Egg size - From Pullet to Dinosaur
Eggs come in so many sizes, maybe more than you even knew! While the gold standard for baking is the "large" egg, you might find that there is something else more suitable for the job at hand.
PeeWee, Small, & Pullet Eggs
Weight:
PeeWee - 1.25oz/egg or 15oz/dz
Small - 1.5oz/egg or 18oz/dz
What these are: typically from very young hens who just started laying (pullets) or from smaller birds like quails. We don't raise quail, so you will see ours offered as Pullet Eggs. These are temporary, and will be available for a very limited time, until the pullet matures around 1 year old or less, or until their eggs reach standard size.
Our Pullet eggs may occasionally exceed standard "PeeWee" or "Small" size. This is simply due to the size of the breed and what their starting and final egg size will be, so you will see them labeled as "Pullet" eggs accordingly, and priced relative to their total carton weight.
Best uses: Extra rich dishes, appetizers, salads. Pullet eggs are a specialty, having around 60% yolk to white ratio compared to around 30-35% for a standard egg. This makes them abundanty rich with the extra yolk, and their small size is perfect for hard boiled egg appetizers, or topping a salad. Pastry chefs often seek out pullet eggs due to their extra richness. They are also just super duper cuuuute!!! Who doesn't love things that are tiny?!
Good to know: When pullets begin laying, their eggs may home some oddities- inconsistent color or markings on the shell, odd shapes, and even an occasional "fairy" egg with no yolk at all! You may also find double yolks! All of this is completely normal as the pullets develop, and the eggs are good to eat. This is their practice round as they get used to producing and laying.
Medium Eggs
Weight: 1.75oz/egg or 21oz/dz
What these are: some breeds are smaller, and smaller chickens lay smaller eggs! These can also come from younger hens as they continue to grow to their final size.
Best uses: Poached, Hard boiled, Appetizers. Medium eggs are the preferred size for poaching, and they are a great size for appetizers where a smaller portion may be beneficial. These also make pickled eggs easier to fit into and retrieve from mason jars (if you pickle in mason jars, you can relate to the struggle!)
Large Eggs
Weight:
2oz/egg or 24oz/dz
What these are: Common egg size, and what you would find in abundance at the grocery store.
Best uses: Baking. Large eggs are what is the golden standard in baking. If a recipe calls for 2 large eggs, using a different size could disrupt the recipe, depending on what you are baking.
Good to know: We don't get a lot of large eggs from our hens, but you may see them on occasion. If using different size eggs for baking, you can either scramble and weigh your egg, or for 2 eggs, use one XL and 1 medium as a substitute. On occasion, we package 6 medium and 6 XL as a "Baker's Dozen" for this reason.
FUN FACT: Commercial egg producers focus on large eggs out of consumer buying habits and expectations. To encourage hens to lay larger, they feed them a specific controlled protein with increased protein levels and provide more light, then restrict the protein once they are laying large eggs so they don't get too big for the carton.
They typically raise white leghorns for their high production rate- the same chickens we have that lay our white eggs. However, there is a stark difference in egg size. Feeding our hens a balanced layer feed, scratch grains, tons and tons of garden scraps, lots of tasty bugs, and allowing them to free range (when supervised...we have a lot of hawks with eyes on them), our chickens eggs have far, far exceeded what we ever expected in size. They were consistently extra large once the hens matured, despite being known for large eggs. This year after their molt, their eggs have become consistently JUMBO and we even had to create a new size- DINOSAUR!
This speaks volumes for animal welfare, in my opinion. Our hens are first and foremost our pets, getting special treatment like you wouldn't believe. We adore our girls, and clearly, bigger eggs come from happy, healthy, and well loved chickens!
Extra Large Eggs
Weight: 2.25oz/egg or 27oz/dz
What these are: Extra large eggs come from bigger chickens, or in our case, well cared for and well loved chickens!
Best uses: Breakfast, cooking for a crowd, general purpose eggs. Less egg cracking, and more egg make these a great option for breakfast scrambles, omelettes, and sandwiches with their big beautiful yolks.
Good to know: We used to primarily have all white XL eggs, but we see a shift on the horizon. Many of our white eggs are now consistently "jumbo" or "dinosaur" size, and one of our brown layers is laying consistently XL eggs (and I am sure we have a couple others right behind her). Expect a change in shell color on the horizon with this size!
Jumbo Eggs
Weight: 2.5oz/egg or 30oz/dz
What these are: Extra large eggs come from bigger chickens, or in our case, well cared for and well loved chickens!
Best uses: Breakfast, cooking for a crowd, general purpose eggs. Less egg cracking, and more egg make these a great option for breakfast scrambles, omelettes, and sandwiches with their big beautiful yolks.
Good to know: We used to primarily have all white XL eggs, but we see a shift on the horizon. Many of our white eggs are now consistently "jumbo" or "dinosaur" size, and one of our brown layers is laying consistently XL eggs (and I am sure we have a couple others right behind her). Expect a change in shell color on the horizon with this size!
Dinosaur Eggs
Weight:
2.75oz/egg or 33oz/dz
What these are: Dinosaur eggs aren't a "real" size in the egg industry, but when each size has a .25oz increase, it's only fair to give these beasts their own category! Our chickens started laying eggs from 2.75-3.0 oz after their molting period in fall of 2025. These are the largest chicken eggs we have ever seen! Absolutely amazing!
Best uses: Breakfast, cooking for a crowd, general purpose eggs, holding up to various objects for comparison of massive size in disbelief, telling your children that these came from real life dinosaurs. Less egg cracking, and more egg make these another great option for breakfast. Huge eggs also mean HUGE yolks! If you like "dippy eggs," these will NOT disappoint!
Good to know: A well fitted name- chickens are the closest living relatives to dinosaurs! With the size of these, I think our chickens might actually BE walking, living dinosaurs!
What do you think of these Dinosaur eggs?! Let us know in the comments!
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