A lot of people are just now finding out why turkey eggs aren’t a thing, and it’s honestly kind of surprising once you dig into it.
Even though turkeys are front and center for holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, their eggs are nowhere to be found in stores or restaurants. Turns out, the reasons have to do with how turkeys lay eggs, how much it costs to farm them, and even some weird old rumors from history.
For starters, turkeys just don’t lay as often as chickens do. Chickens can pop out eggs almost daily, but turkeys are much slower.
Kimmon Williams from the National Turkey Federation said: “Turkeys have a longer life cycle, so they need to get to about seven months before they are able to produce laying eggs.”
Chickens usually start laying by five months and can crank out five or six eggs a week. Turkeys take longer and produce way fewer eggs. On top of that, turkeys need more room and eat more feed, which means raising them for eggs costs way more.
Experts say a single turkey egg would need to sell for at least three dollars just to break even. A dozen would run you around 36 bucks. Compare that to chicken eggs, which only cost a few bucks a dozen, and it’s clear why stores don’t bother.
Turkey eggs also come with more calories and fat, and three times the cholesterol of a chicken egg. They’re bigger and heavier, too.
Some chefs have talked them up for their rich yolks and say they’re great for making sauces. But even that hasn’t been enough to create any serious demand.
Turkeys have been in North America for a long time, way before chickens showed up with European settlers in the 1500s.
When Europeans first saw them, they brought some home, but then things got weird. Rumors started in France that turkey eggs could somehow cause leprosy. That idea took hold and pretty much scared people away from eating them.
In early America, turkey eggs actually did show up on fancy menus now and then. Delmonico’s in New York used to serve them scrambled or baked into frittatas.
But once chicken farming got industrialized in the 20th century, chicken eggs became way cheaper and easier to find, so turkey eggs slowly vanished from regular use.
Nowadays, they’re considered rare. You might find them at a specialty farm or from someone who’s really into food.
The USDA said that in 2024, turkey egg numbers dropped to the lowest point since 1988, partly because of avian flu outbreaks.