By Chris Berry

Published 26th Feb 2022, 11:45 BST

Steve Shearman, who runs Church View Farm Eggs in Wakefield, has been in eggs and poultry all his life. His father worked at the local colliery, kept egg-laying hens and Steve would trade them from being five years old.

Steve said he is looking forward to the traditional mini spike in egg sales this weekend at the farmers’ markets he and his wife Julie attend and the shops he supplies as customers prepare for Pancake Day on Tuesday, but that it is nothing compared to the upward trend that eggs have had since the pandemic first hit.

“I like eggs in any way there is and my advice on what size eggs to use for pancakes is either medium or large. It’s a wonderful day for the egg industry of course, but we’ve had an amazing run since Covid.

Steve Shearman has sold eggs since he was a boy

“Lockdown gave the whole egg industry a massive boost even though when the first one was announced it looked like being horrendous for us.

“Julie and I only have 1,000 hens these days and it’s those eggs that we take to the farmers’ markets, but over 95 per cent of the eggs we sell are from other producers and when lockdown came it looked as though it could have spelled problems for those, such as one in North Yorkshire whose income relied on the hospitality and tourist trade.

“It looked as though our trade overall was to reduce by 60 per cent, but one day later and the shops went ballistic for eggs.

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“We made up what we had lost from hospitality and much more besides.

“It was like I’d never dreamed the egg job could be and for the first time in my life I went down to our egg shed and it was completely empty. It was just amazing.

“The biggest job most in the egg business had at that time was having enough egg boxes. Fortunately for us we had just put in our order before lockdown and it worked out okay for us, but we were being offered ridiculous prices to buy what we had.”

Steve said he was being followed down the aisles of shops he supplies as customers were so eager to have their eggs that they were taking them almost out of his hands.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. As I was putting them on the floor they were disappearing. Milkmen have done exceptionally well.

“We had one milkman who was doing 20 dozen a week pre-restrictions. His order went up to 180 dozen at the height of the pandemic and he still has orders for between 120-150 dozen today.

“I was delivering to shops three or four times a week instead of just once and those who lived locally to us were coming direct to our farm to get their eggs before having to take pot luck in a shop that may have sold out.

“We now sell 120,000 eggs a week and deliver to shops and the hospitality trade across Wakefield, Barnsley, Huddersfield, Bradford, Leeds, Harrogate and Pontefract. Julie does most of the packaging and I handle the driving.

“The farmers’ markets we attend are Horsforth, Harrogate, Oakwood and Headingley in Leeds, Otley and Baildon.”

Steve said that keeping hens and selling eggs is the only real job he has ever known.

“I started my working life on a poultry farm that had pigs at 15 years old.

“I was there 30 years before I was made redundant, but then had the opportunity to buy half the business from my employer, Robert Youde.

“It’s our business today, mine and Julie’s. We rent our six acres from Robert and live just a mile away in Sandal.

“I will always keep my poultry. They are part of me. We also have a few ducks and geese mainly providing eggs again for the farmers’ markets.”

Steve said that attending the markets was a big eye opener for him when they started at Kirkgate Market in Leeds in 1999.

“I was amazed and interested at what I thought were simple questions being asked about eggs and I felt very proud that I could answer.

“Customers still come up with the same questions and theories today. People will say that they can tell that such and such eggs are free range because their yolk will be a different colour.

“That’s largely a load of rubbish. It’s what you put into the animal feed that causes the colour of the yolk.”

Steve enjoys his role as an egg and hen specialist.

“I love my Lohmann traditional and Bovan laying hens and like to provide what customers want. Many will buy an extra large egg for their boiled egg in a morning.

“I tell them that when you buy an extra large you will definitely get your soldiers in, but when you buy a goose egg you’ll get in a whole army!”

Meet the Yorkshire poultry farmer whose eggs have enjoyed a lockdown sales boom