Farm fresh eggs

ashley516
ashley516 Posts: 63 Member
edited October 2024 in Food and Nutrition
So this is probably a stupid question, but hopefully one of you will know. I Googled it but was unable to find the exact answer that I'm looking for.

Everything I read in the differences between farm fresh eggs and store bought are the colours of the yolks. I've read (and know from experience) that store bought have yellow yolks and that farm fresh free range have almost orange yolks. So I went to the farmers market today and saw a sign that said "farm fresh eggs" and after hearing about how much better they are, I bought 18. I checked to make sure none were cracked just now but I accidentally broke one a little bit. Since it was garbage anyway, I decided to do the test myself. I cracked it into a bowl. Then I took my last store bought egg that I didn't mind wasting since it's best before date is in 9 days and I have 18 fresh ones, and I cracked it right beside the "farm fresh egg" and the colours are IDENTICAL. It does have "Foodland Ontario" stamped on to the egg so I Googled that and it says "Good Things Grow in Ontario
Look for the Foodland Ontario symbol when you're shopping. It's an easy way for you to identify Ontario foods in grocery stores, farmers' markets, and on-farm markets." but I'm just confused about the colour. Surely they can't say farm fresh if they aren't, but I expected to see a difference? Anyone have any opinions? Sorry for my cluelessness. :)

Replies

  • badgerbadger1
    badgerbadger1 Posts: 954 Member
    The colour of the yolk has more to do with the feed than the farm they came from. Wheat fed hens give paler yolks and corn fed hens give more colour in the yolk. I personally think corn is the devil so I'll take the wheat fed.
  • maryd523
    maryd523 Posts: 661 Member
    Besides the color of the yolk, you should feel good about the fact that you are NOT supporting those horrifically cruel battery farms. So keep buying from local farms! You might just try some other farms until you find one that is to your liking.

    I LOVE my local farm-fresh eggs, and will never, ever go back to regular grocery-store eggs.
  • rebeccajoy
    rebeccajoy Posts: 45
    The difference isn't just the color, it is what the chickens have been fed that are laying them. The chickens that lay the store bought eggs are fed a bunch of chemicals and a whole lot of nasty things to make them grow up faster (so that they can produce eggs faster) and so that they produce more eggs.
    Farm fresh eggs, the chickens that lay them usually are fed healthier food and a lot of the times, they are free run, meaning they go outside and get to eat grubs, and whatever they want which is really good for them and makes them produce healthier eggs.

    The yolks might be different colors, but I would go for farm fresh eggs any day as they are wayyyyy healthier. (we buy eggs as much as we can from the farmer's market)
  • alishuman
    alishuman Posts: 62
    We have chickens... several breeds... and I was curious about the same thing. What I found, from cracking 3 of my own eggs (laid that very day!), and 1 store bought one (left over from before our chickens started laying - so maybe 3 weeks old), is that the yolk color is different depending upon my chicken breed. Like, the Rhode Island Reds' yolks are way darker/orangey than the Leghorn's eggs. The store bought egg was similar in color to my Leghorn yolk.

    Our birds are free range most of the year, and we give them our left-over veggie kitchen scraps. However, we do supplement with grain during the winter, but usually corn, as I and 3 of our kids have celiac, and we can't be handling the wheat without a reaction.

    Anyway, I consistently notice a yolk color difference, by breed of bird. They all eat the same thing.
  • redheadmommy
    redheadmommy Posts: 908 Member
    The difference isn't just the color, it is what the chickens have been fed that are laying them. The chickens that lay the store bought eggs are fed a bunch of chemicals and a whole lot of nasty things to make them grow up faster (so that they can produce eggs faster) and so that they produce more eggs.
    Farm fresh eggs, the chickens that lay them usually are fed healthier food and a lot of the times, they are free run, meaning they go outside and get to eat grubs, and whatever they want which is really good for them and makes them produce healthier eggs.

    The yolks might be different colors, but I would go for farm fresh eggs any day as they are wayyyyy healthier. (we buy eggs as much as we can from the farmer's market)
    Sorry, but I have to disagree. There are stores that carry certified organic free range chicken eggs, and they were not feed with hormones/chemicals and nasty things to grow bigger. At the same time just because something comes from a farmers market it doesn't guarantee anything. I know students who are hired to sell big farm product on the farmer's market, the stuff they sell are not organic they are sprayed with chemicals etc. Many medium size industrialized farm started to move into farmer's market selling as a new marketing tool, because it is a growing market.
  • maryd523
    maryd523 Posts: 661 Member
    [//quote]
    Sorry, but I have to disagree. There are stores that carry certified organic free range chicken eggs, and they were not feed with hormones/chemicals and nasty things to grow bigger. At the same time just because something comes from a farmers market it doesn't guarantee anything. I know students who are hired to sell big farm product on the farmer's market, the stuff they sell are not organic they are sprayed with chemicals etc. Many medium size industrialized farm started to move into farmer's market selling as a new marketing tool, because it is a growing market.
    [//quote]

    That's horrifying!
  • glennam1
    glennam1 Posts: 172 Member
    well we always buy farm fresh eggs and the way we can tell the difference for us is size, shell hardness (we find the ones we get from the farm are really hard) and also not as watery as the store bought ones....we also get some green shelled ones :smile:
  • Momkat65
    Momkat65 Posts: 317 Member
    caution
    farm fresh eggs can mean home grown chickens fed under horrific conditions...
    no fresh anything but fed grains from a feed store
    I know a kid who sells chicken eggs aka farm fresh...their chickens live in horrific conditions
    They feed them the cheapest feed store feed, they walk around in mud this time of year, nothing fresh from the garden
    I would never eat an egg from his "farm fresh eggs" stand or newspaper ad......Know who you buy from
    they are not always collected every day or even refridgerated.....BE CAUTIOUS
    kids esp cannot be trusted not can their parents ...it's about $$ to them......sorry
  • ashley516
    ashley516 Posts: 63 Member
    Thanks for the replies! And yes, part of why I wanted to buy eggs from a farm was the freshness, and the other part was because I learned about the conditions of the commercial egg farms and I refuse to support that. :)
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