how are your eggs?

[doc henderson]

Well, we all remember bare shelves in the stores in the middle of covid.  we love eggs and use to have chickens when the kids were younger.  We often buy the box of eggs with 5 dozen.  we always got grade A large, but they have seemed to get smaller over the past few years.  I have bought extra-large, but they are also more expensive, and you can get them in 2 or 3 dozen packs.  Well the recent batch are listed large and smaller but also the shells do not crack well.  I could crack an egg, and the inner membrane would hold the shell pieces together.  almost everyone of these eggs is having bit of shell fall into the egg in the pan.  I have been fixing eggs for years, and found it is better to crack the egg hard and let the membrane hold the pieces together.  also, today I had an egg with a streak of blood in it.  When we had lots of chickens including roosters, we would only collect fresh eggs and get them in the fridge, but crack into a cup, and then into the pan in case we got a bloody egg, which I assumed meant it was fertilized with some time to grow.  Is there a dial on the chicken to turn down the egg size?   .  I assume maybe the diet has been cheapened.  We may have got a bad batch, but overall size and quality have declined since covid.  anyone else noticed this?  @Southside I know you have your own operation and religion (chicken sacrifice) when it comes to chickens.  any expertise of insight into the commercial side and what is going on.  

[JD Guy]

Doc, Sorry but can't help with the questions on commercial egg production. We have been eating our own farm raised eggs. I don't believe we have eaten a "store bought" egg in over 25 years and prior to that mostly bought them from a small family farm that also free grazed the chickens. Since you live in KS there should be someone around you that has eggs/chickens raised the old fashioned way

Good Luck with your search!

[newoodguy78]

I will venture a guess if those are commercial eggs you're buying, the producer is sourcing cheaper feed inputs. Resulting in lower quality eggs. Couple that with their inability to find help grading and packing quality control goes way down. I don't buy commercial eggs but not surprised the size difference you noticed. It's shrinkflation. 

[chet]

@doc henderson my wife would really like answers to these mystifying questions too.    And, how come any store bought chicken seems ta have really big leg bones and not much meat on them now. 

[Southside]

So protein intake and age of the hen affect the size of the egg.  Calcium intake effects shell hardness along with general health of the hen, age, etc.  As far as the commercial world goes - well USDA is doing a DanG fine job of killing layers by the millions which means the commercial guys are keeping birds longer than they normally would because replacements aren't available.  Also birds that would have been culled as chicks are being kept in many cases for the same reasons regarding replacements.  I am seeing a lot of meat birds with black feathers on them coming out of my incubator because the commercial place we get our eggs from had to keep undesirable breeders due to shortages.  

It's actually going to get worse as fertility is a big problem now, not enough roosters to cover the hens so hatch rates are down in the high 60% range when they should be 85% or so.  I am seeing that play out in our meat birds with the purchased eggs, my layers that I hatch replacements from are hatching well into the 90% range as I have enough roosters.  

Commercial flocks are fed cayenne pepper in their ration to make the yolks bright yellow - they realized that us free range guys had something and they tried to duplicate it - but the cayenne doesn't do anything for the Omega content nor the nutrition value of the eggs, so you are better off paying a bit more for genuine pasture raised eggs as all the chlorophyll the birds take in make the eggs more like what our grandparents ate and lived to 90+ doing so.  

[SwampDonkey]

you are better off paying a bit more for genuine pasture raised eggs as all the chlorophyll the birds take in make the eggs more like what our grandparents ate and lived to 90+ doing so. 

I don't agree. My grandparents on both sides ate home raised eggs. If they never had the proper medicines, they would never have lived past 60. Plus all the social/health safety nets in place now. Their parents before them only lived into their 50's. Dad's cousin who is now over 100 in a nursing home would have been buried over 20 years ago without medicine and ongoing care. Death when reaching your 50's was common in the family, reaching out into cousins and uncles and aunts in every direction. Old grave markers will show you very few lived long lives. The wealthy were more apt to, access to more variety of food, paid help, and didn't have to work to death in later years.

And yes, the family here had barns of chickens at times. The old barn here at great grandfather's had the upper floor as a chicken barn. Grandfather's cow barn on dad's side had chickens overhead. This was were they lived in winter months. Otherwise free ranging. Mom's grandmother (her father's mother) raised flocks of turkeys and chickens. Her mother as well, she water glassed eggs for winter. No shortage of eggs and chicken production here. Mom was left in charge of looking after her brother's meat chickens one weekend, she forgot to put them in the coop before dark. The next day there was feathers all over the field, a weasel had a killing spree. She talked about that more times than I can remember.  I can remember as a kid finding old empty, in tact, egg shells in the old coop in the barn and wondered, 'how did the egg content inside get out'? :D

[NewYankeeSawmill]

If one has the capacity, I would highly recommend a couple layers for your home. Raising chicks is a bit of a PIA (not hard, just takes a little time), you can buy adults and skip the process. Under 10-bucks a piece here, really break-even on the $$$, but you're in control of your food chain, and home-raised egg's won't have the problems you're seeing (rather, as the owner you can take steps to address). Food can be used as a weapon, and history tells you that's coming next, if you're paying attention.

[moosehunter]

I have a friend that has chickens. About every two weeks I go see him and he gives me 4 dozen eggs. Wonderful eggs! He won't take a nickel in return, I try every time! 
He also raises beef. That he will take $$ for. I gladly pay it.
No, I'm not going to tell you his name or where he lives!
mh

[doc henderson]

I am planning to make ice cream and poss. custard, so I bought some "egg lands best" and we will see.  I like a nice fried egg or three and do not like trying to scrape a fleck of shell or blood from the pan.

[Southside]

Great marketing brand. 

[doc henderson]

We will see if the marketing represents a truly quality product.  they look nice and uniform.

[Old saw fixer]

Mom had laying hens.  I never got into that or horses which she also raised (Quarter horses and Appaloosas).
I always worked two jobs for car and beer money so never took the time the time for things like that. 
Now that I have retired and have the time I should do some laying hens and start gardening again.
I like a hard fried egg on my BLT!

[doc henderson]

My dad worked many jobs as he grew up, one of which was on a chicken farm.  He did not/would not eat eggs until I was prob. 12 as all the furnished meals were chicken or eggs.  I have not tried the "high quality eggs" yet, but they are uniform and have good shell color.  the good value eggs had shells you almost see through, and most all the cartons had broken or cracked eggs.  We have thought about it also but would have to train Libby to leave them alone, as we have not had chicken since we have had her.

[DDW_OR]

my 2 cents

I buy the cheapest eggs for decades.
never had blood in them
yes the shells do brake off. about 5% of the eggs

would have chickens, but I am in a residential area
Neighbor house would be within 100 ft of the coop.
would never have a rooster

will be putting in a Greenhouse
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=124171.new#new

[doc henderson]

I may sound picky but every one of these eggs had bits of shell fall into the pan, and a translucent shell.  I checked about 6 cartons at WM, both large and extra-large and they looked thin and several in each pack were cracked.  It is a change as we have eating eggs from Walmart for 30 years.  My wife worked there as a pharmacist.  not sure WM knows as it may be the supplier.

[DDW_OR]

it is the suppliers, but WM should check the quality.

i have also noticed the thinner shells.

$13.00 for 5 dozen

[Southside]

I can pretty much bet you that those Wal-Mart eggs are from a company called CalMaine, a giant commodity producer.  The EB eggs are grown the same way, just by a different group of growers, all in confinement.  I just got done packing eggs onto the truck for delivery tomorrow then moved a tray from the setter into the hatcher and re-filled the setter with fertile laying eggs from a pen we keep certain hens and roosters in for specific colored shells.  Have chicks hatching about every three days this time of year.  Peep, peep, peep, peep.....

[21incher]

If you have a Costco nearby, they have awesome  eggs. During the pandemic they were smaller and thin shelled but now are back to normal.  I eat a hard boiled one for a snack everyday.