Summary
Egg producers blame the bird flu outbreak for record-high prices, but critics argue dominant companies are exploiting supply shortages to boost profits.
With over 166 million birds culled and egg layers significantly reduced, prices surged from under $2 to nearly $5 per dozen.
Egg supply is down only 4% from last year, yet profits have surged. Cal-Maine Foods, supplying 20% of U.S. eggs, reported a $219 million profit in the last quarter, compared to just $1.2 million before the outbreak, a 18,150% increase.
Lawmakers and advocacy groups are calling for a government investigation into potential monopolistic practices.
Chickens are notoriously delicate.
Most people who think on doing this and succeed really love chickens and have a good way with understanding animals and the value of a life. It’s not for everyone
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That’s really not been my experience. I’ve lived with chickens my entire life and they do just fine. We have mostly ex-commercial laying chickens, with a couple we hatched ourselves and random chickens from people who had to give away theirs. I’d say the average chicken lasts several years with us and even the badly abused ex-layers usually perk up after a month or two. They live in an enclosure maybe 50m X 10m (for roughly 10 chickens and 10 ducks) We never give any medical care or any care at all other than food in the morning and shutting them away at night. They even put themselves to bed! Clean the hutch out every week or two and that’s really it.
Our neighbours who’ve just moved from a city a few years ago seem to cycle through chickens every couple of months so maybe we are particularly skilled at looking after them and I’ve never noticed…
Shop eggs completely suck compared to real eggs. The shells are so thin and the yolks are the palest yellow. I wouldn’t keep chickens if it was just me though - chicken shit is just awful and I wouldn’t want to be tied to being available every morning and night to put them in and out of bed.