Pay wall.
I wonder if pricing is impacted somewhat by location? I live in a smaller farm agricultural area in the mid-Atlantic/South and shop primarily at the farmerâs market and local food coop.
I have not seen a shortage, and the price range is around $3.99 for a dozen local cage free brown eggs to $7.70 for a dozen local soy and corn free non-GMO local cage free brown eggs.
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Our Trader Joeâs here in northern california had a total of 5 dozen organic eggs and a ton of empty shelf space.
Just paid $4.79 for a dozen in the SF Bay Area. The shelves were about 1/4-1/2 full.
I live in the DC/Balt metro region. I used to buy my eggs at Sams Club - a 2 pack carton with 36 eggs. My local Sams has not even carried the two pack in a while and was only carrying single 18 packs but priced per dozen, they were still $2 more than if I bought at my local grocery chain. In the last two weeks, they are not even selling those eggs at all. They now only have cage free brown eggs.
I bought eggs this week at Trader Joeâs - $4.49/doz which was cheaper than either of my local grocery store chains. While I havenât seem bare shelves, they are definitely not fully stocked.
As for why eggs have gone up in price but chicken has not, I saw a segment on my local news that said farms that raise chickens for parts have not been hit as hard with avian flu as farms that raise chickens to produce eggs.
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Of course broilers are hatched from eggs. If you have a limited supply of eggs, what would you do first, replenish the flocks or sell eggs to omelet lovers?
If chicken is too expensive, I will take a closer look at other competing protein options: beef, pork, turkey, fish, or even tofu. Price chicken too high, some customers will jump to other options. BTW, beef prices have gone down recently. On the other hand, if I need an egg or two for making a batch of cookies, there is not much I can use to substitute it.
There is no vast conspiracy to increase egg prices. Bird flu is a real threat. It can wipe out large flocks if some of the chickens come into contact with an infected wild bird, but there may be no further spread. So there is no massive wave of chicken deaths across the country (yet and hopefully never!), just a big flare up here or there. Quite possible that some parts of the country have no current outbreaks while others have quite a few.
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Ooh, ooh. I know the answer to this one. Sell eggs to omelet lovers! 
Thereâs always Egg Beaters too!
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I hit a new low yesterday⊠I bought a carton of egg whites at Costco. Supposedly organic and whatnot. I used them to dilute the eggs in our scramble. Mr. said the taste was fine. 
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We have our own chickens so rarely buy eggs, but sometimes in winter we need to supplement. I bought the eggs I usually get (Nellies or Vital Farms) and both were priced as they have been at $5.99/$6.99 respectively. If one wanted cheaper eggs theyâre there at the store - plenty of them and at least a couple of dollars cheaper.
We pay for better lives for the hens and the eggs are slightly better for us according to reports Iâve read.
We also live in the land of multiple egg laying chicken farms, so itâs no surprise that thereâs a decent supply and lower costs around here, nor a decent supply near where @MarylandJOE lives since heâs near me.
That said, itâs certainly not a myth that eggs are higher priced with fewer of them around. When we were in VA over the holidays there were no eggs at all on Walmartâs shelves. I was glad we had brought ours from home.
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It helps if you steam them. We cook our in the instant pot.
Birds raised for meat are different (e.g. short time from hatching, to maturity and processing) than layers, who take much longer to reach laying age.
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Meat birds are very young, itâs a fast turn around from hatching to being large enough to process for meat - often as quick as six weeks depending on the breed.
Laying hens take around 21-24 weeks to start laying eggs. Any impact in that life cycle (e.g. culling birds) has quite an outsized impact on the egg market.
(Layers produce more eggs in the spring, and drop off in the winter - itâs related to day length. Eggs are also a seasonal product, even with lights being used.)
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There are different breeds of chickens that are raised for different tasks. The breeds that are laying eggs for production are not the same breeds laying eggs for meat birds. The are separate genetic lines. On a commercial scale the eggs arenât getting âshuffledâ to another purpose. Eggs from hens that produce eggs for consumption would make some skinny and sad meat birds.
Commercial egg layers providing for egg production are breeds that have been bred to maximize that trait. They donât make good meat birds. Commercial meat birds are bred to produce the fastest growing and heaviest meat outputs. They arenât the best,most productive egg layers. Two different tasks with two different input chains. They arenât really sharing eggs on a commercial scale.
Now, on a small scale there are breeds that are ok at both tasks but you wouldnât really see them at a commercial operation where volume makes a huge difference.
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It still doesnât change the fact that layers have to be about 5 months old to start laying, and then you get small eggs first. Most people want larger eggs which, google tells me, takes about 40 weeks to get large.
Broilers go from egg to slaughter in about 2 months pending how heavy you want them.
Itâs going to take the egg industry longer than the broiler industry to recover - not to mention bird flu is still out there (I think) as recently as a month ago.
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Costco 2 dozen cage-free for $5, so 2.50/dozen, but limited to 2 packages, or 4 dozen. Essentially similar price per dozen on the 5 dozen package, but who needs 5 dozen, other than a restaurant?
Sure.
Funny thing though, like I noted, I havenât really seen a giant increase in chicken meat prices.
Dollar General photo from this morning. Prices went from pre covid amount of $2.95 a dozen to $3.95 a long time ago. No movement since. Plenty of eggs always there. No continuing to ratchet up.
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Iâm not a big egg-eater, but if I were, Iâd maybe look for ways to âextendâ the egg â maybe by adding a little milk and butter to scrambled eggs, or adding cheese/beans/salsa for juevos rancheros, adding a lot of ham and cheese in an omelet, etc.
Now, those things cost money too, and I havenât done a full cost analysis of whether adding them actually saves money, but⊠lol well at least itâll be tasty.
I just got a two dozen pack of brown organic certified humane eggs at Costco for $7.62.
Lots of âgood eggâ knowledge here. Iâd file eggs and coffee under the category of âlifeâs necessities.â
150 grams of protein daily is my goal.
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