Molting

The heat threw our chickens into a molt. When under a lot of stress a chicken will shed a lot of it's feathers and slow way down on egg production. So, if you can't find our eggs in the store, it's because we ran out! They are starting to recover. Before the heat, we were getting around 230-250 eggs a day. Last week we were down to 150 a day. This week we are back up in the 175-200 range. 

Because of molts, the big boys stock pile their eggs. An egg will last up to 6 months in "A" quality condition if properly refrigerated. The sell by date you see on the package isn't 30 days from the day the egg was laid. It is 30 days since the egg was candled (checked for freshness) and packaged. As long as the egg is still in "A" quality condition, it can be packaged and sold in the store no matter how old it is. So, with most companies, the eggs you see on the store shelf can be anywhere from 1 day to 6 months old before they hit the shelves. 

We don't have the space to stock pile, and we really aren't interested in doing that. One of the draws to our eggs is that they are actually fresh eggs. When we take them to the markets or to the stores, they are rarely over a week old, and often we are reaching under the hens that day to fill an order. The longest we've ever had an egg on the property is 3 weeks, and that was when we were first starting. We don't have room for more than  2 weeks of production right now. If we get to many, the local food pantries and soup kitchens usually wind up with the extras.

Please be patient and keep looking for our eggs on the store shelves! It will be worth the wait!

God Bless You All!

~Grama Sue