The Farm Behind Costco's Kirkland Signature Eggs

Yahoo

10-03-2025

Eggs have consistently made the news since the 2022 bird flu outbreak led to a significant national shortage, which still affects the egg industry even in 2025. From Trader Joe's imposing a nationwide limit on eggs per customer to egg shortages at Whole Foods, most major grocery store chains have been impacted across the United States — and Costco is no exception. As of February 2025, the warehouse has put its own limit on egg cartons for individual shoppers. As a result, the farm that supplies Costco's Kirkland Signature eggs has been identified as Handsome Brook Farms.
Though based in New York, Handsome Brook Farms partners with various small farms across several different states and leads the production of organic, pasture-raised eggs in the U.S. The principles of small farms and the welfare of the laying hens are at the core of the Handsome Brook philosophy. According to the Handsome Brook Farms website, each farm's standard is 400 hens per acre of roaming space, which ensures that the chickens are not just happy but also healthy. Keeping the flocks smaller means that they get more quality care from the farmers. In fact, the company claims its hens tend to live longer and lay more eggs than conventional chickens.
Read more: 13 Ways To Help Save Money At The Grocery Store
Handsome Brook Farms wants the shoppers to know that there's a difference between pasture-raised and cage-free eggs. The company doesn't label its eggs as cage-free or even free-range, for that matter. Rather, the two certifications it holds are USDA Certified Organic and American Humane Certified pasture-raised. But how do pasture-raised eggs differ from the rest? Each of these labels displayed on the egg cartons in the store is supposed to relay to the customers the quality of life the laying hens have.
Cage-free means the chickens aren't kept in cages without the space to move, but they may be limited to the barn. Conversely, free-range hens do have access to outdoor spaces, but different certification programs cite different rules for how that space should look and how large it must be. The pasture-raised label requires the hens to have access to a large outdoor pasture, meaning a grass-covered area. In order to get American Humane Certified, the chickens need to have at least 108 square feet per hen of pasture space.
For the hens at Handsome Brook Farms, life is lived outdoors about 300 days per year — even in bad weather, should any of them wish to brave the rain. Choosing this particular supplier for its Kirkland Signature organic eggs appears to align with Costco's commitment to humanely-raised eggs, a pledge the store publicly announced in late 2022.
Read the original article on Tasting Table.