Eggs are a hot topic right now.

Lots of people are talking about the price of eggs! Eggs in grocery stores have jumped up in price lately, and some stores have experienced supply shortages. Why is that? More importantly, why is there such a wide variation in the price for eggs?

Let us egg-splain a bit!

What are Pasture-raised eggs?

Our eggs are Pasture-raised. Pasture-raised hens spend their entire day out on pasture, foraging for insects, eating plant material and exhibiting all of the natural behaviors of a chicken. Their mobile shelter offers protection from wind, rain and predators, and a place to lay their eggs. Hens come and go from the shelter as they wish during the day and are locked inside at night for their protection. The mobile coop is moved weekly to fresh pasture, allowing the hens constant access to nutritious forage, while providing the pasture with a rich source of organic matter.

What about Free-range and Cage-free eggs?

Pasture-raised is sometimes confused with the terms free-range and cage-free. All three have distinct legal meanings.

Cage-free chickens are still housed inside of a huge warehouse, which is the industry standard, but they aren't confined to an individual cage. Typically one warehouse in cage-free egg production contains 60,000 - 100,000 laying hens, with about 1 square foot allotted per hen. Cage-free hens have unlimited access to food and water, but no access to the outdoors.

Free-range laying hens also live inside these huge warehouses, but must also have access to the outdoors. The word "access" is important: there is no requirement that the outdoor area have vegetation, food or water. Typically it is a concrete pad without food or water, so hens don't really have any motivation to use that space, or any ability to exhibit the natural behaviors of a chicken: foraging, dust bathing and scratching for insects.

How does Where Pigs Fly Farm produce eggs?

Every day we deliver water and organic feed to our hens, and collect and wash their eggs. Every week we clean out their coop, known as the Queen Mary, and move the hens to fresh pasture.

For years we washed our eggs standing at our kitchen sink, jokingly referred to as an "egg date". As we began to evaluate our business, it became clear to us that if we were to start earning a living from our farm, we would need to assign a labor cost to washing eggs. Our choices were to raise the price of our eggs significantly, or stop producing eggs. Not producing eggs was unthinkable! So we came up with a third option: in July we bought an egg washing machine, which cut our labor by 60% and made it possible for us to expand our flock to produce more eggs. We still inspect each egg by hand, but we are amazed by how many eggs we can wash in a short amount of time! Now our date nights don't involve hours standing at the sink!

Why are prices going up?

Since early 2022, more than 49 million birds in 46 states have either died as a result of avian influenza or have been culled (killed) due to exposure to infected birds. Overwhelmingly these were birds living in Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations. (CAFOs) Additionally, the cost of feed rose and inflation has played some role. For CAFO-produced eggs, supply and demand plays some factor in the price of eggs at the grocery store. When there are less eggs produced, they simply charge more per dozen to make up the difference.

For small farmers, those market forces are not necessarily affecting the price that we charge for our eggs at the farmers market. Our prices have always been higher than the price at the grocery store because our production model requires a lot more labor. We are not mechanized - everything is done by hand - and we move our birds weekly most of the year.

So, why pay more for pasture-raised eggs?

We think there are three important reasons: healthier people, healthier birds and a healthier planet.

According to a 2003 study published by Pennsylvania State University, pasture-raised eggs contain twice as much omega-3 fatty acids, three times more vitamin D, four times more vitamin E and seven times more beta-carotene than eggs from hens raised in CAFO operations. You can actually SEE the difference if you crack one of our eggs next to a conventional store-bought egg! Ours has a deep orange yolk...theirs is pale yellow. We know you will TASTE that difference too!

Hens living in crowded confinement are much more susceptible to disease (like avian flu) and don't have much quality of life. Knowing that the animal who produces your food is treated with respect feels good.

Why are pasture-raised birds better for the planet? By maintaining deep-rooted pasture with good organic matter, we are sequestering carbon - a key greenhouse gas. Every bit of carbon we can store in the soil helps to reverse climate change!

There is a fourth important reason to purchase eggs from your local farmer: supporting local farms directly is good for your community. Remember during the pandemic when grocery stores were sold out of eggs? Your local farmers were still at your local farmers market with a steady supply and a smile! Your purchase ensures that those farmers are able to continue farming for you.

So there you have it...we hope you have found this information interesting!

Cheers,

Jennifer and Brian

P.S. Members of our Veggie and Chicken CSAs are eligible for an add-on egg share! Registration for our CSA is now open. Click below to learn all about it!