FAQs

Pasture-raised eggs are laid by hens that can spend their days outdoors roaming the pastures as they please. Our pasture-raised girls have access to a minimum of 108 square feet each, unlike cage-free birds that have far less freedom. On average, cage-free birds get a maximum of 1.2 square foot of space per bird and may rarely, if ever, see the sunlight. We make sure our girls have access to fresh air and sunshine year-round.   

In certain situations, when the health and safety of the girls are at risk, we may have to keep them temporarily indoors. We make these decisions based on state and local guidance as well as the guidance of our veterinary partners and Certified Humane®, who audits our pasture-raised animal welfare practices. These situations are only in the event of the threat of significant risk to the girls, such as a weather or health emergency.  

It’s like a four-leaf clover, but tastier! Double yolks usually come from young flocks that are just beginning to lay. Until the hens get the timing just right and learn how to lay, two eggs may merge together in the hen’s oviduct, meaning she’ll lay one large egg with two yolks hidden inside. Don’t be surprised if you see multiple eggs with double yolks in a single carton – they all came from the same young flock.

A hen’s age is the main factor that determines egg size. Young hens that are just beginning to lay tend to produce smaller eggs, and, ironically, a few jumbos as well. To keep your cartons consistent, we do our best to grade out the eggs so you only get eggs of a certain size. Because our eggs are natural and not from a factory farm, you may see some variation in egg size.

 We believe our eggs taste so good because our pasture-raised hens live happy, healthy lives! Our girls’ fresh-air lifestyle is full of foraging and feasting on natural goodness, which shines through in every egg. If you’ve never cracked open a pasture-raised egg, your culinary life is about to change.

While it’s true that a hen’s ear-lobe color will tell you what color their eggs will be, that’s not the reason behind the color. An egg’s color is determined by the breed. Most of our hens are Hy-line Browns – and it’s in their genetics to lay brown eggs.

All of our farms are in a U.S. region we like to call The Pasture Belt™ which includes: Kansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas, Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and West Virginia where pasture-raised eggs can be produced year-round. 

Our pasture-raised standards have not changed— they’ve just scaled across hundreds more family farms and communities. But across our business, the standards actually have changed – they’ve gotten higher. For example, our egg washing and packing facility in Springfield, Missouri, has continually reduced waste and supported more jobs in the community. We’re also scaling more regenerative farming practices across all of our farms, which we committed to in 2023. You can read more about how we’re raising the standards in our latest impact report. 

Our price reflects our commitment to Conscious Capitalism and enables us to create long-term value with all of our stakeholders.  We work with the best family farmers in the business, we believe they deserve fair pay for their hard work, and we want to pay them a competitive wage. We also have around 600 crew across our Egg Central Station and remote workforce who work hard every day to raise the standards. Our retail customers (like your local grocery store) need to run a profitable business to continue serving their local communities. And shareholders deserve a fair return on their investment. In fact, if you want to know more about our commitments to investors, take a look at our latest commitments, which we announced in December – it’s all available on our investor page. 

We listed on the NASDAQ in 2020, which means anyone can buy VITL shares. Blackrock and other investment groups own shares, as do our crew (this is what we call employees), who receive annual grants regardless of title or seniority, from our most junior team members to our CEO. If you want to better understand some of our core financials, look at our investor page. It’s all open to the public. 

You can find our eggs in grocery stores nationwide – both natural and mainstream. Use our store locator to find a grocer near you that carries our pasture-raised goodness.

Currently, we’re not able to deliver directly to your doorstep. However, if you use a grocery delivery app, you may be able to have our eggs delivered right to you! Check out our store locator to see which nearby stores carry our products.

 The type of supplemental feed our girls receive is what differentiates our three egg types from one another. All our girls forage for their own food in the outdoors, but they also receive supplemental feed to help round out their diets. The girls who lay our USDA Certified Organic Pasture-Raised Eggs receive a supplemental feed that’s USDA Certified Organic and are raised on farms that are also Organic-certified. The hens that lay our Original Pasture-Raised Eggs are fed a supplemental feed that’s carefully formulated to keep them happy and healthy. Regardless of the type of egg, our farmers refrain from using pesticides or herbicides on their pastures, and all of our eggs are Certified Humane and hormone-free.

Yes. USDA regulations require that we wash our eggs before we pack them. Washing does remove the eggs’ natural protective layer (called the ‘cuticle’ or ‘bloom’), which is why they must be refrigerated.

Sorry for the confusion around this. Some states require different verbiage, which means we need to print both “Sell By” and “Use By” dates on the package. The date for “Sell By” and “Use By” should be the same and should serve as a general frame of reference for when you should consume your eggs. Given that the quality of our eggs will be best before that date, our recommendation and the safest route is to always consume your eggs prior to the listed date to ensure you are getting the freshest eggs. 

If you choose to keep your eggs past the “Sell By” date, please see the USDA’s suggestion for the safe consumption of eggs. The USDA states that you can consume eggs for up to 3–5 weeks after bringing them home if stored properly. See more here. But remember, first and foremost, always trust your senses.

Our hens spend their days foraging in the pastures, seeking out native and seasonal grasses like clover, rye, and wild onion. They don’t stop with plants, though! You’ll often catch our girls munching on a grasshopper or snacking on a worm. Alongside the food they forage, our girls receive supplemental feed. The supplemental feed consists primarily of corn and soybean meal, which the hens need for protein, as well as additional natural ingredients, including paprika and marigold, which, along with their outdoor snacks, help the hens produce eggs with deep orange yolks that our consumers prefer. Our supplemental feed is developed by an animal nutritionist, ensuring the girls receive all the nutrients they need to support their health, active lifestyles, and overall well-being.

Everything a hen eats, including pasture grazing and supplemental feed, impacts yolk color. Because the girls are pasture-raised, it’s natural for yolk color to vary. This variation is affected by how often hens eat and what they eat. In the summer, the girls tend to eat less due to the warmer temperatures. In the winter, they tend to eat more to stay warm. The girls eat a variety of seasonal and localized vegetation and critters as they are roaming through the pasture, as well as supplemental feed. The supplemental feed consists primarily of corn and soybean meal, which the hens need for protein, as well as additional natural ingredients, including paprika and marigold, which, along with their outdoor snacks, provide nutrients and help the hens produce eggs with deep orange yolks that our consumers prefer. Our supplemental feed is developed by an animal nutritionist, ensuring the girls receive all the nutrients they need to support their health, active lifestyles, and overall well-being.

Certified Humane® is a third-party animal welfare organization that certifies our pasture-raised egg practices. Certified Humane® standards are set by a committee of renowned animal scientists, veterinarians, and researchers. Each of our farms undergoes an extensive application, inspection, and verification process each year to ensure that we meet or exceed all of the Certified Humane® standards for pasture-raised laying hens. We’re proud to carry the Certified Humane® seal on all of our pasture-raised cartons. Read more about Certified Humane® standards for hens and other animals on their website.  

The simplest answer is that it’s good for the hens. Laying hens can’t get all the nutrients they need just by foraging, they require supplemental feed to meet their nutritional needs, including protein. Corn and soy have the right nutrients, and they’re widely available across our network of 575+ family farms. A lot of our farmers get their feed from local feed mills in their communities, and we use a system that works across all of our farms to maintain our high standards.  

Right now, we’re not planning to do that. The biggest reason is that corn and soy are good for the hens (see above). We have looked into alternatives to corn and soy, and we continue to do that. There are some alternatives out there like fish-based feed or black soldier fly larvae, which wouldn’t work across our network of family farms and would drive up costs for farmers and consumers.  

Most of our girls are Hy-line Browns.

They go outside! Our girls live in warmer-weather states (an area we like to call the Pasture Belt) where the winters are mild. Day in and day out, our girls freely forage for fresh grasses, seeds and protein-packed critters.

We take many steps to ensure the health and safety of the girls. In fact, we have an entire team dedicated to supporting our farmers through weekly phone calls, monthly in-person visits, quarterly meetings, a seasonal newsletter, and a bi-annual survey. We provide guidance on care for the girls in all of these touchpoints.  

On all farms, we take measures to proactively prevent predators and pecking.  

Because the risk of predation is highest at night, our girls are taught from a young age to come indoors before sunset. We also regularly patrol our farms and use harmless countermeasures (like dummy owls!) to keep aerial predators at bay. 

To protect the girls from pecking each other, we follow an industry-standard practice of dulling the tips of their beaks. We follow this process to reduce the beak’s sharpness, so hens don’t hurt themselves. See more information on beak trimming from Certified Humane, one of our auditors, here.  

Finally, we work with an external veterinary partner who visits farms regularly with our farm support crew and is also available on an on-call basis. The services help educate our crew and quickly aid farmers in need.  

Because male chicks will not grow to become egg-laying hens, it’s the industry norm for hatcheries to identify male chicks upon hatch and euthanize them using methods approved by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) guidelines.  

At Vital Farms, we’re committed to improving the lives of animals through food. In early 2026, we plan to adopt in-ovo sexing technology in collaboration with our primary hatchery supplier, Hy-Line North America. 

Hy-Line North America has installed Cheggy technology developed by the German company, AAT, which uses a safe, non-invasive scan to determine whether the developing chick is male or female. This determination occurs before the embryo can feel pain, and the male eggs are prevented from developing further — allowing hatcheries to significantly reduce the number of male chicks that hatch. 

The birds hatched after in-ovo sexing will begin arriving on farms in the second half of 2026, and by the end of 2027, we anticipate that the majority of our hens will have come from this process. While not all hatcheries in our network have adopted the technology yet, we’re hopeful that taking this step will help inspire broader change across the industry. 

We remain dedicated to actively following the latest developments in ovo-sexing technology and will continue working toward solutions to raise the standards of our animal welfare practices to bring ethical food to the table and better serve the long-term priorities of each of our stakeholders. 

Vital Farms began with one small family farm and a mission to bring ethically produced food to the table. Over the years, we believe we’ve played an important role in improving the lives of people, animals, and the planet by prioritizing our stakeholders—farmers and suppliers, crewmembers, communities and the environment, customers and consumers, and stockholders—and treating them as partners.

We partner with over 575 farmers who share our passion for animal welfare and sustainable farming practices. Starting when the girls arrive at one of these farms at about 17 weeks of age, we think they live just about the best life possible for a laying hen—they enjoy acres of open pasture, fresh green grass, and the freedom to come and go from comfortable barns as they please.

But farming is not always as straightforward as the picture postcard of hens roaming in fields of flowers. While we’ve prided ourselves in never taking the easy way out and in doing what we can to change our small corner of the farming world whenever we see the opportunity, there are biological and economic realities, and, at times, the two collide.

As the amount and quality of eggs our hens lay naturally decline with age, there comes a point when the hens can no longer produce eggs in an economically viable way for our farm partners. In our early days, when we had just a couple of farm partners located near urban areas, we would place an advertisement on Craig’s List and find homes for our retiring ladies with backyard farmers.  Today, for several reasons including current FDA restrictions, that method no longer makes sense. So, when retirement time comes for these laying hens, our farmer partners have little choice but to ‘retire’ their flock en masse either through an acceptable method of euthanasia or by selling them to pet food companies, which we believe helps make use of this precious resource.

We consider the end of our hens lives as sacred as the rest of their time with us and will advocate for any viable alternatives to a hens’ post-laying life that are sustainable for our farm partners, the hens, and communities at large.

The case is over and we got the win we’ve been fighting for. The plaintiffs agreed to drop their claims and we didn’t pay them anything. It’s a huge victory for us. We defended ourselves in this case because we believe in what we’re doing, we know we’re raising the standards, and we’ve got the receipts to back it up. It’s great to see that validated by the outcome in this case.

As you would expect from our farmers, they frequently and thoughtfully monitor the health of their hens. There are two primary reasons our farmers bring their hens inside full-time. The first is that we bring the girls inside to keep them safe from extreme weather. The second reason is to protect them from seasonal health issues, such as avian influenza. These decisions are often mandated or recommended by individual states, and implementation varies across our farms, depending on location. In either case, the girls go back outside as soon as it’s safe to do so. 

Our birds have always had year-round access to pastures with at least 108 square feet of pasture per bird. They’re happier and healthier when they spend time outside, and it allows them to express their natural behaviors, but we don’t force them out there. When the hens first arrive at the farms, we train them to go on pasture, and every morning when we open up the doors on the barns, we see them heading out. The easiest way to understand this is in human terms – we’re happier and healthier when we get time outside, but it would create a lot of stress if someone was forcing us out there. It’s similar for the hens.  

Avian Influenza (HPAI) is a virus that occurs in birds. Laying hens can contract HPAI when migratory waterfowl pass over farm areas and leave droppings containing the virus. HPAI cases typically happen in the spring and fall when wild birds migrate. Currently, some of our farmers are housing their hens in barns to protect them HPAI. You can learn more about HPAI and get updates on the status of our farms here.

Ready to join our flock? Click here to learn more about becoming a Vital Farmer.

Thanks for asking! Vital Farms Butter starts with cows who are pasture-raised on family farms during the warm months (that’s an average of 200 days a year!). Those four-legged ladies supply a rich cream to churn into something special. With 85% butterfat in our Unsalted Butter and 83% in our Salted Butter, we believe our rich and creamy butter can’t be beat. 

The dairy cows that produce milk for Vital Farms butter eat a 90% grass diet. To ensure a well-rounded diet, farmers work with nutritionists for the remaining 10% to supply feed consisting of grain, vitamins and minerals to ensure a healthy and balanced blend of nutrients for the girls. We believe that a balanced diet for a dairy cow leads to premium high-butterfat milk and a healthy, happy cow!  

All of the family farms in our supply network provide outdoor pasture access to their girls during the warmer months, an average of 200 days a year. During the colder months, the cows spend their days in a warm, comfortable barn with plenty of room to express their natural behaviors and socialize with their herd. During all four seasons, the girls have plenty of room in the barns to eat, drink, and lie down in a clean, dry space.   

The farmers who produce our butter share our passion for animal welfare. Those farmers’ cows spend their time grazing fresh pastures during the warm months, totalling to an average of 200 days a year. They’re able to express their natural behaviors, socialize with their herd, and have plenty of room to eat, drink, and lie down in a clean, dry space whenever they desire. They have plenty of water and food, which consists of 90% grass and 10% nutritionally balanced feed to promote good health and well-being. Finally, they are never given any growth hormones.  

Dairy cows are normally milked twice a day (they can get uncomfortable otherwise). All of the farms that produce our butter use modern milking equipment and our dairy farmers use best practices and the highest standards to make milking time-efficient, enjoyable for the cows, and extremely clean to keep the cows healthy.  

Holsteins and Jerseys are the most common. These gorgeous girls transform grass, feed, and water into high-quality, high-butterfat milk, which we convert into cream that in turn, makes our high-quality butter. 

Our butter is not third-party certified by The Non-GMO Project. We rely on the farmers, most of whom are multi-generational dairy farmers, to know what is best for their land and herds.

Though our general rule of thumb is six months in the fridge (a little longer if salted), our recommendation is to always enjoy our butter by the expiration date on the package and store it in the refrigerator. Check your butter packaging for an official date.  

Our butter cartons are recyclable. The wrappers are not compostable due to their wax coating. We’re exploring alternatives to ensure our packaging is as recyclable or compostable as possible.   

Yes! Family farms are an essential part of our mission to bring ethically produced food to the table. The family farmers who produce our butter are located in the island of Ireland. Many of them have been multi-generational farms for decades. These family farmers share our passion for animal welfare, sustainable farming practices and are committed to continuous improvement.     

Yes, lactic acid is a standard ingredient in Vital Farms’ unsalted butter. Lactic acid is a natural byproduct of the fermentation process and is commonly found in dairy foods such as yogurt and cheese. 

Vital Farms’ Restorative Eggs are our first certified regenerative eggs that are produced using a core set of regenerative tenets that promote rich, nutrient-dense soil. We call these eggs “Restorative” because these principles aim to create a harmonious ecosystem between land and animals that’s good for our girls and leaves the land better than we found it.

Regenerative farming practices focus on restoring soil health to grow stronger, healthier land through planting cover crops like ryegrass, minimizing soil disturbance and rotating hens on pasture. We believe we should be restoring instead of depleting the earth through the practices we use to grow food. Thank you for joining us in doing our part to try to help restore the health of the earth on which we all depend. Learn more at vitalfarms.com/restorative.

We collaborated with regenerative agriculture experts at UnderstandingAG  to define what regenerative farming means to Vital Farms and thoughtfully develop our core tenets of regenerative farming.  Read more about our 5 core tenets here . In partnership with them, we have transitioned our four regenerative farms to adopting these regenerative farming tenets since early 2021.

We are always working to improve and scale our farming practices. Each of our farms already avoid herbicides and pesticides, as well as practice pasture rotation to fortify the health of the land. Our Restorative farms are going a step further by implementing regenerative principles to foster balanced environments between pastures and animals, increasing the land’s resiliency, and improving the health of waterways. We also conduct annual soil sampling on our Restorative farms to verify soil health improvement year-over-year.

Just like our other hybrid egg cartons, the Restorative carton is made of 100% recycled paper and pulp, and is fully compostable & recyclable!

Our Restorative Eggs are certified by Regenified™, a third party regenerative verification standard. Our certification recognizes the incredible regenerative practices across our Restorative farms that build soil health and increase land resiliency, and we’re proud to be the first national egg brand to achieve this recognition! Read more about our Regenified certification here.

The Azur hens who lay our True Blues consistently lay more medium-sized eggs than large. Like most things in nature, variation is part of the magic! We do our best to embrace and celebrate these nuances of nature, and part of that means selling the eggs that the hens decide to lay!

We do our best to respect the variation that stems from our system of pasture-raised farming. If you notice unique sizes or (blue) hues coming from our Azur hens… that’s how Mother Nature intended it, and we see no reason to interfere! While the eggs in a single carton should be close in size, there can be some variance. As a result, our True Blues cartons may contain some larger eggs alongside the medium eggs.