Well, heres the first most important reasons:
1)
They are often FAR fresher. Why? Because store bought eggs are sometimes WEEKS old by the time they reach the shelves. You could show your egg customers how to do the Egg Float Test.
To do the Egg Float Test take a freshly laid egg and a store bought one. Fill two cups with tap water and place an egg in each cup. If the egg sinks to the bottom and stays, its under a week old. If the egg sinks, but floats at an angle, its more than a week old. If the egg sinks, but then stands on end, it is about 2 weeks old. If the egg floats, it is VERY old and should not be eaten. Explain that as an egg ages, the air sac within it becomes larger, thus making it float.
2)
Healthy, happy chickens produce better eggs. Why?Sunlight is a big factor here. The commercial battery-cage kept chickens NEVER see the light of day, whereas our free rangers are out and about in it all the time. You can show this to customers too.
Take a freshly laid egg and a store bought egg. Crack both eggs into seperate dishes. What do you notice? The freshly laid egg from our free ranging chickens has a bright orange yolk that proudly stands up. The white is not runny, but firm. The store bought eggs yolk is pale and runny. The whites are droopy and "slimey".
3)
Chickens from smaller, backyard chicken farmers are fed a better quality diet, thus producing better quality eggs.
Why? Because we have fewer chickens, we can afford to feed them only the best. We arent concerned with profit margins, or making a buck. A TRUE chicken farmer will be one to tell you that you will LOOSE money raising chickens. Compare that to a commercial facility where they NEED to make a profit or go out of business. They cut back on anything they can to increase their profits. Feed is cut and reduced and mixed with inferior grains that have little or no nutritional value to the chicken, but they keep it fed. They reduce the space per chicken to the smallest possible space needed. Sometimes as small as a cage roughly 1' x 1'...barely big enough for the chicken to do more than stand or sit.
4)
When you buy eggs from a small backyard farmer, you are telling the commercial egg industry that you wont stand for the mistreatment and poor nutrition of their chickens. You are also supporting a small farmer, and with so few remaining, they need all the support they can get.
Well, thats what I come up with off the top of my head.
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