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Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

(civileats.com)
310 points greenie_beans | 3 comments | 19 Feb 25 21:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.593s | source
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crocowhile ◴[20 Feb 25 15:12 UTC] No.43115639[source]▶
The egg price is due to the H5N1 epidemics, which also means that this is the least indicated time to get a backyard chicken. The US should have dropped battery caging, like the rest of the world did 15 years ago.
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marifjeren ◴[20 Feb 25 17:40 UTC] No.43117757[source]▶
> The egg price is due to the H5N1 epidemic

No, it's not. But that's what the egg companies want you to believe. In truth the number of egg laying hens is only down about 5% total since the beginning of the epidemic.

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1. unglaublich ◴[20 Feb 25 17:56 UTC] No.43117939[source]▶
You don't know the elasticity of the market. I can imagine restaurants, food producers and consumers are very eager to get their weekly box of eggs. So even a 5% drop can cause a price jump that's way more.
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2. ◴[20 Feb 25 19:10 UTC] No.43118794[source]▶
3. marifjeren ◴[20 Feb 25 22:24 UTC] No.43121112[source]▶
Actually we do sort of know from the 2014-15 avian flu. In the 2014-15 avian flu, a 12 percent decrease of egg-laying hens was accompanied by a 220% price increase in 2014-15:

- https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/charts-of-note/chart-... - https://farmdocdaily.illinois.edu/2015/06/economic-implicati...

Compare that to the current epidemic in which a 5 percent decrease of egg-laying hens is accompanied by a 600%+ price increase.