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Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

(civileats.com)
311 points greenie_beans | 1 comments | 19 Feb 25 21:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.25s | source
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Jgrubb ◴[19 Feb 25 23:18 UTC] No.43109033[source]▶
To save money? Absolutely not. I'm keeping a spreadsheet on our 20 chickens this year. They're young, so input is very high while output is still ramping but I'm guessing it's $7-8 dozen in food costs alone (the highest end organic feed tho), never mind the initial buyin.
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h0l0cube ◴[19 Feb 25 23:25 UTC] No.43109107[source]▶
> the highest end organic feed tho

Maybe feed them your food scraps? Or bulk buy and prepare your own grains/pulses?

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Jgrubb ◴[19 Feb 25 23:59 UTC] No.43109419[source]▶
It's a recent experiment, we were on the more reasonably priced organic feed until I discovered my local feed store had this stuff over the holidays, so we're trying it out. The quality of the eggs is absolutely miles above what I already considered really good eggs though.

I'll probably get around to making our own someday, but I'm not there just yet.

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swarnie ◴[20 Feb 25 07:24 UTC] No.43112018[source]▶
> The quality of the eggs is absolutely miles above what I already considered really good eggs though.

I must drive past a dozen (lol) honesty boxes on the way to work offering the sale of eggs and this is my general experience as well.

Its amazing how individuals can produce and sell a product as cheap if not cheaper than mega corps with such staggeringly different quality.

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Cthulhu_ ◴[20 Feb 25 09:37 UTC] No.43112821[source]▶
I mean if you add everything up - land value, labour, food costs, etc - I'm fairly sure they're selling eggs at a net loss, however, it's not a capitalist endeavour unlike the industrial production. And IMO that is the key difference, that is, they produce for themselves and sell the excess and earn some money off of it, it's not their primary goal to do so.
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1. h0l0cube ◴[22 Feb 25 01:04 UTC] No.43135015[source]▶
OTOH for shop bought eggs you also have to add transport (fuel/truck maintenance), storage, commercial land rent/interest costs, electricity, and of course the mark-ups along the way by processors, distributors, and—most of all—the shops themselves, that use their monopoly powers to reduce the margins for everyone else. And if we're doing like-for-like, you have to buy certified 'Pasture Raised' eggs.