Where do you buy your eggs? Do you know how that chicken was treated? What it was fed? The living conditions on the farm it was raised? Or what it was injected with? We think you should know, and that is exactly the reason why we started Hershberger Heritage Farm in 2014.
We hold the only Certified Organic pasture raised flock of laying hens in Bucks County. Before our farm, our County was experiencing a Certified Organic pastured meat and egg drought. When I say drought I mean that we couldn't find meat and eggs locally without having to compromise something we didn't agree with. We were looking for a farm with transparency, and where the animals could be animals. We didn't understand why we kept finding local farms that resembled Factory Farming conditions ie:Chickens being cooped up in tight confines without ever going outside and/or beaks clipped, and/or fed junk/GMOs/Pesticides and/or given vaccines.
We couldn't justify paying top dollar for "Organic store bought eggs" where, in most cases, the chickens live the same conditions as the non-organic chickens with the only difference being organic or non-organic feed. Not to mention their NOT local!
We then started our own quest to provide the BEST most wholesome and nourishing eggs ever! Which meant, never ever cutting corners on our farm or in our egg production, and allowing our chickens to be chickens. We are proud that our customers will never have to second guess the quality or purity of our eggs. Our Certified Organic pasture raised eggs are nutritionally dense, rich in color, taste and we charge $6.50 a dozen. $.50/per egg is a great value considering all the healing quality and dense nutrition each of our eggs offer. "...Organic eggs from hens allowed to feed on insects and green plants can contain omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids in the beneficial ratio of approximately one-to-one, but commercial supermarket eggs from hens fed mostly grain can contain as much as nineteen times more in omega-6 than omega-3!" - Sally Fallon
Here is our current ledger for our Certified Organic Laying flock.
We are putting our money where your mouth is. This is what transparency means to us, and are happy to share this information with anyone in hopes to lend some understanding to the cost our egg production requires, and to connect our customers to their food.
There are many things to understand when it comes to the price of eggs such as it takes 5 months to raise a chicken before they even start laying their first eggs, and even then it's not a normal egg for a couple weeks. As they are usually much smaller in size and irregular. One chicken produces only one egg every or every other day(best case.) Chickens will stop laying eggs for months at a time depending on the weather, season and molting stages. During those "resting" times we are feeding them and move them regularly to fresh pasture. Most farms turn their laying flock over every year to keep egg production up, but not on HHF. Here, you might get a chickens first egg or it's last egg. We care for the health and welfare of each and every one of our animals.
We keep our chickens in an intensive rotational graze pattern. They follow 3 days behind the cows to best care for the pastures, and the chickens get the most nutritional benefit. Timing is everything when organizing and moving 1,500 chickens every three days! Though chickens are raised on pasture, feed is our biggest expense. Chickens are omnivorous and need a perfect balance of vitamins and minerals supplemented in their diet so that they stay healthy and lay healthy eggs. We do not vaccinate our chickens, and so we focus on maximizing our animals health to ensure they are thriving on pasture. We mentioned above, we hold the only Certified Organic Laying flock in Bucks County, and maintaining that certification isn't cheap but we feel it's worth it to make that promise and yearly commitment to our customers.
After years of running our farm, we know exactly what it takes to produce our pasture raised organic eggs and not compromise quality. A cheaper product will not equal a quality product. Our goal and passion at Hershberger Heritage Farm is to produce food we are proud to serve to our community, ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren – food that is grown responsibly, sustainably, and according to nature's perfect design. Pasture raised Organic eggs isn't the easiest or lowest cost way, but we believe it's better for, not only, the animals and environment but a better tasting and nourishing product for our customers. Where would you rather buy your eggs from?
We offer up to 16% discount on all our products to anyone who joins our Membership program. Go here for all the details.
Thank you to all the customers who have supported us and totally get what goes into each and every dozen eggs we produce.
Opmerkingen