Dutch Country Organics EGG AND HEN Q&A

A pasture raised hen has more living space than her caged and cage-free sisters. She has access to the outdoors where she can find bugs, worms and grass. This girl might spend her day outside, but comes inside to lay her eggs and to stay safe from predators.

All of our eggs are 100% organic.

Dutch Country Organics eggs are produced by chickens that are only fed organically grown feed produced under strict standards. Organically grown feed is produced from crops that are not genetically engineered or irradiated, are not grown with any synthetic fertilizers, synthetic pesticides or sewage sludge. 

Egg shell color is determined by the breed of hen and is often related to the color of the feathers over the hen’s ears. Brown hens, like we have, typically lay brown eggs and white chickens lay white eggs (although there are a few breeds of white chickens with brown ear-feathers that lay brown eggs).

Note that the shell color is not related to the nutrition or quality of the egg inside.

Due to FDA regulations and food safety requirements, we must wash our eggs before our consumers can receive them. We use a light, organic approved soap to wash our egg shells.  After the eggs are washed, they are sanitized with a mild chlorine solution. Our quality assurance team monitors critical control points like wash- and rinse-water temperature, detergent levels, etc. This does remove the cuticle (or bloom) from the egg which is a natural protective coating, but we must wash them per FDA requirements.

We do not. And the use of hormones is illegal for anyone raising poultry. Unfortunately, that is not the case with other types of farm animals.

No.

This practice was adopted by factory farms to deal with the constant filth and disease that is their chicken filled warehouses. They will typically treat healthy hens with antibiotics as a prophylactic measure.

Our barns are airy, uncrowded, clean and safe. If in the rare circumstance a hen is discovered to have a health issue requiring antibiotics, and this is very rare, she will be segregated from the main flock and treated. Her eggs will not go into our cartons until she is fully recovered and off any medications.