dead
Why not get some new ones? Too much effort?
We moved
But even if we didnât, eggs from your own âpetâ chicken while tasty is really more of a curiosity than any sort of sustainable endeavor.
Just myself I can easily go through 3 dozen eggs, if not more, in a week. So relying on pet chickens for that kind of supply just doesnât work. At a bare minimum trying to forage for even 1 egg sometimes can take several minutes, unless serendipity steps in, which would mean if wanted 6 eggs in a particular day I could potentially end up spending hours foraging. No fun.
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This has been my experience too. It is subtle unless you are eating a lot of eggs, or making a very egg centric dish alot. One of my favorite ways to enjoy fresh eggs is to sous vide them to the perfect (for me) 64C egg. The yolk is runny, and itâs a very rich topping for toast in a weekend breakfast.
While the Nellieâs and other supermarket pasture raised eggs are better than other mass produced, watery eggs, they arenât as good as my farmers market eggs.
I checked local supermarkets and most of the pasture raised brands are going for $7-8/dozen. A visit to a farmers market stand this Tuesday, I scored a dozen farm fresh eggs for $7. 
The eggs that come with my meat share are delivered to my door though, so I do expect a bit of a mark up for that.
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Is this a seasonal thing? Here it is mid-Feb 2024 and egg prices just jumped to 3.59 / dozen (had been 1.99/dozen for months).
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I have not yet seen a jump here, about $2 for mass produced âlargeâ and I think around $2.30 for extra large.
The pasture-raised grocery eggs here never really came down, still over $7.50/doz for supposed âextra largeâ. I get pasture-raised from guy a couple miles away for $5/doz, and they average more massive than XL (around 72 g, with a min/max from about 64 to 78). Whereas the 2 times I got the grocery pasture ranged, they averaged about 61 g despite being labeled XL.
The rest of the grocery stuff from âcage freeâ to âfree rangeâ is in the $4-$6 range.
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I feel even luckier now having a buddy with a consistent surplus of eggs. Just grabbed a dozen yesterday for $0.00 
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Egg prices have almost doubled in recent weeks. This is what remember from a year ago.
âCal-Maine Foods, which controls 20% of the retail egg market, reported quarterly sales up 110% and gross profits up more than 600% over the same quarter in the prior fiscal year, according to a December filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The company pointed to decreased egg supply nationwide due to avian flu as the reason for higher prices and record sales. Cal-Maine brands include Egg-Landâs Best, Farmhouse Eggs, and Land Oâ Lakes eggs.â
âThe company has had no positive avian flu tests on any of its farms, according to its quarterly report. Cal-Maine did not respond to a request for comment.â
And if I remember correctly there was supposed to be a government investigation into the matter. Nothing came of it that I can find online. So now that egg producer can actually show proof at a Kansas farm. Big surprise there.
My old Army buddy has about 20 layers. He donates a bunch to food pantries and immigrant families in his area. So far as I know, heâs never sold them. He just enjoys having chickens.
I tell him itâs nice not to live in a subdivision where thereâs Rules N Shit.
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Itâs one of very few benefits of living in the boonies.
Sacramento allows for a couple of backyard chickens even within city limits. My partner kept a couple for a while, but the construction needed to keep them safe from urban predators (mostly raccoons with the occasional coyote) is extensive. You not only need a coop, but a multi-layered fence with a floor below the ground surface to keep them from digging under. Keeping them alive was too difficult, alas.
A friend that lives in the boonies had several layers for a long while, and weâd love the eggs we got from her, but her flock finally got whacked by some critter, so no more :(.
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And more if youâre not within city limits (or actually if youâre in a different county, like Placer)
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Here in NYC suburbs, eggs were $2-3 a dozen for standard/supermarket brand eggs (large/XL) for the past several months.
Yesterday I paid $3.99 for 18 of Egglands Best large eggs on sale, but the supermarket brand was $4-5 a dozen. Land o Lakes large brown eggs were $4.99 dozen, and organic/fancy eggs were $7-8 dozen.
These prices are from Shoprite in Westchester County.
Chickens are not an issue, but roosters are not allowed in the borough.
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Roosters are OBNOXIOUS. They are restricted in urban areas for good reason. They donât crow âat dawnâ. They crow all the fucking time. Someone in my old neighborhood in Glendale had one and it was just hell every weekend for 2-3 months until it stopped. Dunno if it was neighbor complaints or of some predator got him, but I was not sorry to lose that particular bit of âlocal characterâ.
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When I stayed a lil longer in Berlin than my PIC in 2008, I had to move into a different pad bc I couldnât afford the one weâd shared. I moved into the 5th floor of a building that had a backyard. Rooster included. That little shit would wake me up every morning 
It also housed a fab, old-school liqueur manufactory I decided to check out the night before my departure, after many good-bye drinks with friends. Bad choice 
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Not to mention fires! I am sometimes tempted, but I find the bad stuff pretty traumatic.
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I have heard that roosters do not âbellâ, start crowing, for 6 months after they mature. The person i spoke to claimed she just butchered the rooster as soon as it crowed and kept a couple of the eggs to get another rooster.
Not sure how that would work long term.
