Why Don't We Eat Turkey Eggs, Anyway?

With egg prices as high as they are these days, some folks have started searching for cheaper alternatives. There are plenty of egg substitutes you probably have lying around your kitchen if nutrition is your sole focus, but as far as taste, it is hard to fill their shoes. In November, when grocery stores across the country are flush with plump, juicy turkeys we enjoy on Thanksgiving, some start to wonder why on Earth we aren't supplementing our egg needs with turkey eggs.

Turkey eggs can absolutely be consumed. In fact, they are said to be quite similar to chicken eggs in taste, with perhaps a little creamier texture that would make some tasty scrambled eggs. The problem lies in how often turkeys lay them and the cost of raising them for that purpose. Chickens begin laying their eggs after about 20 weeks, but turkeys won't start producing until approximately the 28-week mark. Given that they are generally ready to be slaughtered for their meat at 14 to 18 weeks, they would have to be cared for and fed for roughly double that time before they lay a single egg. As high as the prices may be, if turkey eggs were sold commercially, the cost would dwarf the current expense of chicken eggs.

If you thought $6 was an outrageous price for a dozen eggs, try $36. That is approximately how much 12 turkey eggs would have to sell for to make it profitable for everyone involved in the supply chain. Part of this is due to the reasons laid out above, but even when turkeys do start producing, they aren't quite as fruitful as their smaller clucky counterparts.

A turkey only lays about 100 eggs a year if they are really churning them out, whereas one chicken can lay 350 in the same timeframe if you have a good producer in the henhouse. For the turkey, that is fewer than one every three days. Turkeys are much larger than chickens, too, so it costs more to feed them as-is, and keeping them in the embryo manufacturing game when they generate so little instead of harvesting them for meat is simply bad business. Besides that, there will probably never be a market for a $36 carton of eggs.

If you can't live without trying turkey eggs at least once, you can find them but will likely have to think outside the box — and the city. Farmers will occasionally have a few on hand, and if your bargaining skills are up to snuff, you might be able to convince them to part with a few for a reasonable price. However, turkey eggs aren't going to be your secret weapon against eggflation anytime soon.