Some people are a little surprised when I say that we only do a 50% job with our pasture raised eggs. This comes from a deep understanding that there is soooo much room for improvement. Take, for example, nutrition. The chicken feed rations are designed for birds in houses where the environment is totally controlled year round. If you look into our field every day is different. At the present time the grass is growing, it is rich in nutrients and succulent, the girls love it. In the winter they need more energy, we add more corn. Now they are getting more protein from the grass so we are increasing the wheat portion of the feed. What we need is UC Davis to study the nutrition of pasture raised chickens.
The signs of when we are feeding too much protein are an increase in egg size and a few people can taste a very slight fishy flavor in the eggs. We do not feed any fish products but the flavor is there. Over the past week we have been reducing the protein by increasing the wheat % in the feed. The wheat is soaked overnight in water with a little whey added. This makes the wheat more digestible.
If you ever have questions about the eggs or how we produce them I will do my best to explain... Nigel