Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Why Eggs From Backyard, Free Range, Hens?

Mine would run for the driveway when I backed the sled in. They loved the carcasses.

For my fellow nerds: the red color in a yard bird's yolk comes from astaxanthin from the bugs' exoskeleton.

Likewise, the red in salmon is astaxanthin as well, and comes from bugs' (i.e. shrimp) exoskeletons.

Nevertheless, too much fish in a chicken's diet WILL transfer the taste to the eggs.

No tricks are needed to get the deep orange yolks. That's just an outgrowth of a diet rich in nutrients that comes from eating a wide variety of wild foods. This way it actually correlates to superior taste and nutrition in the eggs.

Not a gulag, a protection program.

Ours get darker when we give them carcasses, I think it is the marrow and connective tissue.

Them dbl yolkers are good mmmm

Amusing creatures to watch. We had an abandoned flock show up one day after the white silky rooster led the way. They really have an interesting work/rest cycle with the rooster keeping the hens on their toes. Took a while to find their eggs. Never caught them. Roosted in the trees. Hawks got all but the two roosters. Great eggs while it lasted.

I wonder how many eggs are used every day in the US?

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So, are darker yolk free range eggs any better tasting, or better for you?

I’ve had both and cannot tell the difference in taste.

"free range" is a marketing term. Same feed, same chickens, same barn, just with the doors open, and most hens NEVER leave the farm. My cousin farms "organic free range" chickens, and his stories of the inspections are funnier than heck. They go in and chase some chickens out to show the inspectors they are "free range". Except they are scared to death outside and want to go back into the barn with the feed asap.

Barn yard eggs are firmer, darker, have multiple times the amounts of nutrients such as Vitamin K, and astaxanthin (a strong anti-oxidant in the vit. A family). The lipid profile is also MUCH better, with lower Omega 6 fatty acids and higher Omega 3's.

If you like dippy eggs, there is no mistaking the difference between a store bought egg and one out of your yard birds.

that is nice........!

Have a neighbor couple miles away

They raise chickens

She'll drop off a dozen every so often

They are better than Walmark's eggs......fresher too

Speaking of chickens.......

Recent large fire destroyed this place.....Oakdell

Prob still can smell the burnt feathers

https://www.ksl.com/article/50989808/fire-destroys-chicken-barn-at-oakdell-egg-farms-in-cache-county

Not necessarily.

Chickens can be fed commercial feed that is high in carotenoids and their yolks will be dark but won't have a significantly different nutritional profile from any other commercial eggs. Chickens that forage can have dark yolks as well, from the carotenoids they get in animal/insect fat, and those will have a bit higher levels of various fat soluble vitamins.

The other benefit of not eating commercial food and not foraging in contaminated areas is there will be lower levels of PFAS in their eggs.

A better comparison in my view. 2 of our eggs in the pan verses one store bought egg. All 3 brown eggs so a direct comparison. Not just the extremely noticeable difference in yolk color, but what I always see is that a store bought egg is watery by comparison, and the taste goes along with it.

Notice how all the thin white that ran around to the outside of the pan is from the yellow egg, and how the whites on our eggs are thick and stayed together. I'll eat eggs about anyway they come, but store bought eggs always taste like watery crap comparably and nobody will ever convince me different. What is obvious in visibility is also obvious in taste.

Have kept free range chickens for years, this yrs fresh batch of 12 are just starting to lay. Wouldn't be without them.

We raised and slaughtered a bunch of Rock × Cornish once.
We killed and gutted, throwing the entrails on a bucket. The kids almost revolted when they saw the remaining birds eating out of the gut bucket!

I do not eat eggs unless doctored by a Mexican place so no notice here. My wife eats them in every fashion including those that stink up my fridge.

My wife's side of the family has several nieces and nephews who now raise chickens, and we buy their eggs at every opportunity. They are so much better than store bought, that any unbiased consumer would readily agree that the home raised eggs are much richer, flavorful, and pleasant to eat and see, and cook. Now throw a duck egg or two in there every now and then, and you're really getting into a whole new level of egg "goodness". A great food. We eat a lot of them.

chickens eat grain, and so have too much omega 6