Pasture-Raised Eggs
The USDA doesn’t currently have guidelines for pasture-raised production. Generally, pasture-raised eggs are laid by hens who roam and forage on a maintained pasture area that usually has a mobile shelter for nesting. Pasture-raised hens tend to have the most space of any housing environment, though they’re more susceptible to extreme weather and predators, like foxes, weasels, and hawks. They have a more diverse diet since they’re able to forage for bugs and plants, and, of course, they also have unlimited access to chicken feed and water.
Pasture-raised eggs tend to cost more because this housing environment is more labor intensive and requires more land, with a lower volume of eggs produced per flock and a significantly higher loss of birds due to predators.
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Generally, the difference between free-range and pasture-raised eggs is that free-range chickens are raised in a barn with access to the outdoors (in good weather and according to environmental laws and state laws) and pasture-raised hens are raised on an open pasture with access to shelter. So, it’s a matter of where they spend most of their time. Though the USDA doesn’t have guidelines for pasture-raised production, Certified Humane® “Pasture Raised” specifies 108 sq. ft. per bird.31 The hens must be outdoors year-round, with mobile or fixed housing where the hens can go inside at night, or for up to two weeks out of the year due only to very inclement weather.