WHAT ARE RAINBOW EGGS?
The Edge Farms offers high quality eggs from chickens raised on pasture and in forests. Our laying birds are primarily heritage breeds, and lay naturally different colored eggs. In any given dozen you will find a variety with shells that are brown, blue, green, pinkish, deep dark chocolate-brown, white, and cream colored. Don't judge a book by it's cover! THE only thing more astonishing than the shell colors are the deeply orange thick yolks and full flavor. BREAKFAST BECOMES EASY, when kids love and ask for these great FARM FRESH EGGS!
EGG PURCHASE OPTIONS
INDIVIDUAL DOZENS: $7.50 EACH
PRE-PAID SUBSCRIPTION DISCOUNTS (for 6 months/ 26 weeks)
Also available:
FULL SUBSCRIPTION: 1 Dozen every week for 26 weeks, (26 dozen total)
HALF SUBSCRIPTION: 1 Dozen every other week for 26 weeks, (13 dozen total)
These are of the highest quality: meaning strong shells, blazing orange yolks, great flavor, and nutrient density.
SHELL COLORS WILL VARY AS THESE ARE NATURAL PRODUCTS. This is part of the joy and surprise of opening your box each time. Our humanely raised birds are given as MANY plants as they want, as well as open spaces to run, flap, and dust-bathe in. They are always on the prowl for treats and crawly bugs to chase (their idea of ice cream!) They also get supplemental feed containing no added hormones, antibiotics, or steroids, and no animal by-products.
The Edge Farms' Rainbow eggs are sold in 100% recycled, BPA-Free clear plastic or recycled cardboard boxes.
The Edge Farms offers high quality eggs from chickens raised on pasture and in forests. Our laying birds are primarily heritage breeds, and lay naturally different colored eggs. In any given dozen you will find a variety with shells that are brown, blue, green, pinkish, deep dark chocolate-brown, white, and cream colored. Don't judge a book by it's cover! THE only thing more astonishing than the shell colors are the deeply orange thick yolks and full flavor. BREAKFAST BECOMES EASY, when kids love and ask for these great FARM FRESH EGGS!
EGG PURCHASE OPTIONS
INDIVIDUAL DOZENS: $7.50 EACH
PRE-PAID SUBSCRIPTION DISCOUNTS (for 6 months/ 26 weeks)
Also available:
FULL SUBSCRIPTION: 1 Dozen every week for 26 weeks, (26 dozen total)
HALF SUBSCRIPTION: 1 Dozen every other week for 26 weeks, (13 dozen total)
These are of the highest quality: meaning strong shells, blazing orange yolks, great flavor, and nutrient density.
SHELL COLORS WILL VARY AS THESE ARE NATURAL PRODUCTS. This is part of the joy and surprise of opening your box each time. Our humanely raised birds are given as MANY plants as they want, as well as open spaces to run, flap, and dust-bathe in. They are always on the prowl for treats and crawly bugs to chase (their idea of ice cream!) They also get supplemental feed containing no added hormones, antibiotics, or steroids, and no animal by-products.
The Edge Farms' Rainbow eggs are sold in 100% recycled, BPA-Free clear plastic or recycled cardboard boxes.
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"MOM, AFTER THE QUARANTINE IS OVER, CAN WE KEEP GETTING THE PRETTY COLORED EGGS?" - R.M., FROM MEDIA, PA |
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WHAT ARE HEALTH BENEFITS OF PASTURED CHICKEN EGGS?
Pastured chicken eggs are great sources of protein, micronutrients, amino acids, vitamins and minerals.
In 2007, Mother Earth News did an egg testing project. According to their study, conventional store bought eggs are nutritionally inferior to pastured and forest raised eggs.
Compared to official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) nutritional data for commercial eggs, eggs from chickens raised on pasture may contain:
1⁄3 less Cholesterol
1⁄4 less Saturated fat
2⁄3 more Vitamin A
2 times more Omega-3 fatty acids
3 times more Vitamin E
7 times more Beta Carotene
4-6 times more Vitamin D
THE EDGE FARMS PRACTICES FOR OUR PASTURE RAISED AND FOREST RAISED POULTRY:
Birds were born to scratch, peck, and roost freely. That's exactly what they do at The Edge Farms. Our pasture-raised and forest-raised poultry are just one step in our multi-species multi-method regenerative farming program.
In the heat of summer, it is significantly cooler in the woods, and the birds thrive happily there with the dense leaf cover and fresh air. In the spring and late fall they move each day across grass pastures. Our birds roam in the sunshine, foraging for treats, bugs, grubs, grains, and seeds in the soil. Our birds forage around 30% of their diet from the grass and plants around them, providing extra vitamins and Omega-3 fatty acids, which all bodies need. In addition to fresh water and eating most plants at or below eye level, they are offered a non-GMO supplement which contains grains like corn, soy, barley, and wheat to support their high metabolisms. (We also have some products specifically labeled soy-free.) They also have supplemental calcium and a natural trace minerals with sea-kelp additives for a balanced diet, strong bones, and eggshells.
We try to give them the most natural life possible. They never receive antibiotics, artificial growth hormones, or steroids.
SO MUCH JARGON - WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE
BETWEEN ORGANIC, PASTURED, AND FREE RANGE EGGS?
PASTURED EGGS - These are what we offer!
Pastured eggs are laid by chickens that are raised on the green pasture, with access to the sun, bugs, and fresh air. The varied diet results in rich orange yolks and the full flavor our customers - big and small - love. The chickens eat a natural omnivore diet full of bugs, the way nature intended.
CONVENTIONAL
If you have the stomach for it (no pun intended) and want to get a sense of the Big Agricultural Industry's standard practices for egg production, search for pictures of "Battery Cage hens," or "CAFO hens" in a search engine. (CAFO stands for Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation.) Be prepared - the photos and descriptions are jarring and very disturbing, and may put you off eating eggs from stores ever again! You might even become an activist for healthy regenerative agriculture.
Essentially multiple chickens live their entire lives in extremely cramped cages. Birds must have 0.8 square feet (116 square inches) in each “furnished cage,” smaller than a legal-sized sheet of paper. They live with many other birds, crowded up next to each other with no space to scratch, flap their wings, or stretch out. (The system's name derives from the cells in a battery: the wall of one cage is the wall of the next one, the floor of one cage is the ceiling of the other. This is even worse news if a chicken lives on the bottom level, with everything from above raining down!) They are fed minimally and lay eggs every day, that roll out of the box to be collected. This low input and high output lifecycle results in birds who need to be "replaced" every year or 18 months.
CAGE FREE
Cage-Free systems often include chickens living in long low crowded hen sheds - think 10,000+ at once. This means they walk on the floor, breathing in, and living in their own feces and that of all the other chickens daily. They have little or no room to move or spread their wings. To market with this term, there is no requirement for the birds to ever see real daylight. They often have respiratory issues related to close confinement and irritated airways from foul air.
FREE RANGE
One might think the next best thing is Free Range. Most people envision beautiful landscapes of hens roaming on green grass freely in front of a red barn, but in fact, Free Range is not required to be much different from cage free. By definition, chickens myst have access to the outdoors, even if it only offers thousands of birds fresh air through a window and a ramp leading to an outdoor area the size of a coffee table. The truth is, in that scenario, most of the thousands of birds in that scenario will not see the outdoors, and they too fall prey to health complications from overcrowding.
ORGANIC EGGS
Organically raised chickens are given food that is free of pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, and antibiotics. The may still live in seriously confined conditions, as this term has become more of a marketing game recently. Since 2019, many regulations have been bent and related to the benefit of large scale industrial producers cutting corners.
VEGETARIAN
This term can be used to any or all of the above classifications, and often implies that chickens are eating a "healthier" diet, when if fact they are (ONLY) eating corn, soybeans, and grain. Chickens are naturally omnivorous and benefit from a wide range of forage, including sources of protein and trace minerals provided by nature.
OMEGA 3 ENHANCED EGGS
These chickens are usually fed a diet enriched with flax seeds or fish oils or by-products. The designation doesn't say anything about how the hens were raised or treated, so you may be getting Omega-3 enriched eggs from chickens that were kept in too-small cages or other inhumane conditions.
WHAT ABOUT ANTIBIOTICS OR ADDED HORMONES?
Added growth hormones are not approved for poultry production in the USA - ever. This is pure marketing that does not differentiate eggs or chickens from any others.
Antibiotics are allowed. They are used on by some farms to keep infection rates low, which are frequently associated with overfilled and dirty hen sheds.
We do not used any antibiotics on our animals. If we do in the future, it would be to treat a specific issue for a specific animal, (like someone gets wounded and needs more care.) We will not treat with broad spectrum antibiotics ever.
HAVE MORE QUESTIONS?
Reach out to us and ask, or visit our Pastured Poultry page or our general FAQs page!
