Chicken/Egg prices

[snapper-G]

I spoke to our purchasing guy today at work and he was telling me that he's having difficulty getting companies to bid on chicken and egg products. He mentioned the avian flu as maybe a reason. But it seems that these companies don't want to lock in a price for 6 months because of the rollercoaster the prices are on. Frozen eggs - no bids; fresh eggs - 1 company out of the usual 6 bid; One supplier even mentioned to him that they are already worried about meeting the turkey demand come Thanksgiving. I do know that gorcery store eggs seemed to have doubled in price the last few months and whole chickens at the grocery store are running $8 - $9 each if your lucky. Anyone else hearing about these issues?

[JoSal73]

Not exactly related, but Costco sells whole rotisserie chickens for under $5 and the price doesn't fluctuate ever.

I think I may pick up some if raw chicken prices get too out of whack.

[Schooly D]

Absolutely. This is a nationwide issue/shortage with the bird flu. A lot of uncertainty out there.

http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/10/investing/egg-prices-shortage-bird-flu/

I happened to be in Whataburger the other day and they have stopped serving egg in their breakfast sandwiches during non-breakfast hours.

[EvilSwine]

Heard of at least one whole farm in Iowa that was wiped out by the flu. Hasn't hit the suppliers we use where I work yet but there is a lot of concern for most of the egg products we order.

For some reason I haven't heard anything on the fresh meat side, just eggs.

[Yan can Cook]

What a coincidence you asked. They just jacked the prices here around .50 a dozen. While it's only .50 the percentage is what got me. Imagine if everything goes up 25-30%!!!!

[jemezspring]

I too wondered what effect the avian flu epidemic would have on chicken pricing. So far around here egg prices have been the same for about the past year ranging from $1.49-$1.89/Doz x-lg. Fresh chicken prices have come way down. I have not paid over .39/lb for leg quarters in a couple months. This week one of my stores is selling them for .25/lb. Whole birds are selling for .79/lb-$1.09/lb. I hope they are not selling me the avian flu birds.

Pork has also come way down from last year. In the past couple of months I can regularly find shoulders and picnic roasts for .99/lb-$1.29/lb. Spare ribs are still $1.99/lb as they have been for the past couple of years. I thought the prices would be much higher this year because of the virus last year that killed ten of millions of piglets.

[cinmur]

You will see a price increase in eggs when you have 40 million layers destroyed and the time it is going to get them back into production. Turkeys should be ok for thanksgiving as most are in the freezers already. I am a poultry consultant working with operations in the Midwest...it is wicked and expensive to say the least and it is not just the big corporations getting hit, but lots of small everyday producers trying to make a living...Pray that it runs it course soon.

[smoke ninja]

Frozen eggs, ive never heard of tgat or even knew it worked. Is that common?

[mchar69]

Costco Bought Out the Chicken folk -
Gold Kist. Now they control production to keep cost down. Good news.
Regular Safeway makes 1% on sales,
Costco gets 14 %. They are Superman.

[jbounds286]

i havent noticed an increase in egg prices yet

[zanna5910]

Egg prices have jumped here for sure. There is a shortage but I'm sure with how fast they turn around chickens it will bounce back.

[cinmur]

Since the AI flu has hit breeder farms also that produce pullets for the layer barns, the supply of chicken layers will be in short demand, thus it may take some of the larger operations up to 2 years to be fully stocked...Another note is that the broiler market (meat chickens) have not been affected...the chicken soup market may be affected since most of that meat comes from chickens that are through laying and processed.

[snapper-G]

Frozen eggs, ive never heard of tgat or even knew it worked. Is that common?
Frozen eggs, frozen egg whites are used extensively in institutional food service operations. You'll never be able to do a sunny-side up with it but when you do scrambled eggs for 450 people that's what you use. Frozen egg whites are good for making meringue

[jgarcia]

Last weekend I noticed that eggs doubled in price all of a sudden at my two local grocery stores. I guess we are not the only ones.

[TedW]

Support your local farmers. Stuff is healthier and tastes better. Ultra-mass produced animals... how can that be a good thing?

And I'd rather support my neighbor rather than freakin WalMart or Cosco

[northof8]

store has a sign stating the moving prices and will not advertise any prices and to expect increase. Our family can't eat all the ones we are getting from our chickens so not a problem to me.

[hammb]

Support your local farmers. Stuff is healthier and tastes better. Ultra-mass produced animals... how can that be a good thing?

And I'd rather support my neighbor rather than freakin WalMart or Cosco

We have a local family that does chickens the right way. They make their own chicken feed to supplement them but mostly the chickens eat by roaming their grounds and eating bugs and whatever else they find. The eggs are higher than grocery store eggs, of course, but the flavor is a billion times better. The yolks are a nice deep orange and the flavor is just unreal.

I've cracked eggs from them next to other "local farm fresh eggs" and even there the difference is night and day. To compare to grocery store eggs isn't even a comparison.

We eat a lot of eggs, but not so many that an extra buck or two per dozen isn't worth just spending for higher quality (and MUCH healthier if you do the research on 'em) eggs.

[TedW]

We have a local family that does chickens the right way. They make their own chicken feed to supplement them but mostly the chickens eat by roaming their grounds and eating bugs and whatever else they find. The eggs are higher than grocery store eggs, of course, but the flavor is a billion times better. The yolks are a nice deep orange and the flavor is just unreal.

I've cracked eggs from them next to other "local farm fresh eggs" and even there the difference is night and day. To compare to grocery store eggs isn't even a comparison.

We eat a lot of eggs, but not so many that an extra buck or two per dozen isn't worth just spending for higher quality (and MUCH healthier if you do the research on 'em) eggs.

I have to agree with every comment in this post. Every comment.

[dport7]

We raise our own chickens also. They are kept in a coup with a good size run"because of hawks" We feed them all house hold scraps and stuff I get from a friends vegetable
stand thats to old to sell. We give them 18% protein chicken feed as a supplement.
They seem very happy, getting 5 to 6 eggs a day out of 8 hens and are terrific tasting.

[Norm]

I do the exact same thing dport7, nothing beats having fresh eggs. When we give away our extras folks always comment on how dark yellow the yolks are.

Iowa is the #1 egg producing state, I've lost count of how many millions of birds that have been put down. I have a friend who just put up a big egg laying house and can't get any birds for it for at least 6 months to a year. There's a very good chance it will bankrupt him.

[TedW]

The insect diet is really a big deal. The natural unprocessed raw insect food is about as quality as it gets.

A calm and safe environment removes stress. Stress hormones therefore don't taint the flavor of the eggs of chicken meat.

Such a win-win

[cowgirl]

Another home grown chicken fan here. Mine run around the farm all day and roost in the coop at night. They keep the bug population down and I get more eggs than I need. I trade the eggs to a friend for fresh milk and cream. Win, win for both of us. :grin: