# backyard fresh eggs **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 18, 2017, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287 "2017-06-18T14:56:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 2:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/21 "2017-06-19T14:17:16Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > It’s interesting to see that **Jophiel** gets eggs for 99¢. The Cherry Lane brown eggs cost between $2.39 and $2.89 per dozen, depending where I get them. Are Cherry Lane battery farmed eggs (which are the kind of eggs **Jophiel** is getting for 99 cents)? In the past year, I’ve seen a dozen large or extra large eggs as low as $0.69 and $0.79 cents a dozen, respectively. About a buck a dozen right now is about right. Anywhere from $0.99-$1.29/lb for the cheapie grocery store eggs. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/22 "2017-06-19T14:28:14Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Are Cherry Lane battery farmed eggs…? This is from their [website](http://cherrylanefamilyfarms.com/specialty-products/naturally-nested/): [quote] **Naturally Nested, Laid by Uncaged Hens** Naturally Nested eggs are produced by hens that are free to roam within our newly remodeled cage-free houses. A 100 percent vegetarian diet is fed to our cage-free chickens, and as with all of our chickens, Cherry Lane[sup]®[/sup] takes special care to ensure these animals are naturally treated without hormones, stimulants, or steroids. To further our responsibility toward managing all of our chickens with the highest level of welfare, Cherry Lane is proud to be a part of the United Egg Producers Certification program to show our compliance with United Egg Producer’s Animal Husbandry Guidelines. [ul][li]Locally Produced and Distributed[/li][li]No Cages[/li][li]No Hormones[/li][li]No Stimulants[/li][li]No Steroids[/li][li]All Vegetarian Diet[/li][li]No Animal Fats or By-Products[/li][li]Carton Made from 100% Recycled Content[/li][li]Hen Welfare – UEP Certified[/li][li]Naturally Nested hens are laid by uncaged hens[/ul][/li][/quote] So it looks like they’re not ‘battery-farmed’ in the sense that I think of the term. > [@pulykamell](#): > > About a buck a dozen right now is about right. Anywhere from $0.99-$1.29/lb for the cheapie grocery store eggs. I can’t remember the last time I saw eggs that cheap. ISTR seeing eggs for $1.99/doz. several years ago. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/23 "2017-06-19T14:39:21Z")
Yeah, the cheap grocery-brand white eggs are about a buck a dozen. The fancy organic eggs from Happy Acres Chick Heaven are around $3-$5 a dozen depending on brand and how happy the chickens were. There’s also battery-produced brown eggs that cost in between – I guess the fact that they’re brown makes them worth an extra buck over the whites to someone. My wife used to buy some ‘organic’ eggs from Land of Lakes that came in elaborate plastic packaging. That always amused me that the eggs were supposedly earth-friendly but the packaging much worse than the cheap paperboard cartons. On my own, I get whatever quasi-organic eggs are on sale. Left to my own devices, I’d just eat the cheap ones but my wife is convinced that they’re inferior. The farm eggs are sold for $3.50 a dozen out of a cooler next to an unattended pencil box that does duty as a cash box. She puts them in salvaged paperboard cartons. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/24 "2017-06-19T14:45:28Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > You do need to feed your chickens properly to get good eggs. Most commercial producers don’t bother because good feed is more expensive than corn, but it’s possible that a backyard producer just didn’t know about proper chicken feed. > > Here’s a hint: The fancier store-bought eggs sometimes brag about how their chickens receive a 100% vegetarian diet. This is not something they should brag about. I thought the best eggs were free range, where the chickens were eating all sorts of bugs and stuff, not just corn. Is that not the case? Or does the “good feed” contain bug-equivalent stuff? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/25 "2017-06-19T17:10:01Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > I can’t remember the last time I saw eggs that cheap. ISTR seeing eggs for $1.99/doz. several years ago. ☹ Yeah, I was just at the store, and checked, and it was $0.89/dz large eggs, $1.09 extra large, $1.19 jumbo (Hamilton Eggs). Cheap brown eggs were $1.29/dz large (but of a different brand, Dutch Farms. I believe their white eggs are actually the same price.) The most expensive were $5.99/dz, some cage-free organic hippie eggs. I didn’t get the name, though. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/26 "2017-06-19T18:44:54Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I thought the best eggs were free range, where the chickens were eating all sorts of bugs and stuff, not just corn. Is that not the case? Or does the “good feed” contain bug-equivalent stuff? This is why I avoid them. I see these nasty birds eating bugs, dead mice and each other’s shit all day. I’ll just get the nice, clean white ones from the store, thank you very much! Also, the fresh ones have very thick shells that are hard to crack, and usually get some little pieces in with the egg. And we’ve already established what is on those shells. Jeez, I hate chickens. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/27 "2017-06-19T23:33:42Z")
Ideally, you feed the chickens good feed that includes plenty of protein, _and_ let them range freely enough that they can scratch for bugs and mice and such. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/28 "2017-06-19T23:46:01Z")
Chickens eat mice? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2017, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/29 "2017-06-19T23:52:35Z")
Chickens eat _everything_ they can get their beaks on. And the last time we saw a mouse in Mom’s coop, the hens all fought over who would get to eat the delicacy. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/30 "2017-06-20T00:02:31Z")
Do they pick it apart, or are they able to swallow it hole like a bird of prey? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/31 "2017-06-20T02:51:23Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Do they pick it apart, or are they able to swallow it hole like a bird of prey? Well, round here, Pipsi the Cat usually dispatches the mouse, leaving it at or around the back door. Said chickens find and eat it. It always involves a “Catch Me If You Can” scrum, where the birds all fight over the diseased carcass, until one of them is \*Victorious!, \*and gets to eat it. Lots of pecking and bits tossed about. Nature is a fucking disgusting thing. As much as I am fond of my dogs, I don’t let them anywhere near my mouth. They find the mouse first, often. And worse things. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/32 "2017-06-20T06:17:05Z")
OK, we have raised backyard chickens for a few years and probably had about 30 total (goddamned 'coons and bobcat). Store bought eggs are watery. You crack it into the fry pan and it just oozes all over. A backyard chicken egg cracked into a fry pay is much thicker, doesn’t ooze all over the place, and kinda stays in a smaller circle. Our chickens eat well. They are serious garbage disposals. Pretty much anything (excepting chicken meat, which would be an abomination) gets pecked away until it’s gone. Leftover oxtail, check; watermelon, check; crab, check; grains used in beer making mash, check; egg shells, check; any kind of bug, check; any kind of worm, joyous check; will take your entire backyard down to dirt, check; leftover anything, check. Egg size depends on the type of chicken. We have a range of 5 different I’m not sure what all these days. Bobcat survivors is one way to describe them. Anyhoo, yesterday I got a chicken egg that’s bigger than a jumbo egg. The eggs are pretty small the first couple months of laying and then get bigger. I haven’t actually done a blind triangle test, but pretty sure one can tell the difference. Certainly, the look and feel of a non commercial chicken is better. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/33 "2017-06-20T11:28:28Z")
IMHO, it is refrigeration that kills eggs. I used to get eggs at a farm that just provided a few extras to their friends, and none ever got refrigerated. They keep quite well for a long time. In South America, also, I bought my eggs at the neighborhood tienda, and they had never been refrigerated, just a basketful sitting out on the counter, buy them by the piece and they wrap them in newspaper and you carry them home carefully, and we never put them in the fridge at home. They were wonderful. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/34 "2017-06-20T12:24:32Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > I haven’t actually done a blind triangle test, but pretty sure one can tell the difference. Certainly, the look and feel of a non commercial chicken is better. You should, and make sure to do the bit where you put food coloring in so you are judging only by taste, not by color. Despite what everyone in this thread says, I’d be astonished if anyone can really tell the difference. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/35 "2017-06-20T13:10:31Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Chickens eat mice? People tend to forget that birds are tiny, feathery, descendants of dinosaurs. The meat-eating ones. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/36 "2017-06-20T13:50:33Z")
> [@China\_Guy](#): > > Store bought eggs are watery. You crack it into the fry pan and it just oozes all over. A backyard chicken egg cracked into a fry pay is much thicker, doesn’t ooze all over the place, and kinda stays in a smaller circle. That’s definitely another difference I’ve noticed. Maybe it has to do with the age of the eggs or something but, like I said above, it’s like the difference between a flabby bicep and a toned one. The good farm eggs I’ve had are much tauter and keep their shape on the pan. If the Serious Eats guys say there’s no difference, I guess I’m inclined to believe them, but texturally and psychologically (visually) I notice a difference in at least some farmed eggs that enhances the eating experience for me. Like I said, some taste the same to me as store bought eggs, some don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Athena](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/35a633/32.png) [@Athena](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Athena)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/37 "2017-06-20T14:42:19Z")
From what I’ve read, the texture difference is more a matter of freshness than farm vs. mass-produced. Fresh eggs have whites that tend to stay together more. Color-wise, definitely a difference. That said, color does not equal taste. We go through a LOT of eggs here - easily 3 dozen a week - and for a long time I bought only farm eggs, either fresh from the farmer’s market, from farmers I personally know, or from the local co-op. But I’d occasionally grab a carton from the grocery store, and I gradually realized I can’t tell the difference in taste. Given that most of our eggs are either scrambled, hard-boiled (in which case less-fresh is better), or in things (baked goods, omelets, etc), the texture/freshness thing doesn’t much matter to me. I’ll grab the happy-chicken eggs when it’s convenient because I like happy chickens and I want to support local farmers, but I don’t avoid the grocery store ones because I find them inferior. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/38 "2017-06-20T16:26:15Z")
That may be part of it. I eat my weekend eggs sunny side up so the yolk is very pronounced as opposed to being scrambled or part of a cake. Heck, even the taste-tests were mainly scrambled aside from the final one. I don’t think a sample size of one is a meaningful data set 😃 Anecdotally, I’ve made my wife eggs using the farm ones and she remarked, unsolicited and unknowing where they were from, that they were good eggs. Again, sample size of one and meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/39 "2017-06-20T16:32:24Z")
> [@Jophiel](#): > > That may be part of it. I eat my weekend eggs sunny side up so the yolk is very pronounced as opposed to being scrambled or part of a cake. Heck, even the taste-tests were mainly scrambled aside from the final one. I don’t think a sample size of one is a meaningful data set 😃 I did wonder about that. To me, a scrambled egg is a waste of a good fresh egg. Either over easy, sunny side up, or soft boiled. Of course, the taste testers did get the farm egg wrong in the last test, so who knows? Might have to try the taste test blindfolded, but might be a bit messy with sunny side up eggs. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2017, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287/40 "2017-06-20T20:23:30Z")
I went to Trader Joe’s for lunch today, and picked up a dozen eggs. The Cherry Lane brown eggs are $2.69. The cheapest eggs (the ones I bought) are Cherry Lane Grade A Jumbo Eggs, which are white. They were $1.99/dozen. I guess eggs are just expensive in Washington. Or else, they’re really cheap where **Jophiel** lives. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/backyard-fresh-eggs/789287.md?page=3)