Our Hens
Carefully cared for on small family farms
Pete & Gerry's hens enjoy life under sunny skies with room to roam, forage, and explore. Their care follows strict Certified Humane standards, ensuring the eggs they produce meet or exceed your ethical needs. Read on to learn more about our eggs with ideals and select the ones that are right for you!
Hens Lifestyles
Explore the many ways of raising hens (and the two we believe in).
CAGED
Other hens
CAGED-FREE
Other hens
FREE-RANGE
Our hens
PASTURE-RAISED
Our hens
Caged
Cage-Free
Free-Range
Pasture-Raised
Caged
Some of the most cruelly confined in animal agriculture, these hens spend their entire lives indoors in tight cages without room to spread their wings.
Denying hens natural behaviors like nesting to lay eggs, dust bathing for protection from parasites, and more causes intense suffering.
Our Hens diets
Conventional feed + outdoor forage
While our girls spend their days outside foraging for snacks, they rely on a supplemental feed to complete their nutritional needs. This is tailored to each flock and includes a mixture of proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, and natural immune boosters (like Vitamin E and oregano oil)
Types of outdoor forage
Our girls spend most of their days on pasture dust bathing, socializing, perching, and searching for snacks, engaging their natural instinct to forage. Some of their favorite pasture prey include: grasshoppers, crickets, centipedes, spiders, ticks, worms, beetles, and just about any other six- or eight-legged creature they can catch.
Organic feed + outdoor forage
Our hens can’t maintain a balanced, complete diet on pasture alone, and enjoy organic feed to properly fulfill their needs. USDA Certified Organic eggs means that both the pastures where our girls graze as well as the farms producing crops used in their supplemental feed have no GMOs present.
Over 180 small family farms across the US
Explore our farms below to meet a few of the passionate families putting healthy eggs on your table.
Featured Farms
Bomgardner Family Farm
Lebanon County, PA
“I have always been in farming,—when it’s in your blood, it’s in your blood. I like being with my family, and the kids are a great help.”
Breckbill Family Farm
Lancaster County, PA
“The hens make a happy noise—they really sing. You know by the noise when they're happy or if something is wrong."
Crouse Family Farm
Lebanon County, PA
"I had never worked on a farm before, and farming taught me to appreciate what kind of work it takes to put food on people's plates. I like being able to contribute to the family and to the success of our farm. It's just a sweet time to all be together."
Dersham Family Farm
Union County, PA
“I like the flexibility, and I love spending time with my family. I enjoy knowing that I’m helping to keep the world going around.”
Giovagnoli Family Farm
Boscawen, NH
“I have always farmed, it’s in my blood. It’s almost therapeutic for me. The hens allow me to farm full-time with my sons now; farming keeps families together. It’s going to be tough for small, family-owned farms in the future, unless we can educate the public about the value of small farms and quality of food they produce.”
Miller Family Farm
Caledonia County, VT
“I love farming; I like working with animals, raising crops, and I love working outside. Most of all, I like being with my family."
Nolt Family Farm
Perry County, PA
“I like seeing what I have accomplished. I take a lot of pride in it. I also like the personal connection with the company, and that Pete and Gerry’s is fighting for family farmers.”
Zimmerman Family Farm
Union County, PA
“I like being my own boss, and I love working with the animals. I’m going to do this as long as I can."
What is Certified Humane®?
Every Pete & Gerry’s farm follows rigorous free-range or pasture-raised standards set by Certified Humane, a third-party certification program committed to holistic and transparent animal welfare standards. The non-negotiables for our girls include:
Space
Free-range hens must have access to 2 square feet (or more!) of space per hen, while pasture-raised standards require a minimum of 108 square feet. The bottom line? Both certifications prioritize freedom to frolic so that hens can do what they do best; just be hens.
Diet
Consistent with the latest research on hen health, all hens must be offered free access to nutritious, species-appropriate feed to supplement their balanced diet of pasture fare, which includes juicy worms, fresh greens, and other tasty treats.
Shelter
As a safe haven from predators and a clean, dry place to nest and lay their eggs, spacious coops are a must-have for both free-range and pasture-raised flocks.
Enrichment
Tidy, uncrowded spaces with room to spread their wings and stay active means hens enjoy endless opportunities to behave like hens. Whether perching indoors or foraging out in the pasture, our flocks spend hours socializing with friends before winding down with a dust bath and nesting for the night.
Perches
All hens must have access to perches large enough that they can wrap their toes around comfortably and balance easily. Both in the coop and beyond, flocks find these perches essential for resting, stretching their wings, enjoying a peaceful moment alone, or getting the perfect bird’s-eye view.
Hygiene
Each flock must have access to well-maintained litter that keeps our hens feeling fresh and flourishing. As a natural behavior and cornerstone of hen hygiene, routine dust baths allow flocks to properly regulate body temperature and protect themselves from parasites.
