Good Lord, the price of eggs!

Kirri

Gigervamp wrote: »

We've recently put the price of our eggs up to £1.50 for half a dozen. Our customers have said they'd willingly pay more as our girls eggs are really good. Really hard shells and lovely golden yolks. I think our customers also like the mix of egg colours and sizes, they range from very pale pinky white, blues, greens, tan and dark brown.

I love the look of your eggs! I recently got some local ones that were all different colours and I loved that, so nice to get something a bit different than the identical supermarket ones.

I wish there were more local options for me on the outskirts of London. One day I may get my own hopefully

Gigervamp

When our girls went off lay over winter we had to buy eggs. Even the local free range ones weren't as good as ours. I think the type of feed makes a difference. The local free range farmer has about 300 girls and I guess he buys the cheapest feed, whereas we buy a more expensive brand.

We took on 4 girls last year when their previous owner couldn't keep them any more and we noticed that at first their shells were very fragile. They were being fed on a cheaper feed than ours, but once they'd been eating our feed for a few weeks, the shells became harder.

alliboy03

Tesco's cheapest half dozen FREE RANGE EGGS 89p.
Cheapest I've found online.
Asda instore do a large plastic box of free range on offer some times at about £1.50. You have to hunt around for them as they put them at the edge of the yogurt/cheese section or near the frozen.
I suppose they do this so you buy the dearer egg's!

sarah2000h

I only buy organic eggs because in the UK non organic hens have been fed a chemical (forgotten what its called) which is banned in most countries except the Uk. The purpose of this is to turn the egg yolks a deeper yellow which is more appetising to look at. If this was banned over here then I wouldn't bother with organic eggs but until then I'll just have to pay the extra.

LadyMaude

Try barn eggs rather than paying out for free range. Why pay more for free range when most of the hens are inside like barn hens?

lostinrates

sarah2000h wrote: »

I only buy organic eggs because in the UK non organic hens have been fed a chemical (forgotten what its called) which is banned in most countries except the Uk. The purpose of this is to turn the egg yolks a deeper yellow which is more appetising to look at. If this was banned over here then I wouldn't bother with organic eggs but until then I'll just have to pay the extra.

But not all non organic suppliers do feed that. We are in the process of organic certifiction, and will be keeping the hens out of it. On our certifiers advice. My chickens are kept almost organically but more imrtant to me, true free range....i e not in grass runs...my chickens have free access to our fields and thanks to a patient neighbour they also tend to wander onto the organic dairy farm next door. To keep the hens as certifyable organically we would have to curtail this more () atm plans are to give them two to three acs to still have free accessto, including there favourite nooks and crannies while keeping the rest of our place organic without the chickens 'polluting' it. However our chickens are fed no nasties...bar unorganic scraps which they love.

Kirri

lostinrates wrote: »

But not all non organic suppliers do feed that. We are in the process of organic certifiction, and will be keeping the hens out of it. On our certifiers advice. My chickens are kept almost organically but more imrtant to me, true free range....i e not in grass runs...my chickens have free access to our fields and thanks to a patient neighbour they also tend to wander onto the organic dairy farm next door. To keep the hens as certifyable organically we would have to curtail this more () atm plans are to give them two to three acs to still have free accessto, including there favourite nooks and crannies while keeping the rest of our place organic without the chickens 'polluting' it. However our chickens are fed no nasties...bar unorganic scraps which they love.

If I was buying from a supermarket I would only get organic but if buying from a local farm/smallholding, if I could see the hens roaming about that would be good enough for me, smaller scale production being preferable and if it's not commercial production they are less likely to suffer from the issues like GM feed/debeaking etc.

pippinpuss

It has been at least 17 yrs since I last bought shop eggs. Near me there is a farm I get mine from. They have always been cheaper than the shops but even I was shocked when a tray of 30 (large) eggs cost me £4.50 (15p each.)

I suppose I could get cheaper, basic, value ones but I like to know where my food comes from. They also have a butchers shop where they sell their own cows, pigs etc.

cooking-mama

I have a question,sorry if this is silly,but are "buy at the gate" type eggs confirmed free from salmonella etc,and are the hens vaccinated against Salmonella in the same way as British lion stamped eggs are?..
I would love to buy farm eggs,but a bit worried as im on injections for rheumatoid arthritis that depress my immune system so have to be cautious..thanks for any advice.
At the moment i only buy British lion stamped free range eggs from the supermarkets.

lostinrates

cooking-mama wrote: »

I have a question,sorry if this is silly,but are "buy at the gate" type eggs confirmed free from salmonella etc,and are the hens vaccinated against Salmonella in the same way as British lion stamped eggs are?..
I would love to buy farm eggs,but a bit worried as im on injections for rheumatoid arthritis that depress my immune system so have to be cautious..thanks for any advice.
At the moment i only buy British lion stamped free range eggs from the supermarkets.

No. Gate sellers do not have to vaccinate.


Some do vaccinate and if they sell also to shops and food producers (local pub, cake maker etc) they have to. Ask you local gate sellers if they vaccinate.

I do not. We looked into vaccination and sales other than gate sales because for various reasons i was offered a retail outlet for my produce, not just eggs, at a london food hall. We decided that the changes we would have to make to break even let alone make a profit, were not worth it for us. Uless we were going to do that vaccinated just is not worth while for me financially tbh.


Fwiw, i never would recooment ANYone in any risk group eats unvaccinated eggs in any ncooked way....mousses, lightly cooked omlettes etc.. But i personally do...only because they are my hens and my risk.....i would not recommend that to others with supressed immunity for any reason.