Free-Range Brown Eggs
Our brown egg-laying hens are fully free-ranging chickens. They spend the night in the safety of their coop, and are let out to roam the farm at will during the day. They spend their time happily scratching and feeding and exercising, returning once a day to the coop to lay an egg. The eggs are collected by hand, inspected and put in cartons by the members our family.
It is the grass, bugs and exercise that give Hurry Burry brown eggs their golden yolks and great egg flavor. Eggs from free-range hens contain up to 30 percent more vitamin E, 50 percent more folic acid and 30 percent more vitamin B-12 than factory eggs. And the bright orange color of the yolk shows higher levels of antioxidant carotenes. (Many factory-farm eggs are so pale that producers feed the hens expensive marigold flowers to make the yolks brighter in color.)
When chickens are housed indoors and deprived of greens, their meat and eggs also become artificially low in omega-3s. Eggs from pastured hens can contain as much as 10 times more omega-3s than eggs from factory hens . Lopez-Bote, C. J., R.Sanz Arias, A.I. Rey, A. Castano, B. Isabel, J. Thos (1998). "Effect of free-range feeding on omega-3 fatty acids and alpha-tocopherol content and oxidative stability of eggs." Animal Feed Science and Technology 72: 33-40.
It has been estimated that only 40 percent of Americans consume an adequate supply of omega-3 fatty acids. Twenty percent have blood levels so low that they cannot be detected. Dolecek, T. A. and G. Grandits (1991). "Dietary Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids and Mortality in the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT)." World Rev Nutr Diet 66: 205-16. Switching to the meat, milk, and dairy products of grass-fed animals is one way to restore this vital nutrient to your diet.
Happy hens lay tasty, healthy eggs
Eggs from free-range hens are higher in folic acid
and vitamin B12
Now there's another good reason to purchase eggs from pastured poultry farmers: you may be getting more folic acid and vitamin B12, two very important vitamins. This information comes from a British study published in 1974. At the time, British consumers were concerned about the trend toward factory farming. Specifically, they thought factory eggs might not be as nutritious as eggs from free-ranging birds. An elaborate study confirmed their suspicions. The eggs from free-range hens contained significantly more folic acid and vitamin B12, as you can see by the graph below.
The researchers also looked for differences in the fatty acid content of the eggs but did not find any. Now we know why. In the 1970s, little was known about the benefits of omega-3 fatty acids, so the researchers didn't even bother to look for them in the eggs.
(A. Tolan et al , "Studies on the Composition of Food, The chemical composition of eggs produced under battery, deep litter and free-range conditions." Br. J. Nutrition , (1974) 31:185.) |
