Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer? • Hacker News Board

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#431

Post by slothtrop » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 2:48 PM UTC

42772827 wrote: post #374

slothtrop wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Morality is arrived at through value judgement. We have a social contract with each other, not animals. People generally dislike gratuitous pain and cruelty, hence we're seeing a push for cage-free hens and the like. They don't oppose slaughter in and of itself.

What people generally oppose today is a function of their consciousness and ability to access alternatives. They don’t oppose slaughter because they don’t think there’s an alternative, the same way that a person who is on the verge of starvation will steal food. They also don’t oppose slaughter because it’s hidden away from them, and done by others. Slavery is an excellent cognate to this. It’s a slippery slope, isn’…

> They don’t oppose slaughter because they don’t think there’s an alternative

That's clearly not true, and a projection.

They don't oppose slaughter because they find no objection with killing an animal for nourishment, "necessity" having no bearing.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#432

Post by scruple » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 2:48 PM UTC

827a wrote: post #418

memsom wrote: post #184

Wow! I wondered about this article - US centric. I wondered because eggs are not expensive here. I just looked [1] [2]. I can get a dozen free range for about US$4 at the current conversion rate. They are a supermarket own brand, but even the "fancy" ones are something like that for 6, but some are actually still close to $4 for 12. The US chicken market (not necessarily eggs specifically) was in the Morgan Spurlock…

Yeah even in the US its somewhat regional and brand-specific. In my region, I just purchased a pack of 18 eggs for $5 USD at a typical well-known chain grocery store. Some of these egg companies are absolutely using the bird flu as an excuse to raise prices. Right next to that 18 pack I bought was a shelf full of eggs that cost $9/dozen. No one was buying them. Just a weird situation.

I picked up a dozen for $3.99 last night at a major chain grocery store, too. They had plenty of eggs in stock and I was there around 9pm. I've seen the insanity at Costco first hand so I've stopped buying milk and eggs from there until that sorts itself out

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#433

Post by cma » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 2:48 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #383

johnla wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try making nuggets from scratch. It’s so good and easy to do. Chicken tenders from breast meat. Egg seasoned with salt, pepper. Dunk into seasoned breading. Dunk into egg again and back to the breading. Pan fry. Yummy.

Chicken tenders are chicken tenders, not nuggets. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with nuggets. Nobody criticizes Italian meatballs, which are ground-up beef in balls. But then for some reason ground-up chicken in a different shape isn't "real chicken"?!

Not all nuggets are ground, chick fil a nuggets I think are just a chunk of tenderloin or something. But I wouldn't call a fried complete tenderloin a nugget.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#434

Post by phendrenad2 » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 2:50 PM UTC

Prices "soaring" like everything else? I'm sick of these articles that pick one product in isolation and ignore the fact that we're in hyperinflation and it affects products unevenly. (Egg farmers have likely been unable to mitigate bird flu because they artificially kept costs low to avoid shocking the public into abandoning eggs entirely, but now they need to overcompensate because of this random event).

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#435

Post by gadders » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 2:52 PM UTC

mrbadger wrote: post #293

gadders wrote: post #222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is the distinction between "livestock" and "pets". I would also be very surprised if any vets ever managed to treat a hen successfully. They tend to hide any illness until very sick.

Really? I have taken chickens to the vet twice (in 8 years). First was one taken by a fox. My wife chased the fox and he dropped the chicken (she was too heavy for him). She had a broken leg and a broken wing. Both perfectly treatable and she went on to make a full recovery, resumed laying. As result of her closer contact with people during her recuperation she became very tame and socialized with visitors on the dec…

We do take our geese to the vet. They don't have names, but they live for 40 years. Not sure why that is a factor but it definitely is.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#436

Post by redcobra762 » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 2:52 PM UTC

I genuinely don't understand why the focus is on egg prices. Who out there is paying more than a total of $3-$5/month more in eggs? And no, even to the absolutely poorest among us, that's not a meaningful amount.

Yes, egg prices, as a percentage are going up a lot, but as an absolute value? I can get a dozen eggs from Walmart right now for $5.46. That isn't, by any measurement, a lot of money more than I would have paid a year ago.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

#437

Post by undersuit » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 2:52 PM UTC

MagicMoonlight wrote: post #266

h0l0cube wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the highest end organic feed tho Maybe feed them your food scraps? Or bulk buy and prepare your own grains/pulses?

This makes me wonder - would chickens grow more efficiently if you cook their food for them? When we invented cooking it gave us a massive advantage because of the nutritional efficiency, yet we feed animals just random raw stuff. Would feeding them porridge instead of grain lead to higher output?

My chickens feed is a grain mix that can be boiled or even fermented, often called silage with the larger livestock.

The chickens love some warm mash on a cold day like today, they'll get some yogurt too.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

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Post by maelito » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 2:53 PM UTC

The difference between Wall Street's numbers and the real daily life of citizens of the United Stats is astonishing.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

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Post by redcobra762 » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 2:53 PM UTC

wappieslurkz wrote: post #406

slothtrop wrote: post #391

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Eggs have obvious health benefits. Land encroachment + emissions is modest, and notwithstanding, that's just something to manage, not avoid altogether. Everything we demand for ourselves encroaches on land.

It doesn't take much of a search to find many strong contra arguments to your reply. https://www.peta.org/features/egg-industry-cruelty/

PETA is full of shit, to the point where you could probably safely take on the opposite of their position on any given issue and presume to be correct, generally.

Re: Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

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Post by marcus0x62 » Thu, Feb 20, 2025, 2:53 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #383

johnla wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try making nuggets from scratch. It’s so good and easy to do. Chicken tenders from breast meat. Egg seasoned with salt, pepper. Dunk into seasoned breading. Dunk into egg again and back to the breading. Pan fry. Yummy.

Chicken tenders are chicken tenders, not nuggets. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with nuggets. Nobody criticizes Italian meatballs, which are ground-up beef in balls. But then for some reason ground-up chicken in a different shape isn't "real chicken"?!

You’ll find the “ground chicken” in a typical industrially produced chicken nugget to be quite different than the ground meat found in a traditional Italian meatball.