of feed into each dozen we get..... still better than the 49-cent runny things from the store...
Our hens are finishing their molt right now and so we are having to buy grocery store eggs for the moment. We actually know the farm that sells the eggs we buy but there is nothing like having eggs from our own chickens. The deeply rich orange color of the yolk is something to behold (and desired) when you crack open the hard shell.
Thanks for this informative post @mericanhomestead! If folks just compared taste and even the look of the yolks, they would know there is a huge difference between large corporate farms and small independent farms. Thanks for raising awareness with all your posts!!
Totally true! Thanks for the comment!
yes and i agree with this and i also see that the eggs in markets are cheap but these eggs from farms and sure the feed the hens eat in farms is some not proper and infact create the some ills but home hens eggs only eat the natural and good food not the feed of factories and we also everytime preffer home eggs even they are some expessive...and i feel the many difference in home and farm eggs and some months ago i hear a new that china provide the eggs to worlds made from factories not hens
I think most would be disgusted to learn of the living conditions where the majority of eggs come from.
I always look to buy locally as often as I can. Everyone should do that, the taste is better and I enjoy supporting the lively hood of those that care about the quality of what they sell!
I agree. Most don't know that they are passing up a better and even sometimes cheaper product at farmers markets or roadside stands.
There is a major difference in the eggs! Getting hubby onboard has been an uphill battle.
Will pray for your struggle! :)
Picture if you will the "USDA stamped food before I eat it" and you see the challenge!
And even after showing him videos of just how nasty meat packing places are he still believes in them....
I hate chickens! But man do i love fresh eggs, there is nothing like food that you produce yourself.
Last time I looked eggs were on special for under a dollar here. BUT.. as you said they are commercialized. But the eggs I'm referring to are NOT listed as organic, etc- just a basic store brand dozen of eggs.
I get our eggs from a local farmer and pay $1.50 a dozen for RI Reds. I prefer the brown eggs; while some people say they cannot noticed a difference... I just am used to the brown eggs and that's what I want.
That is a GREAT price for farm eggs.
Shhhh.. don't let them hear you- they may raise the price!!
I have seen other roadside stands with a dozen for $2 all the way up to $4... So I like my little $1.50 place
Another difference I've heard is having a rooster and getting fertilized eggs. People say those taste better still. Not a chance the store bought eggs are fertilized. I did see Trader Joe's had organic fertilized eggs, but again, like you said, no telling how old.
I strongly feel that eggs we buy these are are purely priced on the brands rather than the quality. The city i live, i feel everything is processed with hormones. So you never know how much to pay for what. So LOL, I have 4 chickens & 2 Cockbird haha. So i get fresh & organic eggs every morning. Cheers. It is a great topic.
Yeah, I couldn't imagine ever eating store bought eggs or even drinking store bought milk. You can never be sure of what they are feeding them on the commercial farms.
Your post is very informative and makes a lot of sense. I agree, raising chickens is not an easy task and not that a great source of income but it’ll be worth it! We also have a small chicken farm, btw. :)
Yeah, it's very well worth it when you consider the source of the food.
Good post, I believe that all living being should be humanly treat. I pay more for truly cage free, range free chicken eggs