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.
I wonder if spreading the chickens out to all the backyards would prevent spread due to lower density, or if you'd get spread via wild animals anyhow and now it's just impossible to contain and more people are at direct risk.
It certainly would but still it would have to be a controlled and regulated environment. I honestly would not want to have chicken near me in this particular moment especially considering who is the secretary of health. The USA really are playing with fire.