What started as a back yard project has turned into a business. With the help of Grow Appalachia, Jered and Kelly Couch have put their chickens to work. This June Jered got his Egg Handlers License to sell eggs at the Red Bird Farmers Market and Certified Farm Market. Now the chickens can’t lay eggs fast enough. Both markets sell out almost as soon as the eggs are put on the shelf. If you have ever eaten farm fresh eggs you will know why.

Store-bought eggs

What a lot of people don’t know is that eggs bought in a supermarket can be up to 2 months old. By law, an egg can be sold for up to 30 days after the date it was put in the carton. And farmers have up to 30 days to go from when the egg is laid to the carton. That means those supermarket eggs can be two months old by the time you buy them. Despite their age, however, the eggs will be fine to eat, just not as fresh.

On each egg carton, there’s a number printed, from 1 to 365. That number represents the day of the year the carton was filled: 1 being January 1st and 365 being December 31st. Using the code, you can at least tell when the eggs were put in the carton.

For example, a carton with the code 355 means the eggs were put in the carton on the 355th day of the year, or December 11th. If the carton was bought at the grocery store on January 8th, that means those eggs are at least 28 days old. More information can be found on this topic on the Farmers Almanac website.

Along with the French Cuckoo Maran Rooster and the wide variety of pretty hens, Kelly and Jered Couch recently expanded their happy brood. While Kelly was processing her latest batch of eggs, she found herself going into labor.  Kelly and her husband Jered welcomed their handsome son Sawyer Ray.  He weighed 6 pounds and 6 ounces and was 18 1/2 inches long.