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Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

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

#511

Post by Eric_WVGG »

qq99 wrote: post #93

As someone who once built a large coop [1] then just bought a pre-built shed for the 2nd coop, it's definitely _not_ the _monetary_ solution. You will probably lose money overall for quite some time. I'm still probably underwater. BUT, there are definite upsides: - Chickens are very sweet animals, and are quite intelligent. You will grow to love all the silly things they do. You can pet them, they are super soft, and…

My sister has been keeping a coop in her backyard for over a decade now. She got the, because “I find the sound soothing.” (It really is quite nice)

One other advantage is that they will absolutely hoover up the ticks out of a yard. I’ve tried to talk my various friends who move upstate into getting some for this reason… but yeah it’s a couple grand up front and a new hobby.

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

#512

Post by amanaplanacanal »

latexr wrote: post #286
amanaplanacanal wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure how killing things and then not eating them is morally superior. If you aren't eating meat you are probably getting most of your calories from grains and legumes. The people that grow and store those for you are killing a lot of animals to get them to your grocery store.

This response feels quite emotional, so I’ll start by saying there was no judgement in my comment. At no point have I made a comment on the morality of the matter . Furthermore, not only do grocery stores not even enter into the conversation, you are assuming to know what the people who grow and sell the food at my local markets eat. I assure you, you do not. I think you’ll benefit from this video. Don’t let yourself…

I think you misunderstood me, perhaps I didn't express myself well. You said the slugs were not a necessary casualty. Growing the acres and acres of grain and pulses necessary for a vegan diet necessitates the killing of way more animals (insects and rodents, etc) than the few cows, chickens, or pigs necessary to feed a carnivore. Every kind of agriculture requires killing. There is no other way to do it at scale.

The real problem is the sheer number of humans we have to feed. Hopefully another couple centuries of low birth rates will help.

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

#513

Post by darth_avocado »

pests wrote: post #140
kupopuffs wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it sucks but you can live without eggs

You can't live without food. Eggs are a food. So you can live without eggs, but when you have no other food, you can't.

> So you can live without eggs, but when you have no other food, you can’t.

If you don’t have any other food except your backyard chickens, chances are you won’t have those backyard chickens for long.

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

#514

Post by freedomben »

aj_icracked wrote: post #455

Backyard chickens FTW! I sold my last company iCracked (W12) and have been automating my coop for fun for the last 15 years. I have always wanted to build a company at the intersection of smart home / AI meets backyard agriculture with the end goal of building the world's largest decentralized food production system. So we started Coop with the goal of making backyard chickens approachable to anyone with a backyard.…

You should really preface it disclaimer your comment so that the reader knows you are pitching your startup up front.

If you did that, I think your comment would be pretty interesting. As it stands now it leaves the reader feeling deceived and misled when they realize you're doing a sales pitch rather than a friendly conversation.

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

#515

Post by jayd16 »

atlgator wrote: post #458
redcobra762 wrote: post #436

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 p…

Egg prices are artificially inflated from the massive culling of chickens by producers due to bird flu. Nevertheless, egg prices are being pushed as a negative economic indicator for political reasons.

Is that artificial?

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

#516

Post by georgeecollins »

deepvibrations wrote: post #443
erellsworth wrote: post #426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It makes sense to me. If you grow up seeing animals slaughtered on the regular you probably won't think much of it, especially when the adults around you treat it as completely normal. You grow up in an environment where you might think meat comes from the magic meat factory, when you see an animal slaughtered for the first time it's likely to be shocking enough to turn a lot of people away.

Very true. Just like when slaves were commonplace, it was 'normalised' and many people just turned a blind eye.

Everything biological is going to be eaten. Your dog or cat would eat you if you were dead and they were hungry enough. I am not saying we shouldn't evolve past eating meat, it would be great for the environment. But to say that one biological creature eating another biological animal is unethical is an indictment of nature.

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

#517

Post by 827a »

scruple wrote: post #432
827a wrote: post #418

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Costco is culturally insane. There's a certain kind of person (cough prepper cough) that shops at Costco; these people hear one whiff of societal instability and they immediately buy ten dozen eggs, manage to eat half of them, and then throw the other half out. Its super cringe and its the reason why I cancelled my Costco membership last year.

Meanwhile you just go to a Kroger or Walmart down the street, pay nearly the same price, and they always have stock. It was the same thing with toilet paper early in the pandemic; we swing by Costco, utter madhouse, line out the door, everyone has cartfulls of toilet paper. I tell my friend "lets skip this and go try Target" -> Shelves weren't fully stocked, but they had some, no crazy crowds, we're good and the butts are clean.

Costco's prices aren't even that spectacularly great anymore, especially once you factor in the membership, and if you do a little legwork on coupon clipping (which is so easy nowadays with all the apps). E.g. the Kroger near me almost always has meat like 30% off on Fridays because, idk, its nearing the last day they can sell it or something. Stock up for the week then, way cheaper than even Costco.

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

#518

Post by freedomben »

wappieslurkz wrote: post #473
slothtrop wrote: post #421

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You mentioned it, so I addressed it. Personally I am just choosy about where I purchase my animal products. You can visit some farms yourself. Of course if you're of a certain disposition, you won't want to do that anyway.

“Some farms”. That’s the crux. I would not believe the "small family farm is OK" myth. If only people would be exposed to what’s really going on anywhere else in enormous & secretive animal industry - not just some cherry picked farms, it would paint a completely different picture.

Gp is not saying that every farm exactly like the small family farm. In fact they are saying the opposite. You need to look at them individually, because they are not all the same as you are suggesting, any more than the passionate open source developer making a small living on donations is the same as a giant tech Corp making billions on vacuuming up people's data and "monetizing" it.

I think the bulk of the animal industry and farming industry are despicable and cruel. I think they essentially low-grade poison our food in order to squeeze unnatural levels of production out of goods. Without a doubt, they torture animals in order to increase yield and maximize it to the space. This is grotesque and awful in my opinion.

But there are people who are trying to do it a good way. If you believe that any sort of animal husbandry is evil, then go ahead and lump all the farms in together. But if you aren't that extreme, then there is a huge difference between some of the players.

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

#519

Post by Larrikin »

ramesh31 wrote: post #467
nightfly wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not who you're replying to... but: it cost me $2-2.5k to build my coop two years ago which houses 5 hens, and they cost roughly $10-20 per month to feed, change bedding, etc. Realistically my household eats 4 dozen eggs a month. Even with current egg prices I'm not saving any money for a long, long time. Still absolutely worthwhile for my mentally though and one of my major life goals

>I'm not who you're replying to... but: it cost me $2-2.5k to build my coop two years ago which houses 5 hens These numbers are absurd. You need a wooden box and some chicken wire, and chicks cost less than $1/bird. I don't understand why this always comes up on HN, where people are spending thousands of dollars on chickens. It's the simplest animal you can possibly own and they should pay for themselves almost immed…

Can you post your chicken coop and instructions on how you built it?

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

#520

Post by jayd16 »

redcobra762 wrote: post #436

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 p…

At least in Los Angeles the prices for a dozen eggs are fluctuating between $3, $12, and an empty shelf.

Some restaurants are up charging for egg dishes although it's not widespread.

It's not the most back braking price fluctuations but it's one of the most obvious. I think the shortages are a lot more apparent than the prices themselves. And the fact it's fluctuating means it's on your mind even more as you wait out another sad, eggless week.

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