Can’t afford rising feed prices

[Brooks_]

They are $2.25 a dozen here. The highest I have seen is $3. This is a rural area and a lot of people raise a dozen or two chickens here.

That would be the exception. Like trying to sell bananas in Hawaii.

 

[SueT]

There is another aspect to raising your own eggs other than the costs. We have already seen supply chain issues affect eggs. I think it could become crucial to produce your own as you might not be able to get them in the store either short or long term.
Of course, supply chain affects feed too. But if we couldn’t get the feed, we’d get creative in ways many in this thread have already suggested.

 

[WallyG74]

Feed is $34 per 50lb

Wow! I can get twice the feed for that. I’m sure everything is higher there.

 

[WallyG74]

I have noticed that when I have to buy an emergency bag of cheap layer my birds go through it faster -- presumably eating more to make up for the lower level of protein.

They could be gobbling it up like a dog because it’s new and different too. Who knows what’s going on in their little chicken heads?

 

[WI chickens]

That would be the exception. Like trying to sell bananas in Hawaii.

I guess it depends on the way you define "exception". 60 million people in the US live in rural areas, about one in five. Not quite as extreme as your bananas in Hawaii example, but point taken. Rural people may be the minority, but I think a lot of people are in the same situation. I don't think it's as simple as "stop selling to cheapskates". If you try selling eggs here for $5 a dozen, you simply won't sell any. Like anything, markets vary wildly.

As SueT mentioned, there are other reasons to raise your own eggs. For me, in the situation I am in, I do it for food security and as another step to self-sufficiency. I also enjoy having chickens around. Those things make it worth it to me, but as a way to make money? Not at all. I couldn't sell enough eggs in a lifetime to pay for the cost of their coop, the price to buy the initial ones, supplies, food, etc.

 

[Isadora]

That would be the exception. Like trying to sell bananas in Hawaii.

That's what it's like to sell eggs around me. I'm so rural and enough people have their own birds that they don't sell for more than $2 a dozen.

 

[TropicalBabies]

Wow! I can get twice the feed for that. I’m sure everything is higher there.

Less $ would be wonderful. But it is the price we pay... we give up other things to balance out and the beach is still free. So that is good and I have fruit falling from my trees!

Back to the OP. People prefer buying fresh & happy free ranging eggs as opposed to traveled and cold eggs from the store. They just need someone else to do the work. It takes a little time to get the steady flow of calls and waiting list if you don't work at it.

Stores and farmers market sell plenty bananas around here. Not everyone grows them. So yeah, could be like selling bananas in Hawaii. We sell lots of them cuz people like.

 

[Brooks_]

That would be the exception. Like trying to sell bananas in Hawaii.

Another exception is the majority of the general population are just too dumb to care where the food comes from and how it's raised.

 

[WI chickens]

Back to the OP. People prefer buying fresh & happy free ranging eggs as opposed to traveled and cold eggs from the store.

That isn't the way most people here feel. Most people here don't care about organic, free range, pastured, or anything of the sort. They want cheap. I was selling eggs for $1 a dozen before prices went crazy, not because the $1 a dozen was even worth it for my time, but because I thought I could sell people better eggs than they got at the store. KwikTrip at the time was selling them for $.97. People would buy those because they were "all the same size" and it worked better for them in recipes that way. I started giving my extras to family and friends for free at that point. If I don't have anyone that needs any when I have them, I feed them to my dogs.

 

[WI chickens]

Another exception is the majority of the general population are just too dumb to care where the food comes from and how it's raised.

That is my experience as well.