Cost of eggs? Going up? Eggs are still a great buy!

 In the Coop

In case you have not seen the news lately or been to the grocery store, the price of eggs has gone up almost 60% the past year!  I am not watching TV right now and we don't buy eggs at the grocery store so I was a little bit out of the loop on all this.  Luckily, a friend (thanks Don!) sent me an article about the current situation.  It seems that there are a couple of things going on.  One is that the cost of materials (feed, egg cartons, etc...) has gone up.  We just bought egg cartons for Mark's business and the price was definitely higher from the previous year.  

The second reason is the Avian bird flu outbreak is still happening and many egg laying chickens are succumbing to that disease.  Avian bird flu is carried by waterfowl like wild ducks and geese.  We have both wild ducks and wild geese that live right by our home in the lagoon of the University of Idaho dairy!  Luckily, they don't "stop" by our place but they definitely fly over a lot.  You can actually hear the rushing of the wind through the ducks wings as they fly overhead.  It makes a squeaking sound.  The wild geese are usually honking so you hear that and know they are flying over....but I digress...  Unfortunately, the bird flu is highly contagious and super lethal.  This has been the deadliest outbreak in U.S. history!  We are keeping our fingers crossed that is does not visit our farm...

Let me put in a plug for buying eggs from a local farmer or food cooperative (co-op) that carries locally laid eggs.  I know that the price of eggs at our local co-op have not gone up and Mark has not increased his egg prices for a couple of years.  The eggs you purchase at your co-op or directly from a farmer will probably cost more than the eggs at your local grocery store.  BUT you are getting a much healthier egg and, as with most things in life, you get what you pay for.  What you want to look for are Pasture Raised Eggs!  These are the kind that Mark has!  If you need help finding a local farmer, use a website like Local Hen to find a farm near you!  

Here is a nice graphic showing the difference between eggs...it might be hard to read so here is the link to the article: A Guide to Cage Free vs. Free Range vs. Pasture Raised Eggs  Cage free sounds great but it is truly not all that it is cracked up to be...pun intended...even free range just says that they have to have "access" to the outdoors but they don't have to go out there...

I love this pic showing the difference between Cage Free and Pastured:

Here is a pic of Mark's girls that I took yesterday...now you have to realize that it is the middle of winter so there is no "green grass" but they still love coming out on "pasture" and look for worms and scratch around and do chicken things...

Here is a great video put out by the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association talking about advantages of pastured eggs and meat:

We don't move the coop as is shown in the video but we do move portable paddocks around the coop so that they have access to fresh grass (when the grass is growing!)  Here is one of my favorite pics of the chickens out on pasture last spring...

Pastured eggs are more healthy than conventionally raised eggs...taken from Mother Earth News...

Need a reason to love eggs!  They are incredibly nutrient dense containing 13 essential vitamins and minerals.  They have lots of  B vitamins like B2, B5, B12 which are sometimes hard to get.  Chickens that go "outside" produce eggs that are high in Vitamin D.  They also contain zinc, choline, lutein, and iron, 6g of protein and all nine essential amino acids, making them a “complete” source of protein. All this for around 70 calories!  

Eggs provide long lasting energy!  I never need a snack in the morning when I start my day with a couple of scrambled eggs, avocado and salsa (my favorite breakfast!).  Eggs are sugar free!

They are versatile and can be made sweet or savory...scrambled or boiled...fried or over easy...creped or omeletted...caked or cookied...the possibilities are limitless!  So many reasons to LOVE pastured eggs!

Have an eggcellent day

~Denise