Why the High Egg Prices?

 For my own benefit, and yours, I'd like to pass on some articles here and there to keep us informed of agriculture news and facts.

I am amused when I see comments of people calculating how much money they can save by having their own hens, not realizing the cost of mature pullets ready to lay, the cost of feed and the need for a safe (from predators, weather and disease) facility to keep them.

Its almost ten years since we left On the Pond Farm. At some point 17, 18 years ago, I calculated how much feed my hens used, their egg production and how much I would need to charge for a dozen eggs to break even. Yes, I was a small scale producer with free range brown hens, so my costs would be a bit higher. The cost was about $2.00 a dozen in a day and age when people were used to going to the store for .99 cent per dozen white eggs. How egg production cost the mass producers more than a dollar less so there was any profit is a mystery to me. I always felt the real cost was absorbed by the grocery shops as a "come on". That I don't know.

Again, we have a problem that comes and goes regularly - avian influenza. The following is an informative article from Oklahoma State University Extension. 

Higher egg prices are the new normal in 2023 | Oklahoma State University (okstate.edu)