Have you ever wondered why turkey eggs aren’t a common sight in grocery stores, despite the bird’s huge popularity for meat, especially around holiday seasons like Thanksgiving and Christmas. You see chicken eggs everywhere, and even duck eggs pop up sometimes, but turkey eggs? Never.
You might assume that turkey eggs just aren’t good to eat, or maybe they taste weird. But that’s actually not the case at all. Experts have spilled the beans on why we don’t see them on supermarket shelves, and it all boils down to two key factors: the way turkeys lay eggs and the economics of large-scale egg production.
According to UNILAD, before the big industrial egg farms became the norm, people actually ate turkey eggs more regularly. Nutritionally speaking, these eggs are much richer than your standard chicken egg. We’re talking almost double the calories and fat, which, fair warning, also means triple the cholesterol. So, they’re definitely a hearty option if you can find them!
Turkeys are just not very efficient ‘egg layers’ compared to chickens
Turkeys lay eggs at a much slower rate, and it also takes them a good deal longer to mature to an age where they can even start laying. This isn’t like a chicken that’s popping out an egg almost daily. Turkeys are also a lot more demanding when it comes to care and food, making them significantly more expensive to raise.
Kimmon Williams from the National Turkey Federation explained the timeline. He said, “Turkeys have a longer life cycle, so they need to get to about seven months before they are able to produce laying eggs.” That’s a pretty long wait for an egg-laying bird, especially when you’re trying to run a profitable farm.
All these factors mean that the cost of producing a single turkey egg is substantially higher than a chicken egg. Experts have crunched the numbers and estimated that for producers to even break even, they’d need to charge a hefty $36 for a dozen turkey eggs. That’s a whopping $3 per egg! When you compare that to the price of chicken eggs, it’s pretty clear why they haven’t caught on as a staple. Most folks just aren’t going to pay that much for their morning scramble.
While there’s still a bit of demand for turkey eggs, it’s mostly from foodies or people looking for a gourmet delicacy. They’re not going to replace your everyday chicken eggs anytime soon.
However, when it comes to meat, turkeys are a completely different story. Anyone who’s ever wrestled a bird into an oven knows turkeys are physically massive birds. They offer a large quantity of desirable breast meat, much more than a chicken does. This means farmers get a better yield of popular cuts per bird. Plus, with the ingrained popularity of turkey for major holidays, they remain a reliable and profitable livestock choice for farmers.
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