Today we got to learn all about the Farmer's Hen House in Kalona, Iowa. Farmer's Hen House was founded in 1997 by 3 Amish farmers with 3 hen houses. In 2000 Mr. Mark Miller took over the company continuing the traditions. Today they have grown from 3 farms to 50. They are a specialty egg company, processing "cage free", "Free Range", "Pasture Raised", and both organic and inorganic. Farmer's Hen House is similar to a cooperative. They have family farms that sell them their eggs and they also own farms and hire families to run them. This company is very family oriented and dedicated to what they do.
During today's tour they showed us how they receive eggs once a week from each farm and process them. All eggs are scanned in and scanned out for audit and biosecurity purposes. Eggs are robotically placed on to a conveyor then pushed through a washer where all dirt and other matter is washed off at 120 degrees, sanitized and dried. They are then graded and inspected for blood spots, meat spots, cracked shells and deformities. They are then moved over to a weighing station where they are sorted by weight and placed in to packaging to be shipped to your local stores. (Now being sold in Publix)
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| The eggs come in on pallets. There are 10,800 eggs/pallet. |
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| An automated system is used to wash, sort, grade and package the eggs. |
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| Mr. Ryan Miller explaining the process. |
This was very interesting to see and learn more about how our eggs get to the grocery store. Look for their label in the grocery store.
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