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14 Comments

  1. Although that is a dreamy photo of pastured hens, the girls tend to dig up and, ascetically speaking, destroy their outdoor area pretty quick! So even if your farmers hens don’t appear to be roaming on grass, they sure do like to dig, make cool spots to lay on a hot day, find worms to eat, etc and they are still very happy in their dirt pens!

  2. In Phoenix the eggs from grocery stores are labeled “cage free” and certified organic. I’m wondering now if this is comparable to “free range” eggs. Where does one go to research a specific egg producer?

    1. Yes, “cage free” is essentially the same as “free range” it just means that the chickens aren’t in battery cages, but if you look at the photo in the article of the “free range” hens, they are not caged, but still in poor living conditions.

  3. Also, note that “pastured” is not the same as “pasteurized”. I saw some eggs at Publix with a huge “Pasteurized Eggs” across the front, obviously to fool people into thinking they were pastured. They almost went into my cart, but luckily, I caught onto their trickery.

    1. Really? That’s strange, I don’t even know what pasteurized eggs would mean? Pasteurized for milk usually means it’s heated to over 150° to kill bacteria, I would imagine if you did that to eggs they would just be hard-boiled! 😉

  4. FANTASTIC post! When we cannot get eggs from our neighbor down the street, we stick with pastured and then ideally pastured organic (sometimes hard to find “certified” organic as getting certification is expensive for small farmers).

    1. Thanks! Yes, I don’t always get certified organic pastured eggs because if I know the farm or farmer and know they they’re not feeding the chickens GMOs then I’m A OK with that! 🙂

  5. This is great information that more people need to see. Thanks for a great post. I actually created an infographic on this exact thing explaining the difference between pastured and conventional eggs. Would love to share it with you!

  6. Great post. In my opinion it is always better to buy eggs from a back yard chicken farmer than store eggs. While they may have been feed gmo feeds they are still better cared for in general and the eggs will be fresh too.

    1. I agree Becki, if you know the farmer or they are local it’s much better. However, GMOs are a concern and have been linked to food allergies, leaky gut and autoimmune disorders. But if pastured eggs with GMO feed is your only option I still think it’s better than “free range” organic.

      1. I agree about the gmo “food”. I have gotten away from gmo feed for my goats and am working toward it with my chickens. I will have to come up with my own affordable mix as organic chicken feed is almost $30 for a 50 lb bag. No wonder organic eggs are so expensive!

    1. If you can’t get pastured eggs, then the next best option would probably be to try to find free range eggs from a local farmer’s market since they would likely be a little better quality than the store-bought ones.

      Try checking craigslist, you might be able to find a local farmer or someone who raises chickens who might be able to supply eggs.

      If those two don’t pan out then organic free range is unfortunately the best you can do if you really don’t have access to pastured.