One of the curious things is how the price of eggs has become the go-to proxy for the level of inflation in the country. This is due to Trump who during the presidential campaign kept talking about the price of eggs (and bacon) as being extremely high and blaming Joe Biden for it and promising that he would bring prices down on day one of his presidency. Of course, that was rubbish, like pretty much everything he says. Short of imposing direct price controls on specific items, the government has little sway over their prices. Trump has conveniently stopped talking about the price of eggs and indeed of inflation altogether which remains at the levels before he took office. He now says that it may take some time to get inflation down. Well, duh.
The high price of eggs has led to egg robberies, such as the theft of 100,000 eggs from a truck in February. One explanation for the high price of eggs is that the bird flu virus resulted in the slaughter of many chickens, resulting in fewer eggs being sent to market. A darker theory is that the wholesale price has not increased that much but the retail price is being kept high because of collusion by egg wholesalers (Big Egg if you will) who are making huge profits because of the markup.
I myself rarely eat eggs so the price of this particular item has not been a factor in my life. But it seems like it has adversely affected many people for whom eggs form a big part of their diet and possibly a major source of protein. As a result, they are cutting back. I read a recent article about bodegas (small neighborhood grocery stores) in New York City that are now taking eggs out of their cartons and selling them in smaller quantities (two or three) in plastic bags. They are called ‘loosies’, similar to the way that cigarettes are sold singly for those who cannot afford to buy a full pack. But this can also lead to arguments.
One of the store’s workers, David Evangelista, had an egg-scarcity story. Two customers, a man and a woman, were standing in line. There were only two eggs left, visible in the deli case. The woman ordered two eggs on a roll, and the man got upset: couldn’t they go one and one? The woman started yelling. She got both of the eggs, and the man, grumbling, ordered a ham and cheese, but stormed out before it was ready. “He said, ‘I don’t want no sandwiches from you!’ ” Evangelista said, shaking his head. “And now Easter is coming.”
Places that use eggs a lot, like diners and other breakfast eateries, are finding the price of eggs sharply raising their costs and some have resorted to reducing to one the number of eggs that come with the standard breakfast or charging a premium if people want the usual two.
But the strangest solution that I heard of was that some places are replacing eggs with liquid eggs that come in cartons. I was not aware that this was a thing, which shows what a sheltered life I lead. Apparently liquid eggs are commonly used commercially when eggs are called for in a recipe but consumers may not be aware of the switch if the eggs are not visible as eggs but come scrambled or otherwise disguised. Advocates of liquid eggs say that it tastes the same but others are not convinced. The liquid eggs “are composed mostly of whites, with seasoning and xanthan gum to imitate yolky warmth” and produce a “pale, spongy heft.”
This immediately raised questions in my mind. It is a complicated and messy process to separate egg whites from the yolks even in one’s own kitchen. How is it done on a commercial scale so that the cost is less than simply using a complete egg? And if most of liquid eggs are made of just the whites, what do they do with the surplus yolks?
I clearly have too much time on my hands today to be thinking of such things but I cannot help it. Inquiring minds need to know.
Tr*mp went on TV -I don’t recall if it was from Air Force One- and lied, saying the prices of eggs had dropped 70%, an obvious falsehood. And the journalists had no follow up questions for that, the yellow schmucks.
There are a couple of different mechanisms…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESfwc64QJ9g
Mayonnaise. I rather think the albumen is the excess, but they also market egg whites only for those leery of cholesterol, but wanting the protein. Also angel food cake and meringues use only the whites. I suppose it all balances out and nothing is wasted.
Also, if you’re finding egg separation to be messy, there are all sorts of devices to do it neatly, for as little as $2 or so. Google “egg separator” to see the variety. I like the ones you crack the egg into a cup that has a small slit on one side where you pour out the white. I’ve tried the soda bottle trick, but if the eggs aren’t super fresh the yolks break and that is messy.
Big Egg collusion isn’t new. Here’s a case from 2008. https://apnews.com/article/egg-producers-price-gouging-lawsuit-conspiracy-8cd455003a3a40bab74d0f046d0f2c9d
There was also a big case in Iowa, where I’m from, but I don’t remember the date. It was well before the current situation.
Suggestion/request: a physics post?
Physics, hmm… coffee with your eggs Rob?
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-unveiling-physics-brewing-thick-jets.html
Ice cream, custard, some baked stuff, sauces like hollandaise and real mayo. All of these preferentially use yolks. The power went out a lot during the fires down here in Los Angeles which caused me to view some survivalist websites. FWIW ‘powdered egg yolks’ are a thing. Maybe they are used as an ingredient to make those creationist ‘the world is about to end’ slop buckets?
There are also vegan egg replacements for baking and the like. That’s my preference because they’re shelf stable and i tend to eat all the fresh eggs and not have any when i want to bake
Because it is so easy to understand and is true! You can vaguely sense that your grocery price has doubled but being able to zero in on a commonly used item is and will always be political weapon. (In India its usually the price of onions or tomatos)
Heres one view on eggflation (and its not due to bird flu!)
https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/10/demand-and-supply/#keep-cal-maine-and-carry-on
Dunc @#2,
Thanks for that video. I am frankly amazed that such delicate thing as an egg could have the yolk and white separated by a machine so well and quickly.
I went to the supermarket today and for the first time noticed that on the shelf above the ones with the eggs were cartons of liquid eggs. I had never seen them before even though they must have been there all these years.
My obliviousness may be due to the fact that I am a very focused shopper. I make a list before I go in the order in which the items are stacked on the shelves and aisles and then I go straight for those items. I spend hardly any time browsing. The downside is that when I have to buy something in a category I have never bought before, I sometimes find it hard to locate.
Deepak @#10,
Thanks for that eye-opening expose of the predatory policies of Big Egg. I had no idea that it was that bad.
larper@5,
Smith by no means got everything right, but he was an honest social scientist horribly traduced by his modern self-styled followers.
Fools. It’s due to the Marxist chickens unionizing and striking for better conditions. Obama gave them Obamabenefits and made them lazy. We need to get tough on chickens and teach them the value of hard egg laying.
@Silentbob: Egg laying is hard! Chickens are the only animal (besides humans) that I can think of that are loudly vocal about pushing out their offspring.
I have a small farm and raise chickens… and reading the article that Deepak Shetty posted at #10, well, I have to question some of what is in there, specifically this quote:
“New layers can be incubated and raised very quickly, and there are large reserves of fertilized eggs that can be quickened on demand.”
In fact, egg layers can not be incubated and raised very quickly. Incubation for chickens is 21 days. From time of hatch to first lay is as short as 18 weeks, or as long as 22 weeks. In today’s market, that’s not really all that fast -- if you have to slaughter a lot of hens, you’re looking at 175 days before you have eggs again -- that’s over 5 months. As far as “reserves of fertilized eggs that can be quickened on demand”: the maximum amount of time you can store a fertilized egg and have a reasonable chance it will hatch is 3 weeks. You have a much higher hatch rate if you only store eggs for 1 week -- this is considered best practice. So no, they can’t store eggs for months or years or something, and those 3-week-old eggs will not have a very high hatch rate.
I’m not saying the article is not correct about predatory business people intent on maintaining a high profit at any cost, and the author of the piece may know quite a lot about the egg business. This person just does not seem to know very much about chickens.
kestrel @#17,
What has been your experience in terms of prices that you get for your eggs? Are you seeing the kind of rise that retail shoppers are seeing?
@Mano, #18: I’ve always tried to charge a fair price -- I had been selling for $4 a dozen for many years, but now I am seeing eggs for $7 at the local co-op. Therefore, I went up in price to $5… People have always been happy to pay for what I am selling, which is eggs from chickens NOT raised in a factory setting, but instead who live in a farmyard setting, with feed not laced with anything, and fed kitchen and garden scraps, able to forage for insects etc. Those are eggs that I myself would prefer to eat, and I’ve had customers report a better taste which could well just be a bias. I *could* charge more I suppose. However, I’m not trying to make some kind of huge profit. I’m just trying to cover expenses and make a bit on the side. The feed I use for example is higher protein than what factory-fed hens get, and it costs me more, but I feel the health of my birds justifies the expense. As a side note I hatch and raise my own chicks, so I’m not buying commercially bred chickens.
@kestrel
I was very surprised to read that line about “quickening” myself. I wonder how the author got that idea. Myself, I would have followed that up to find out exactly how it was done. The author doesn’t seem to be a very good reporter.
On a side note, do you know what happens to the millions of birds that live past their laying years? I have looked in my area’s markets for stewing hens, and I can find some in some of our ethnic markets, but they seem much rarer than I expected them to be.
I should mention I started looking for stewing hens long before the bird flu epidemic.
kestrel @#19,
Thanks for that response. On the occasions when I do buy eggs, I only buy those in which the chickens are certified to be pasture raised or free range. It costs about $9 a dozen here in Monterey. I also try to find eggs that are locally sourced but it is not easy to tell in a supermarket if that is the case.
And today comes a report about how Cal-Maine’s profits have soared
It looks like the bird flu is really good for Big Egg.
@kestrel @17
Cory Doctorow sources are listed in the article which is really https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/hatching-a-conspiracy-a-big-investigation which has some numbers (like for the previous epidemic Altogether, producers added adult hens to their flocks at a prodigious rate of 4.15 million per month on average from August 2015 through February 2016, replacing nearly all of the hens lost to avian flu within 7 months.) -. My expertise with eggs is limited to eating them so I will defer to you , but my sense is Doctorow is summarizing here with “quickly” and I would expect that his description wont really work for small farms. Even what you are saying (5 months) seems to still work -- egg prices have been high for much more than 5 months , and I dont think the point is that Avian flu wont have any impact but that a lot of the big farms are prepared for it and could react , relatively quickly. But they havent , The referenced article has more numbers of deliberate throttle.
Wow. the farmers market that I frequent was $14 (small family farm)
@moarscienceplz @20
Pluralistic is a kind of quick hits blog -- its not a detailed analysis and it usually does a lot of self reference (for detailed you have to buy his books!) -- it usually lists its sources . Doctorow is not a scientist (currently most known for coining the term “enshittification”)
@Mano, #22: I agree that this needs to be investigated. Sadly one must always factor in human greed.
@moarscienceplz, #20 and #21: Usually those hens go for stuff like soup, or stock etc. The meat is still good of course, so it’s not wasted. But think Campbell’s Soup -- big commercial buyers. There are groups who try to find the chickens homes, but most people want chickens because they lay eggs, and these hens will be pretty much past that. They’ve been specially bred to lay like crazy early in life, but just like humans, they run out of eggs eventually, and in this case, very quickly. Also these hens look pretty rough by the time they are done laying; a lot have almost no feathers, they’ve been fed on things that are less than desirable from a homesteading approach, and it’s very difficult for them to transform into farm chickens.
To everyone: as far as egg prices, you go by what your market is. Most people here are very low income. I therefore price according to the market, what others charge, and what people can actually afford. Again, I try to be very fair, and charge as low as I reasonably can. And again, I’m not doing this to become a billionaire; I’m doing it because I love birds and they are a passion of mine. Selling eggs allows me to keep doing what I love.
kestrel @#24,
I have a friend who tries to raise a few chickens because she likes them and allows them to range freely on her property. The eggs they produce are a bonus which she eats and shares with her neighbors. But she says that bobcats tend to pick them off one by one. Do you have a similar problem with predators?
Direct question to someone who’s already posted three times…
https://images.app.goo.gl/LFZy4RcizCMkrEMx5
(THIS IS A JOKE)
@ ^
Mano’s up to six so has to ban himself thrice.
LOL, I’m about to get banned? Well OK then!
@Mano, #25: The problem is, pretty much everything likes a nice chicken dinner. So yes, you have to protect them from predators. My pens have nets over the top of them, so that instead of being upset about seeing raptors, which would eat the chickens, I can just enjoy the raptors. I live right across the street from the national forest, so we have bears and cougars in the yard. So yes, I have large fenced yards with big nets over them, and at night I lock the doors on the coops. The funny thing is, the net makes the chickens feel better. They evolved in the thick jungles of southeast Asia and are very agoraphobic. Having things over the tops of their heads is comforting for them. I’ll also point out that, oddly enough, the usual predator that kills all the chickens one day is the owner’s dog. I can’t even tell you how many times I’ve read that tearful story in chicken forums.
@silentbob @27
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
(Alan Moore, no actual Latin knowledge)
kestrel @#28,
Thanks for that explanation. Since my friend keeps some chickens as largely a hobby and because she likes the birds, your solution might be too elaborate for her, unless she scales it down to a very small protected area.
I have learned so much about chickens (and eggs) over the last few days.! They seem to be quite fascinating animals in ways that I had not suspected.
The sound of chooks scratching about in the back yard adds a certain rustic charm to the place. Loads of manure and a convenient way to dispose of kitchen scraps, too.