I guess I should talk about the price of eggs.

And what's likely to be an unpopular opinion.

You might wonder if someone who raises chickens worries about the price of store bought eggs, and I can assure you that we do. Maybe not as much as the average (chicken-less) person, but chickens don’t lay all year round (unless you provide artificial lighting in their coop, which is a discussion for another day), so I do end up having to buy eggs sometimes in the middle of the winter when I want to bake (although I do freeze extra eggs in the fall to use at a later date).

Also, anyone who sells their extra eggs to defray their feed and upkeep costs, has had their hands tied for years with commercial egg prices not rising in literally decades. It’s hard to sell backyard eggs for $5 / dozen (which is honestly a fairly comfortable price that covered the cost of the chicken feed, the carton, labor, and a bit of profit for the backyard seller who likely isn’t selling eggs out of the goodness of their heart) when your local Costco was selling a dozen (of, honestly, less fresh eggs from unhappy chickens) for .89 cents.

Would you believe that the average price of a dozen eggs hovered near $1 all through the 80s, 90s, and the early 2000s? One reason was that egg farms were cramming hundreds of thousands of chickens into rows and rows of cramped cages, feeding them the cheapest feed, etc.

But another big reason was that eggs have been “loss leaders” at grocery stores meaning that the prices were set abnormally low for the store to compete for business with other stores. The eggs are placed in the back of the store, making the consumer walk through the entire store to get their eggs and hopefully fill up their shopping cart along the way. This is because pretty much everybody (except vegans and Guy Fieri) eats eggs. In fact, the average American eats almost 300 eggs a year.

I get that the price jump from a dollar or two per dozen to $5 or 6 or even $11 or $12 a dozen has been quick and painful, but some of that is just a very much overdue price correction. And since ultimately, I represent the backyard chicken keepers of the world, I have to side with them and say that the price of eggs is finally representative of their value.

If you do the math, pound for pound, the price of eggs is still in line with the other proteins - chicken, pork, hamburg, etc. - and still cheaper than steak, canned tuna, lobster. A dozen large eggs weighs a pound and a half. So that should put things a bit more into perspective.

And just think of all the things you can do with a dozen eggs.

Monday: 2 scrambled eggs

Tuesday: 2 fried eggs

Wednesday: 2 hard-boiled eggs

Thursday: a 2-egg omelet

Friday: 2 eggs over easy

Saturday: 1 poached egg plus an egg yolk for Eggs Benedict Hollandaise sauce

Sunday: Eat some cereal or a bagel. Time to buy a new dozen!

I’m not saying I don’t sympathize with you that eggs have gone up in price so much so quickly, but they’re still the most nutritious, filling breakfast out there and there really isn’t a perfect substitution for them in baked goods. They contribute so much to recipes. They act as a binder, add moisture and flavor, they add lift and rise…

And remember, while pretty much every other food item has been steadily rising in price over the last few decades, eggs haven’t. So theoretically, they’ve just been playing catch-up this last year or so. We’ve gotten very used to very low egg prices for a very long time.

Now, the unfortunate thing is that the price of eggs is unlikely to go back down, at least not to the 80s prices. So have you thought about raising a few chickens of your own?

And lastly, have you checked the price of butter these days? Why isn’t the media whipping everyone into a frenzy over the price of butter…