Cage Free, Free Range, and Pastured are labels commonly used on eggs. However, if you're buying cage free or free range eggs, that might not mean what you think it does. If you're imagining healthy, happy chickens roaming in a grassy field and eating bugs and getting sunlight, that's not necesarily the case.
Cage Free basically means that chickens can move freely in a building, a room, or similar enclosed space rather than being in a small cage in which they can barely move. They may or may not have any access to the outdoors. This is much better than living in a cage, for sure, but still a very low standard, and lower quality egg.
Free Range means that the chickens have at least some access to the outdoors (which does provide more Vitamin D, for example), but there is no requirement regarding the amount of time outdoors or the quality of the range. You could have a field full of chickens without a bug or blade of grass in sight due to the sheer number of chickens and it could still be called "Free Range." There are standards as low as 2 sq ft per chicken. That's just a nasty feed lot for birds.
Pasture Raised is not a term that is regulated, but with certain other qualifiers can refer to conditions where each chicken is provided at least 108 sq ft of range. So that idyllic mental image of chickens roaming a grassy field and having lots of room to move around in the sunshine and eat bugs -- that's pastured eggs. That's why pastured eggs are the best and most humane option. They also have better nutrition.
Our hens are out on pasture all day, and the range available to them is more than twice what is expected for the "Pastured" label. They will also be rotated periodically to fresh pasture as needed.
Of course, they are also provided a balanced diet to supplement what they find in the field, and a spacious coop to protect them from predators and the weather this winter.
The eggs are collected from roll out egg boxes to keep the eggs clean, and we avoid washing them unless required to preserve the natural waxy coating on the eggs. Unwashed eggs can last about 2 weeks at room temperature. Refrigerated washed eggs should last 50-60 days. Refrigerated unwashed eggs can last up to 3 months. Once eggs have been refrigerated, it is best to continue refrigerating them.
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