Pastured Free Range Eggs vs Store Bought Eggs

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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When you look at a store bought egg and an egg from a local farm you may not notice any differences just by looking at the shell of the eggs, however, if you crack them open, you will see some similarities and differences almost immediately. 

 

The first thing you will notice is they both have a yellow yolk and opaque whites, but you will notice that the farm egg has a richer golden yellow color to it.  This is the case for all farm eggs, it doesn't matter the shell color.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The reason for this difference is hens that lay the eggs that you buy from the store (farm factory hens) are fed a certain food that turn their egg yolks yellow.  In fact if you were to stop giving them this food, their yolks would actually turn a clear color because they are not getting certain foods that the farm fresh egg laying hens are…insects and grass.  This special food may also have hormones in it to make the hens produce several eggs in one day.  Hens that lay farm fresh eggs are free to roam the farm or a certain area of the farm where they are able to get fresh air, graze, and catch insects.  Hens from the factory farms are kept in a barn with 100s of other hens, probably with a dirt or a concrete floor with wood shavings and are only fed the special food to help with production.

 

The other differences are a little more difficult to see, like nutritional value.  You would actually have to have some testing done on both the eggs before you could see this difference.  Farm eggs have "1/3 less cholesterol, 1/4 less saturated fat, 2/3 more vitamin A, 2 times more omega- 3 fatty acids, 3 times more vitamin E, and 7 times more beta carotene" than store bought eggs (Back Roads Living).  It would take about 4 store bought eggs to equal the nutritional value of just one farm fresh egg.