So ends The EGGSperiment.  The comparisons are done and we have some notable findings:
1. Prettiest - Dandelion Hills
2. Cheapest - Standard Eggs
3. Best Color Yolks - Dandelion Hills
4. Biggest Yolks - Dandelion Hills
5. Thickest Yolks - Dandelion Hills
6. Most Transparent provider - Dandelion Hills
7. Happiest Chickens - Dandelion Hills
8. Best Over Easy Egg - Dandelion Hills
9. Freshest Egg - Dandelion Hills
10. Most Nutritious Egg - Dandelion Hills

Some of these are subjective, but I think that overall Dandelion Hills Eggs are better in most, if not all categories. Ok, so we aren't the cheapest. That is okay, because our product is better. A solid second place in most categories are the Free Range Eggs. They would be the ones I would buy next in line if I needed to purchase eggs at a store. Bust of The EGGSperiment - organic eggs. Not impressed at all!

I realize that not everyone can come get our eggs, but if interested let us know and we can get you on the list for some pronto. However, if you are outside of our zone, then I recommend finding someone that is raising hens similar to us or just stick with farm fresh eggs. If you see someone selling eggs at their house, go take a look around. If you like what you see, then buy from them. Eggs in stores are a perishable good, while eggs from farms could be better described as calorie storage vessels, considering you may get over a month of time from a fresh egg, especially if they are unwashed. I saw a Facebook post earlier in the week where a lady packaged up two dozen of her eggs for camping. No cooler needed. This is very handy and we have done the same. As long as an egg has never been washed or refrigerated, feel free to keep them at room temperature until use. Wash before use and enjoy!

So why $4.00 a dozen? Because they are worth it. Plus, we are in this to pay for our operation and our eggs. This is not just a hobby for us. Organic feed is expensive and don't forget that we spent hundreds of dollars on feed before we even got an egg. Plus, we are feeding Charlie the Rooster, who does a great job of protecting his ladies. Also, he had a 95% fertilization success rate from the eggs we chose for incubation. One rooster + 26 laying hens = well you do the math!  Other expenses that are necessary for a good operation include calcium grit so they can have "teeth" in their gizzard, materials for dustbaths, the money spent on the coop, electronet fencing, time costs, costs of the original chickens when purchased as chicks, watering methods, fodder feed and seed. All this goes into good eggs and happy hens. So keep that in mind when hesitating to pay for something that is of good quality in the food realm. Time, care, humane treatment, and good infrastructure all cost money and time and need to be reimbursed. If a person cares for animals and cares to be profitable, they will have to charge more than CAFO producers to be profitable.  

Final Note: I just heard that egg prices in some areas have increased due to the Avian Flu outbreak at CAFO egg houses. Standard eggs prices are increasing to $3.00 a dozen. Think of us if you are on the way to the grocery store for eggs. We are only a dollar more and way better. Come on out and we will introduce you to the girls that do all the work

Enjoy these final pics of the end of The EGGSperiment and the mess that I made.

Trevor

In case you missed the rest of the EGGSperiment series:
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-one
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-two
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-three
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-four

Okay, so this is all I got. While a blind taste test would have been better, this process may have to be in the sequel - The EGGSperiment 2: Oral Fixation . . . maybe I need to rethink the subtitle. I needed a picture for this post and posted the scrambled egg bonanza that The EGGSperiment created. More on this in the Epic Conclusion! 

Anyway, this post will not be going how I would have liked as I uploaded my videos to Vimeo, but Weebly does not play with Vimeo from my limited attention span. So I will be linking to the Vimeo videos and you will have to click and watch yourself. Also, something ate my organic egg video. Not a problem, since they are dead to us now as the most expensive egg with apparently no redeeming value other than a government certification that decrees them to be special. As Joel Salatin says - Thank you US-Duh! (i.e. USDA).

Now the main event!  Feel free to watch at your leisure . . . or now.  Now is good.

Note to PETA - Many eggs were harmed in the making of these videos and this blog.  I cracked them with authority and meticulously introduced them to the inferno that was a hot cast iron skillet. Just so you know

COMPARISON #6 - COOKED EGG

Standard Egg

Free-Range Egg

Dandelion Hills Egg

Again, I do not think we are missing anything without the organic egg. Regarding this process, some things that stand out: The runny yolk of the standard egg, not appetizing to me in comparison to the other two. The orangeness of the Dandelion Hills egg and the viscosity is apparent and seems to be better than the Free-Range egg, which is still a good egg in these categories. Nice yolk, nice color. Overall, not bad. 

CONCLUSION - Dandelion Hills appears to win out over the free-range eggs, but not by much. Standard eggs are just that, standard eggs - runny yolks and no redeeming value outside of price.

Outside of the videos, a short one today. Tomorrow I will summarize the conclusions and give an overview of the EGGSperiment. While I hoped to have done more, the inclined plane experiment was not very helpful as all eggs broke. Weight of egg, weight of shell, and weight of inner egg did not give me much either. Especially considering the fact that the other eggs were graded and sized and our eggs were not.  

Also, some of you may have heard the Avian Flu epidemic that has led to the massive culling of millions of birds in the Midwest.  This link demonstrates the dangers of CAFOs and big operations.  

Really?  You cannot figure out why this is different?  I guess its confusing since they are pretty much the same operations . . . chickens, eggs, oxygen.  I mean the concentration of animals shouldn't have anything to do with this.  Definitely not living conditions, that wouldn't play a role at all with living organisms jammed into battery cages creating a massively stressful environment that reduces immunity in the birds and provides a perfect cascade environment for a bacteria.  No, it can't be that.  Maybe it is a chemical imbalance!

Trevor

In case you missed the rest of the EGGSperiment series:
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-one
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-two
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-three
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-epic-conclusion

The first part of visual characteristics is how they look. Two words . . . WE WIN! Okay, maybe that is premature, but there is something to be said about the rainbow of egg colors. White = BORING! While the others are a pretty brown, again there is only uniformity and that is appealing to some, but the color range creates curiosity. We even are trying to add more variability by adding Cuckoo Marans and Welsummers to the flock, both of which can lay a very dark brown egg. Below is a basket of Welsummer eggs. I think they will be an interesting addition to the kaleidoscope of eggshell colors.

Thank you to those of you who have commented on the previous two parts. I know it is weird to be passionate about eggs, but when you go from not liking them to the opposing view by just raising your own, that is meaningful and worth exploring.

As promised, this one is full of pictures.  I could have measured yolk size and other aspects, but I think we can trust our eyes in this next comparison.

COMPARISON #5 - VISUAL CHARACTERISTICS

The next visual comparison is what is in the eggs. To do this and be fair, I numbered the egg positions in the cartons and randomly chose four numbers one through twelve. I then picked the four corresponding eggs in each position in all cartons. The reason for this is that our eggs vary in size while others are all uniform due to egg grading.

A quick glance demonstrates that our eggs and the free range eggs have a nice orange color. The others look okay, but pale in comparison (see that pun there) with yolk color. Not sure what to think about the organic eggs and their clearly defined boundaries. So what is with orange yolks you say? Not a whole lot actually. Later I will discuss yolk viscosity, which I think is important in eggs when eating. In my experience, orange yolks are thicker and more desirable, yellow yolks tend to be runnier. Not good in my opinion, but we shall address this in a bit.

Side-by-side comparisons are next. Here we get a better idea of differences in yolk color and yolk size. Our eggs seem to have the same size yolks as standard eggs and are bigger than the other two. While bigger than the free range eggs, the colors are quite similar in a side-by-side. Standard and organic eggs are almost similar in color. It also seems that the free range eggs have the smallest yolks.

This provides a better picture as they are all side-by-side with a yolk comparison. I used three eggs from each and partnered them up with the comrade in the other cartons. So the six pictures are three comparisons of four eggs and the yolk cut pic that followed.  

VERSION ONE - This shows a darker and larger yolk in our eggs; free range is smaller and slightly darker than the others. The standard egg is second largest. In cutting the yolks, we begin to see the benefits. You cannot see through our yolks, plus it did not run much. The others are not bad. The organic egg ran a bit more and is more transparent. Not much ran from the free range egg, but it is more transparent too. Let's try it again.

VERSION TWO - Dandelion Hills egg has a bigger yolk again; all others are roughly the same size with free range being slightly darker. Yolk test again not friendly to the organic egg, while the others performed pretty much the same. I don't know about you, but the yellow of the standard egg is like a creepy manufactured yellow, almost too bright.

VERSION THREE - Yolk size champion is our eggs, no doubt with standard eggs the first runner-up. Color again with our eggs. Yolk test finds our eggs to be even more viscous and not runny. The others are not too bad, but again somewhat transparent and ours is very opaque.

CONCLUSION - Visual characteristics appear to favor Dandelion Hills eggs in all measures. Ours are prettier (hey that matters), ours have more orange yolks, the yolks are bigger and they are thicker and more viscous. These make fantastic "dippy" eggs as my boys like to call them. The yolks are almost spreadable, definitely not runny. Big failure goes to organic eggs. Small yolks, more yellow and more runny. Last in all categories!  Interestingly enough they were by far the most expensive. 

Part Four will bring us a visual comparison of cooked eggs.  Also, look forward to Friday and the Epic Conclusion! to The EGGSperiment blog series.

In case you missed the rest of the EGGSperiment series:
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-one
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-two
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-four
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-epic-conclusion

In part two, I trudge on and explore the date phenomenon of eggs and compare nutritional information to the best of my googleability while leaving the egg incineration and subsequent chemical analysis of the resulting ash for the professionals.  (A quick google-fu found out this is how we get nutritional analyses, I learned something today).  

COMPARISON #3 - DATE

Somehow, we have turned into eggophobes regarding the freshness of our eggs. Thank you date on the box for telling us when our eggs will explode. As I also blame Charlotte's Web and the rotten goose egg for this fear. Anyway, most of you know, these dates are "sell by" dates and not consume by dates . . . yet we treat them as the latter. Currently, we at Dandelion Hills take the no wash philosophy to heart. We keep our eggs on the counter and do not wash them. As noted in the prior hyperlink, washing takes their protective coating off. Remember, eggs are not food first, they are reproductive avenues for birds. Therefore, their primary focus is to propagate a species. They are lain with the bloom or protective coating that is more effective in keeping out bacteria than any other organic solution. Yes, there is dirt and some chicken "gold" on them, but you wash them just prior to use. All eggs in stores are refrigerated because they are washed and the refrigeration is necessary to reduce bacterial growth. So far, no Templeton Bombs have been created. If concerned, you can float test your eggs to see their shelf stability. Here are guidelines for float testing.  

Back to the date. You see on the box sides a few numbers, one is the sell by date. This is based upon the Julian date, which is the date that the eggs were packaged, usually only 1-2 days after they were gathered from the hens. The Julian date is the three digit number on the side of the box. Our eggs were one day old. Heck, my boys can tell you who laid them and some of these were still warm. For the "standard" eggs, the Julian date of 106 indicates these were packaged on April 16, 2015 - eight days prior to purchase and meaning they have a sell by date of 5/15/15. Not too bad.  Free Range Eggs have a Julian Date of 086 indicating packaging on March 27th, 2015 and sell by date of April 25, 2015 - which is the day after they were purchased. I guess I did them a favor.  Finally, the Organic Eggs have a Julian Date of 103, indicating packaging on April 13, 2015 and a more gracious May 25, 2015 sell by date.  

CONCLUSION #3 - Dandelion Hills eggs are fresher and overall better protected. They can be shelf stable at room temperature and may have up to six or seven weeks of shelf stability at the time you get them.  The other eggs have a shorter lifespan due to their washing, have to be refrigerated and have already been around for a week or longer due to shipping and processing. Dandelion Hills Eggs are best in this category.

COMPARISON #4 - Nutritional Value.
So is there a difference between the nutritional value of an egg or is an egg just an egg?

First, lets look at the suggested information on the cases that we purchased.

So what we see, is that we have no idea if these eggs differ because they use the same standard info for this size egg.  70 calories, 5 grams of fat, 165 mg of cholesterol, 6 grams of protein, etc. Refer to the pics for the rest of the info.  

Now how do we get this for Dandelion Hills Eggs?  Well, we could just say ours are the same, but when we get to the pictures you will see that this is not the case. Some farmers decided to give it a try and this analysis from 2007 of fourteen free-range flocks shows interesting information.
First, let's be clear - the free-range they studied are described here and it does fit what we do at Dandelion Hills (and most likely rules out The Wandering Hen eggs from what we know about the industry). Another thing, if they thought that what they did was different, they would pay for a nutritional analysis to show how much better their eggs are. What we can assume, not very scientific though, is that they do not think its worth the analysis, plus they have so many providers with variability.

The study provided this information:
• 1/3 less cholesterol - THIS IS A GOOD THING
• 1/4 less saturated fat - THIS IS A REALLY GOOD THING
• 2/3 more vitamin A - AGAIN, A GOOD THING
• 2 times more omega-3 fatty acids - BIGGER BRAINS!
• 3 times more vitamin E - GOOD GOOD GOOD
• 7 times more beta carotene - THIS HELPS YOU PROCESS ALL THAT VITAMIN A!

CONCLUSION #4

It appears from more research that these findings have been substantiated in other studies. So evidence suggests that eggs from hens that are handled in the manner in which we handle our girls are significantly more nutritious in key areas, including lower cholesterol, lower saturated fat and more omega-3 fatty acids. All in all, I'm giving this one to Dandelion Hills Eggs again. Call me impartial, but the other guys did not do much to fight me on this one.

Part Three comes tomorrow with a visual comparison. Many pictures will follow so clear your internet histories and defragment your hard drives to make tomorrow's blog post run smoothly.

Trevor

In case you missed the rest of the EGGSperiment series:
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-one
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-three
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-four
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-epic-conclusion

As a scientist , I have been fascinated with my turnaround on eggs. I went from a person who picked at his eggs when at the local diner for breakfast and focused on the other provisions on the plate. When it came to omelettes and eggs of the scrambled variety, forget it! No likey! Then we started raising our own eggs. I KNOW there is a difference, but the qualitative comments I used to describe them do not do them justice. Some may be psychological since I get to meet our providers every day, compared to how I know other eggs are produced. Since we hope to sell our eggs to those that are interested, I wanted to try to do this as scientifically as possible to prove and convince others why these eggs are better. So, without employing Sheldon Cooper or a mass spectrometer (I am aware that Sheldon is a physicist, but I'm sure he would be interested in the finer points of farm fresh eggs), I set forth to try and provide data to those interested in farm fresh eggs and wonder if it is worth it to pay some of the prices that we small farm operations charge.


PROLOGUE AND HYPOTHESIS - IDENTIFY THE BIAS!
So first and foremost, we have to note that I truly believe that our eggs are better than any you can get in a store. So in doing this, I have to try and be as fair as possible to not let the bias come out in the comparisons and analyses. While not being entered into a scientific journal, I still will try to respect the scientific method. Note:  Analyses were done on April 24, 2015. 

Over the next few days, I will publish my findings in the blog regarding my comparisons between different types of eggs on origination, price, date, nutritional analysis, the "eye" test, yolk viscosity and even cooking!

COMPARISON #1 - IDENTIFY THE PLAYERS AND ORIGINATION

1.  Dandelion Hills Eggs - Our eggs come straight from our happy hens. We have three types of chickens, Black Sex Link or Black Stars, Silver Laced Wyandottes and Easter Eggers. These breeds are primarily egg layers and the Easter Eggers are known for providing colorful eggs with minimal feed costs. We have already expanded the flock by adding young Cuckoo Marans, Welsummers, and our own "barnyard mix" chicks. We get a variety of egg colors, including blue, green, olive, brown, pink and the occasional white. With the addition of the Marans and Welsummers, we hope to broaden our egg rainbow with dark brown eggs. Our hens are given an A-frame rolling coop, see pic above, that follows them as we move them on pasture. They free-range in an electronet fenced area that is moved every 1-2 weeks. The electronet fence is more for their protection as it keeps predators at bay. They are given organic feed ration, sprouted barley and sunflower seed fodder and whatever they may find in the pasture.

2.  Standard Eggs - White eggs, very affordable, pretty much the "standard" egg.  However, my bias creeps out here in helping you understand why they are so cheap. These eggs are frequently "farmed" in concentrated animal feeding operations or CAFOs. Below is a video of what these apparently look like. While we have not visited a CAFO, this does appear to mimic what we have heard. Note the video was from some time ago, so I hope changes have been made.

Standard egg note: notice the lack of space, lack of light and the clipped beaks.  Not happy chickens!

3.  Free Range Eggs - these eggs come from Wandering Hen Eggs.  They advertise on their site that they inspect their contracted farmers to meet the criteria of 100% vegetarian fed, free to roam and no antibiotics and steroids.  One thing stands out . . . chickens are not vegetarians!  Click the hyperlink to learn more.  Anyway, free range and the name Wandering Hen suggests:

What You Might Think It Means: Hens playfully strolling and tumbling down green hills, home on the range.

What It Actually Means: Free-range means cage-free plus "access to the outdoors." But as Mark Kastel of the Cornucopia Institute notes, this "access" typically means a few small doors that lead to a screened-in porch with cement, dirt or a modicum of grass. And often, Kastel says, industrial fans that suck ammonia out of the building create "hurricane winds" through the small doorways, "and the birds don't really want to walk through that."

Kastel claims that the vast majority of free-range birds in commercial egg facilities never actually go outside. So in most cases, he says, free-range means the same thing as cage-free. Unlike in poultry production, there's no government oversight of the term "free range" when it comes to eggs, so companies can more or less interpret it as they see fit.

4. Organic Eggs - These eggs come from Great Day Farms, which as far as I can gather is emphasis on "farms" and not the singular farm. So multiple contracted farms. Also, what does organic really mean:

What You Might Think It Means: Chickens with hemp bracelets and yoga pants change the sign on their coop from "Chicken Coop" to "Chicken Co-op," then begin composting.

What It Actually Means: "Organic" actually means something very specific, and egg producers who use it are subject to USDA regulation. Organic eggs must come from chickens that are free-range (cage-free plus access to the outdoors), fed organic feed (no synthetic pesticides) and receive no hormones or antibiotics.

But as was the case with "free-range" eggs, Kastel says "organic" eggs are usually coming from birds that live in crowded, industrial aviaries. His organization has created an egg scorecard that rates organic egg farms on a much wider variety of factors.

So as the NPR article points out, titles and names don't mean anything really as there is no real management of the titles outside of organic certification.

CONCLUSION #1:  

Without visiting the other three locations, I cannot make any clear distinctions. However, I would like to think that the origination of our eggs is better. Our hens are happy, they are not overcrowded, most have names (i.e. Golden Treasure, Noisy 1, Noisy 2, Rose, Sunny, Brownie, Sally...) and we set out to be transparent. You can come see our operation any time! Plus we post pics and blog articles on our processes. The other websites demonstrate a veil of secrecy. Who are their contractors and farms? How many chickens are housed together? What do their living arrangements look like? These places are unknown at best, ours is visible. I think that provided a sense of peace, so we'll give this one to Dandelion Hills. (Feel free to debate this on Facebook if you like. I am willing to accept that this conclusion comes with bias).

COMPARISON #2 - PRICE

We start with our eggs, which we sell for $4.00 a dozen.  They are the eclectically colored eggs in the yellow carton.
Dandelion Hills Egg - $4.00  =  33.3 cents an egg

A trip to the local Walmart left me with some good options:  
Standard Eggs -         $1.98  = 16.5 cents an egg
Free Range Eggs -     $3.86  = 32.2 cents an egg
Organic Eggs -           $4.68  = 39.0 cents an egg


(Note: Original calculations had tax included until my genius wife reminded me foodstuffs are not taxed in Michigan.  Good catch Diana!)

CONCLUSION #2 

No one can beat the "standard" egg in price. However, watch the video above on how they can sell them so cheap. When you buy these, you are supporting this operational format . . . the CAFO format. Other than this, the cheapest eggs come from us. Not to mention that if you prepay for five dozen at $20.00, we throw in a sixth dozen for free, bringing the price down to 27.8 cents an egg!  Nonetheless, the Standard Egg is the cheapest.

In the next part, I will release my findings on dates on the egg and nutritional information.  See you soon!

Trevor

In case you missed the rest of the EGGSperiment series:
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-two
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-three
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-part-four
http://dandelionhills.weebly.com/blog/the-eggsperiment-epic-conclusion