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Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

civileats.com

541–550 of 879 posts

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

#541

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.

Why do people always think its the killing? Almost every vegan/vegetarian has most of their issues with how its raised and treated its whole life. The constant meat eater trolling about how its natural to eat meat and animals do it, ignore the fact that its not natural to keep animals in pens where they cant turn around for their entire life that is basically pure torture from birth to death. If all meat was produced…

Were that the case, you’d see vegans advocating for eating classically-husbanded animals. But I for one have never seen such a thing. And when I’ve spoken with vegans about this very topic, they’ve insisted that no animal can possibly be raised/slaughtered humanely – the belief seems almost axiomatic to them.

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

#542

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mom has a dozen backyard chickens and I agree with all of these. I'll tack on two bits from my own experience: Good: Fresh unwashed eggs don't need to be refrigerated. They are perfectly safe at room temperature on the shelf for days. Bad: You can't leave them with other pets without supervision. One of the dogs got himself a taste for chicken and already ate at least three. You can't train this out of the dog, un…

Lots of countries don't wash their commercially grown eggs (and have a much lower % from factory farms), which greatly improves shelf life in shops etc.

Iirc, it’s only the US and Japan that acid wash their eggs, thus stripping the natural protective layer, and require refrigeration.

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

#544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

TBH I haven't even noticed a price increase here in Brooklyn. I did notice that a lot of the "oh no eggs are running out" hysteria lined right up with some incoming winter storms, which typically drives up demand for basics like eggs, milk, and bread in the days before. Empty shelves for these items is incredibly common before snow. I don't doubt that there are places gouging, especially in Manhattan, but I just don'…

So weird how people freak out over winter storms in NYC. In the decade I've been here I don't think I've seen a single snowstorm had enough of an impact to close grocery stores.

Probably because no one wants to be on the street with a bunch of drivers that only see snow once a year just to pick up some eggs. More than a quarter of accidents happen in such conditions even though most of the population only sees snow for a short time out of the year so it’s not unwarranted.

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

#545

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.

https://www.farmkind.giving/the-small-farm-myth-debunked

I did not say small farms are inherently kosher. Please engage in good faith or don't engage at all.

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

#546

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Eggs may be full of shit... but Peta? That's too easy to say. Don't kill the messenger.

No, eggs are not full of shit, PETA is. It's a hateful organization that does not give a flying fuck about animals, only about fundraising.

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

#547
post #470
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…

That is expensive. Typically at Costco, 5 dozen eggs is under $12, sometimes as low as $8. Currently it is closer to $20, which is about your price.

Canada Costco sells 24 eggs for $6.79 CAD.

$3.50 for 12 off-brand is available in grocers

Google says today $6.79 CAD is $4.78 USD or ~0.20/egg USD

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

#548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> we don’t observe a sufficient fiber intake for most human omnivore. This has no bearing on the argument. That is just as true of vegans who purchase boxed products. It's also fairly US-centric. If you observe countries with the longest lifespan, lowest CVD incidence and overall best health outcomes, they consume a more varied whole-foods diet with animal products. > the classic diet This is the Americanized diet of…

I agree that a whole food diet is better than the “boxed” one but I have no comparaison point for the US. I’m from France and many people value whole food, “good products” and cook at home however even those gets diabetes, intestinal and blood cancers and other problems that would be easily avoided with more vegetable consumption. The fact is meat is often the central peace of the dish, second the carbs and then sala…

> diabetes

This scales principally with excess weight gain.

> The fact is meat is often the central peace of the dish, second the carbs and then salads, cabbages and roots.

This is one meal, dinner, and the fact that it is more protein-heavy is not the problem. Nevermind ratio, some diets are devoid of fiber. The secondary "carbs" are just pasta, white bread, crackers, etc.

If you consume a whole-foods diet, with a dinner that has a larger meat component, you will easily, easily have enough fiber.

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

#549

I am going today to buy 6 chicks, as i was told all 4 hatcheries in my area were producing chicks for sale this week. I was told they would be $5-$12 depending on the breed. I was concerned because of the culling last year (over 130,000,000 fowl culled in 2024, before the election, even! weird!) that it might be hard to get new chicks, but as i was told > Chickens lay a lot of eggs in the US farm to table is 60-90 da…

Don't you also need to add to that the time it takes for chickens to get to egg-laying age? Which seems to be 4-5 months.

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

#550

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I was a growing teenager I would easily eat 6-12 eggs in a day.

That's a crazy diet.

Feeding a teenager going through a growth spurt a healthy diet is no joke, and even harder when they’re athletes. Anything that gets them to eat whole foods instead of junk food to fill that gap is far from crazy. Twelve eggs is on the order of 700-800 calories anyway, it would barely get a third of the way there.
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