Small Farms, High Standards

A combination of a foraged diet and essential feed helps our pasture-raised laying hens meet their nutritional needs. The girls spend their days foraging in the pastures, seeking out native and seasonal grasses, pecking for their next grasshopper, or digging up worms.

Alongside their pasture snacks, they receive an essential feed that consists primarily of corn and soybean meal. The nutritional density and composition of the feed provide the protein and energy our hens need to lay regularly and roam the pasture. The feed also contains paprika and marigold, which, along with their pasture snacks, help the hens produce eggs with deep orange yolks.

This feed is developed by an animal nutritionist to ensure the girls receive all the nutrients they need to support their health, active lifestyles, and overall well-being. 

Our pasture-raised standards haven’t changed — they’ve just scaled across hundreds more family farms and communities. But across our business, the standards actually have changed — they’ve gotten higher. For example, our egg washing and packing facility in Springfield, Missouri, has continually reduced waste and supported more jobs in the community. We’re also scaling more regenerative farming practices across all of our farms, which we committed to in 2023. Read more about how we’re raising the standards in our latest impact report.

Pasture-raised eggs are laid by hens that can spend their days outdoors roaming the pastures as they please. Our hens enjoy at least 108 square feet of pasture each, with plenty of fresh air and sunshine year-round. This outdoor access gives the girls a lifestyle they deserve, with freedom to forage through rotated pastures, feasting on a natural buffet of grasses, bugs, and grub alongside their essential feed.

The girls roost together in the barn overnight, where they feel safe from predators. In certain situations, when the girls’ health and safety are at risk, we may need to keep them temporarily indoors.

We make these decisions based on state and local guidance, as well as guidance from our veterinary partners and Certified Humane^®, which audits our pasture-raised animal welfare practices. These situations are only in the event of a significant risk to the girls, such as a weather or health emergency.

It’s like a four-leaf clover, but tastier! Double yolks usually come from young flocks that are just beginning to lay. Until the hens get the timing just right and learn how to lay, two eggs may merge together in the hen’s oviduct, meaning she’ll lay one large egg with two yolks hidden inside. Don’t be surprised if you see multiple eggs with double yolks in a single carton — they all came from the same young flock.

All our farms are in a region of the U.S. we like to call the Pasture Belt, where pasture-raised eggs can be produced year-round. The Pasture Belt includes Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia.

While it’s true that a hen’s earlobe color will tell you what color their eggs will be, that’s not the reason behind the color. An egg’s color is determined by the breed. Most of our hens are Hy-line Browns — and it’s in their genetics to lay brown eggs.

Our price reflects our commitment to Conscious Capitalism and enables us to create long-term value with all of our stakeholders. We work with the best family farmers in the business, we believe they deserve fair pay for their hard work, and we want to pay them a competitive wage. We also have around 600 crew across our Egg Central Station and remote workforce who work hard every day to raise the standards. Our retail customers (like your local grocery store) need to run a profitable business to continue serving their local communities. And shareholders deserve a fair return on their investment. In fact, if you want to know more about our commitments to investors, take a look at our latest commitments, which we announced in December – it’s all available on our investor page.

A hen’s age is the main factor that determines egg size. Young hens that are just beginning to lay tend to produce smaller eggs, and occasionally a few jumbos as well. To keep your cartons consistent, we do our best to grade out the eggs so you only get eggs of a certain size. Because our eggs are natural and not from a factory farm, you may see some variation in egg size.

We believe our eggs taste so good because our pasture-raised hens live happy, healthy lives! Our girls’ fresh-air lifestyle is full of foraging and feasting on natural goodness, which shines through in every egg. If you’ve never cracked open a pasture-raised egg, your culinary life is about to change.

You can find our eggs in nationwide in both natural and mainstream grocery stores. Use our store locator to find a grocer near you that carries our pasture-raised goodness.