Jamie Oliver on Pullet Eggs

“The supermarkets may not want them, but I reckon farmers could find a market for their huge volume of pullet eggs by selling them to restaurants and pubs.”

Producing eggs is a family tradition at Mac’s Farm, where the produce is organic and Freedom Food accredited.

Susie’s 102-year-old grandmother Alex Eldridge kept hens and supplied local shops in the 1920s.

Her parents, Peter and Liz Barton, ran one of the first local free range egg farms after they converted to organic production in 1997.

She said: “To me, pullet eggs are a product at its best but we lose so much money on them.

“We’re only paid about 48p a dozen and on average we collect 8-10,000 eggs a day from our chickens when they’re first laying.

“People don’t want these eggs because they’re small but actually pullets’ eggs have a really big yolk and less white, and are brilliant at holding together when cooked.

“They are the only eggs we use when we have them, and the kids love them.

“Everybody believes large eggs are what you need because a recipe says so, but you shouldn’t expect chickens to lay big eggs.

“Good welfare is allowing a chicken to lay an egg size that its body is naturally designed to do.

“If you buy smaller pullet eggs instead, just use one extra.

“You’ll get the same result.”