My wife sometimes pushes me to get 4 chickens (the limit to what our Township will allow).
But I will only do it if I can get a mob of Guinea Pigs as well.
bullied by Big Cock again
I don’t know how much it really matters and if the chickens do have a better life, but it makes me feel better about it. Supposedly the flock sizes are limited, they can go outside, etc. So it probably does cost a lot more to produce these eggs.
They still probably drop live male baby chicks into a grinder though.
Whelp, that is the end of that species…
https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/23/cant-make-an-omelet/#keep-calm-and-crack-on
TLDR: Egg prices are gouging. And blamed on inflation.
Certainly the egg supplier has raised prices dramatically, but I think this is made possible by the dramatically reduced supply due to the avian flu outbreak. They’ve lost something like 40+ million hens in the US so far.
On some level that’s how markets are supposed to work. Egg prices going up makes people buy less eggs, which balances out the fact that there are less eggs to buy.
In any situation where assume suppliers in a market get wrecked by some unforseen event, I think you would expect to see the remaining competitors in the market become much more profitable, wouldn’t you?
I stopped buying eggs and I eat protein powder for breakfast now. It sucks. Also my protein powder went from $45 a tub to $85 a tub. Fortunately, I have a stockpile. But I need to swap brands or something because it’s ridiculous.
Oh geez. That must’ve been recent. My last order was in December and it was fifty something dollars. Crud.
My understanding is that is about 10% of the total number of laying hens in the US. I don’t know enough macro-economics to know what the expected price bump is from a 10% drop in supply capacity. Also, I suppose the capacity loss could be greater than 10% if the precautions taken disrupt operations beyond just chicken death.
It’s a complex issue. I think there is definitely some market impact involved but I also feel bargaining power and human psychology put their thumbs on the scale.
At $85 a container that dude better get a lot of followers for that stunt.
As an anecdotal note, my wholesale price for local, humane, vegetarian, cage-free eggs hasn’t budged a penny (knock on wood). They were always a lot more than regular eggs (by about 30-40%), and the price did go up a year and a half or so ago. But all during this egg craze the price hasn’t moved- folks in my kitchen are complaining about $60-80 cases of crappy eggs (probably 3x normal), and I’m still paying $45 for the good stuff. The wholesale warehouses (Cash and Carry, Restaurant Depot) are known for price gouging at the slightest opportunity, though, so I’m guessing that’s what’s going on here, too some extent.
We need to open the border to Mexican Eggs!
@Wallapuctus , do you just eat the powder out of the container?
Same for my grocery store certified humane eggs. About the same price they have been, currently $6.79 for a dozen, but they have been over $6 for a couple of years now IIRC. (edit: sorry, repeating myself, apparently I said the same thing a couple of weeks ago in this thread.)
Kind of curious how many eggs you were eating for protein @Wallapuctus when protein powder is the cheaper alternative.
Most recent egg report 1/23/23 shows prices on the way down, heading into February.
https://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/pybshellegg.pdf
@Wallapuctus get ready to stock up.
I have tracked all my expenses for the last 10 years or so. I have doubled the amount I spend on groceries in the last 6 years. I don’t eat that much differently. I eat out less (as in almost never now), but otherwise I still eat the same things, go to the same grocery stores, etc. I did increase my income in that time, so maybe I am buying more things?
I also keep a price book (but I update it sporadically), and generally prices have not doubled in that time period, but I don’t have enough data to say that for sure.
That’s “only” a 12% annual increase.
I usually do 6 in the morning. That’s like 1 scoop of protein powder. The powder is way cheaper but eggs are more nutritionally complete. And they taste better.