Oklahoma Egg Producer Wants To Set Record Straight

The Food and Drug Administration is getting closer to finding the source of a salmonella outbreak involving eggs.

[Jane Deason]

$2.00 a dozen is a great price. My sister lives in Kansas and has 300 chickens. She has a restraurant who pays her more than that and they are excited to get them. There is nothing better than knowing where your food comes from and support the local economy.
Jane Deason

[OkieGal]

One important thing to add to all your stories about fresh eggs, babies should NOT eat them. We raised our own chickens and ate fresh eggs all the time but our 9 mo old son almost died from salmonella several years ago. What might make an adult feel like they have the flu can due great harm to a baby. Our son spent 10 days in the hospital in OKC.

[commonsense]

I wish I could buy his eggs, I know I buy eggs from Braums and walmart and their both denying any sickness but I don't trust them and Braums says farm fresh right on the eggs with the # that is recalled????

[Where]

Where can we find this guys farm to buy his eggs?

An address would be helpful!

Anyone know?

[Theresa]

I'd happily pay $4 or $5 a dozen for local, reliable eggs from hens that were treated well. I hope the Hager farm does well, and I wish it were closer!

[Herbert Rogers]

Note to Reasors, Walmart and Food Pyramid: Unless it's just way-over-the-top... I don't think any of us mind paying extra for Locally-grown (OKLAHOMA !) Produce or Dairy.

[watcher]

I think warehouse mkt. sells some mio products and have the label mio (made in oklahoma). Unless they discontinued the program.

[Giggles]

Um, I don't think the eggs in the store are 6 months old.
I would love to buy local too but don't know where to get them.

[mika]

Wow. 6 months huh? Have you ever been to a poultry production class? Eggs take approximately 1 week to reach the shelves in the store. They are collected the day of lay on a conveyer belt into a cleaning facility. Once clean, dry and sprayed with a protective oil to help close the egg pores, the eggs are put into cartons in a chiller. The eggs are then transported on a refrigerated semi-truck to their destination. Eggs that are 6 months old would be rated less than a B on the scale and would not be considered useful for human consumption. Those eggs are used in animal feed.

KOTV, I'm surprised at you not doing your homework in the industry before helping to add to the hysteria already caused by the salmonella outbreak.

The reason for the outbreak is simple, biosecurity protocols were not followed. The blame could go as high as the breeder facility that the laying hens were bred from.

[Miss Tearious]

There used to be a farm in Skiatook that sold fresh eggs and they were so good. You just had to bring your own cartons or container. Not sure if its still there though.

[Yeah Mika]

And you also articulate that the chicken industry doesn't not pollute the local water supplies with the chicken waste materials to fertilize hay??...almost all eggs I get from the stores are more that 1 week old... most eggs I buy at the store are usually old enough not to be able to bake with, and only good enough to fry with... some even float in water (Please throw these away!)- Buy locally if you can - the eggs taste better!

[Voter]

There is a place in Broken Arrow...on County Line right off the Creek Turnpike. They have fresh eggs! They're great!

[Tulsan]

I would like to buy some eggs from him... any information to help us find him or his eggs would be helpful!

[mika]

Yeah Mika wrote:

And you also articulate that the chicken industry doesn't not pollute the local water supplies with the chicken waste materials to fertilize hay??...almost all eggs I get from the stores are more that 1 week old... most eggs I buy at the store are usually old enough not to be able to bake with, and only good enough to fry with... some even float in water (Please throw these away!)- Buy locally if you can - the eggs taste better!

How did poultry pollution come into play in this discussion at all? I agree that better practices need to be taken with the amount of pollution by the poultry industry, but this gentleman is misleading the entire community by making false accusations against the poultry industry. Eggs are graded according to freshness (on the inside of the egg). When eggs are laid, they are AA eggs. After any amount of time, they reduce to a Grade A egg. These are the eggs that are sold at most supermarkets in the US. At the time of production, cleaning, etc. the eggs are an AA, but producers know that the time it takes to get the eggs to the stores will cause the membranes to separate more and the chalazae to weaken, so the eggs are marked as an A.

I do not know how you are storing your eggs, but even a B egg is good enough to bake with. Eggs can keep for months in refrigeration and even low Bs will fry up, albeit the albumen will be very runny because of the proteins breaking down in storage. There is no reason not to eat a "floating" egg unless it smells of sulfur. A "floating" egg, an egg you describe as floating in water, simply means the membranes in the egg have deteriorated from storage. There's simply more of an air cell in the egg than others in the same carton. Each egg can be different and while most age at a "normal" timeline, others can definitely turn bad. If you smell each egg, or better yet, crack it into a cup to smell first, you are guaranteed to never eat or use a rotten egg in your cooking.

[mika]

I also wanted to add, that for those of you who are wanting to purchase eggs locally, there are several people who advertise on Craigslist for local eggs.

The high temperatures have slowed down the egg production with my own birds but there were at least 4 ads for "eggs" on Craigslist this morning for the Tulsa area.

[Pryor Biker]

I like Marshalls approach. The man knows what he is talking about! Everything I have read about chickens Marshall has repeated and more. I just started raising my own Chickens about 5-6 months ago and even tho I haven't had a egg layed yet I know what I grow myself will be better than any store bought chicken egg I could by.

Site like citychicken.com help people get started doing it themselves. I hope to see more people get into raising their own food and becoming self sufficient. Its the way to go!

[rubber chicken]

anyone can have fresh free range eggs. build a lighweight a-frame chicken tractor, order about six "red star" hens, and you'll have more eggs than you know what to do with. Red stars are great!
Just move the tractor eight feet every day, you get free fertilizer for your yard and free range eggs.

[JAH]

You can buy fresh, local, Oklahoma eggs at the farmers market.

[Norma]

For those of you in BA, please check the local ordinance, before you buy hens, for fresh
eggs. The rules are pretty strict in BA.
For anyone in the LeFlore County area. I sell fresh eggs for $1.50 doz. every Saturday morning at the the Poor Boy Livestock Auction, in Wister, OK.

[CFW]

Breaking even is the truth. Local grown is more expensive but it is better and fresher. I try to buy local whenever I can. Thank you for such good produce farmers. I know it's hard work and I am very thankful.