I found a few sources that said that the percentage of egg-layers treated with antibiotics is low.

Maybe the number should be zero but for anyone concerned about this, chickens used to produce an organic egg product cannot be given antibiotics.

Still had to pay $4.99 tonight, the same as last week.

"Free Range" doesn't necessarily mean what the average consumer thinks it does (happy chickens pecking seeds and bugs in a field under open sky). Here's an article with more info (greenerchoices.org/free-range) and here's a quote from it:

A small, entirely enclosed area with a concrete floor, accessible to only a small percentage of the hens in the house, would meet the definition [of Free Range] without meeting the birds’ need to express natural behaviors.

My conclusion is that this industry, like others, will twist words in order to make a profit -- not a surprise to anyone. You can't rely on a label without researching what it really means.

From an article in today's NYT:

Emily Metz, president and chief executive of the American Egg Board, said in an interview on Wednesday that while bird flu has played a role, increasing costs of fuel, feed and packaging have also contributed to pricier and scarcer eggs.

“Is avian flu a factor? Yes,” Ms. Metz said. “Is it the only factor? No, and I would argue it’s not even the biggest factor in where these prices are right now.”

I did buy a box of 60 eggs at HEB about a week ago for $17.81.

I usually buy boxes of 5 dozen but yesterday at Walmart they were $27 so I just bought a doz. for $5.54.

I do have about 80 dozen eggs stashed away for emergencies I freeze dried when eggs were cheap, but won't touch them unless there are NO eggs to be had. High prices are not considered an emergency, and either eggs or the strategic oil reserve it's not wise to use them up just because the price is up.

picturing elmer's freezer jam packed with alcohol and ice cubes, maybe some books and socks... but not food. HA!

I heard, don't know if it is true, that some foods like fresh vegetable produce ie stringbeans are actually fresher when flash frozen than when sitting all day at a grocery store or farmer's market.

Avian flu in the PNW wiped out the lower-cost egg shelves overnight in the store where I shop. Those egg prices had only gone up about fifty cents earlier this year because of fuel and other costs. Local organic eggs and Eggland eggs were the only ones available because of the flu, and they are triple the price.

" picturing elmer's freezer jam packed with alcohol and ice cubes, maybe some books and socks... "

That's ridiculous!. Of course, there are no socks in the freezer. They go in the veggie drawer of the fridge.

What I said was that WE don't freeze food. We buy some frozen food items, not that much. We don't prepare foods ahead and freeze them for later use. As per lucille's comments, plain frozen veggies (not the kind with sauce) can be good and are certainly convenient. We also regularly buy several kinds of frozen seafood, types only available or best purchased that way because they come from afar.

Our freezer spaces like our food storages shelves are not full. We prefer fresh food and see no need to stock up on anything. We replace what we use, as we use it. I don't believe the remote likelihood of a zombie apocalypse or other major catastrophe requires such conduct and I don't understand those who do.

I think I may still have some of the Ramen noodles that I stocked up on before Covid hit here. I also stocked up on beer and Crown Royal but that only lasted a few weeks before I had to brave the scary world to buy more.

lucille, there has never been a time in my life that having food stored would have been needed or useful. Not once despite experiencing life after two major earthquakes with epicenters near to where I lived, the occasional damage from weather (as is going on now but not where I am), Covid, and whatever else,

There are lots of things in life best planned for but circumstances that may be not impossible but that are very, very unlikely to happen aren't on that list for me. Yes, everyone can make their own choice.

Edit to add - I have LDS friends, some of them quite wonderful people, others a bit strange. There are many tenets and practices of their church that many people find a bit bizarre and almost cult-like and I put their practice of storing food among them.

FWIW, I, like many others who prefer home cooking and enjoy doing so, buy things when they're on sale or found at a good price, and freeze things like meats, vegetables & fruits for future use - it's a good way to save time and stretch one's food budget. I freeze cheeses as well. I used to shop a lot more frequently, but since the pandemic, I've come to appreciate not grocery shopping, since it's such a time suck.

Buying a quantity greater than what's to be used immediately because it's on sale, and doing so is a way to stretch a food budget, is a different topic of conversation. Having large stores of food for the purpose of having large stores of food is something different.

Flavor and quality are sacrificed with home-frozen foods, there's no controversy about that. Good quality commercially frozen products that are properly handled and flash frozen don't suffer the same fate.

Sometimes some people over-do the storage thing, in a way that can seem irrational. I think that's true of LDS folks. Personal choices. I'll stick to buying things fresh when intended for immediate use.

Shopping as a single person - and a single senior at that, with a limited appetite - it is almost impossible NOT to over buy certain goods simply because they do not package them in smaller or individual sizes. And because food waste has serious ecological ramifications, I am not inclined to throw stuff out just because I can't cook and eat it all before it goes bad. So the obvious alternative is to freeze the excess for another time. I don't have a huge freezer so there is not lots of product stashed away - a half loaf of bread, portion sized meats, leftovers like stew or soup, etc. And the usual suspects like frozen veggies and ice cream.

I disagree about flavor and quality being compromised with home frozen foods. If you wrap and store it carefully and don't wait months before using, I don't find any adverse effects at all!

I wonder if my cows will mind if I just run out and slice a steak off of one of them when it's time for dinner.

gardengal, your comment reminds me slightly (don't take the rest of this comment too directly, not intended as such) of the person who used to be active here as an advocate of extremely frugal food practices. Who seemed to look at human food like dog or cat food, as "feed" to supply calories and nutrients but otherwise eating as an otherwise joyless activity. One of many off the wall comments she made was that she bought powdered nonfat milk in 75 gallon barrels that lasted her a year. When mixed with cold water, she said, the taste was indistinguishable from fresh whole milk. Yeah, right.

This last part is what I thought of. If you think the taste and texture of home frozen meat is the same as fresh, then for you, it is. For me, it isn't.

It would be easier and more profitable for stores to sell frozen meat. Easier to handle and less spoilage. If the taste were comperable to fresh product and their customers thought so, that's what they'd do. Even Costco, a store that does everything to be profitable with low prices, sells fresh meat.

lonejack, very few people raise or want to raise their own meat to eat. You're a small exception to how most get meat to eat.

gardengal48. It's hard for 2 people also. There are some recipes you just can't cook in small serving. Thank goodness for freezers.

Elmer, you must not do much in-person grocery shopping :-) Every grocery store I know of - including Costco and Trader Joe's - sells frozen meat! Not all of it by any stretch of the imagination but burger patties, chicken parts, shellfish (prawns) and other types of meats and cuts are all readily available frozen. If it was that inferior to fresh that no one purchased it, they wouldn't sell it! It might not be to YOUR taste but to the rest of the grocery shopping world, it is fine!!

Huh?

I frequently do grocery shopping and have for years.

As I said previously, some seafood that comes from a distance can be best if bought frozen. Including Alaskan salmon. As for frozen ground beef and other such packages - correct me if I'm wrong, these are often budget-priced products that come from factory-scale production facilities. Bought for price motivations, not quality ones. We don't buy that, or frozen chicken. If you want good ground beef, pick out a whole piece and ask the butcher to grind it for you. Then you really know what you're getting. Chicken we buy fresh, a local brand (Mary's) that's air cooled and not dunked in chlorinated water. Delicious flavor, superior to the mass-produced brands that can be considerably cheaper. I think you get what you pay for.

I worked for a large grocery chain as a teen, it's one of those things that gets under your fingernails. I enjoy going to stores. I try to visit them when abroad too. Good stores in other countries offer a window into local cultures. Just as two examples, we always visit the food halls at Harrod's in London and the equivalent at Galeries Lafayette in Paris when visiting either of these two cities. Less dramatic examples in other cities in other countries too.

Elmer, do you have any idea how snobbish many of your comments read to others? There is a very distinct aura of disapproval and/or dismissal and a tone of superiority conveyed in your remarks towards the food choices, methods of purchasing or storage and even ways of cooking of those who may hold opinions differing from yours. There is a degree of judgementalism that permeates much of what you post that is very off-putting.

TBH, I doubt you do, since it is almost omnipresent. And judging from the flak many of your comments seem to generate - and not just the food-related ones - I am not the only one to have this impression.

No need to respond. It is just an observation.

I'll respond only to observe that like most random groups, it's a heterogeneous crowd, different in more ways than not. If only common views and experiences are to be contributed, the resulting conversations would be pretty boring and of little interest to anyone.

Applauding gardengal!

Some people are pompous and haughty and have no perception of it. (The rest of us peons have no trouble spotting it, though.)

Assumably that’s how they were raised.

Picked up eggs this week at the local market. 10.99 for 18 large eggs. I'm not making egg dishes for dinner much right now, but we are still using some eggs.

Someone mentioned earlier about using applesauce now instead of eggs in baking. I've been doing that for years, I kind of prefer it now. I have a few nice apple trees and can my own applesauce :) I also like to have a bag or two of powdered egg replacer in the house. One on the shelf and one in the freezer. It's nice for if I need a little egg wash and I can use a bit of powder instead of having to crack a fresh egg for it.

Will wonders never cease, our last remaining hen laid her first egg yesterday after a 10 month hiatus. We're on a roll, maybe she'll pump out a dozen before quitting again, nyuk.

thoughts on lucille's posting of NYT

a lot of little things add up to big things.... its never one factor, USA should be able one factor but when u have multiple factors, then yes, that commodity will be impacted.

vgkg - that egg may already be hard boiled if it took your hen that long to make it!

Aquafaba-chick pea water: In my perusal of articles bout my newest fave stuff-hummus, I have read that people use the water in which chick peas are boiled as egg substitutes in various situations.

Jack, she's 8 years old and takes her time :-) I have read that a typical hen can lay 1,000 over her lifetime, I estimate that she has at least a couple of hundred to go....

I've had meringues made with chickpea water -- it really works!

vgkg - We had a flock from 2012 to around 2018 or 19. None of them made it 8 years. I felt sorry for the last one standing because she was alone for about 6 months. A neighbor's dog put her out of her misery when she was out free ranging.

anybody want to buy a chicken coop?

beesneeds I've never though about using powdered eggs for egg wash. I'll have to get a bag.

I bought eggs at Costco on yesterday and paid $6 and change for two dozen eggs. I should check old receipts to see what I was paying before.

As for the additional issue of freezing food. As amazing as it may seem everyone in America doesnt live close to grocery stores. Some of us have to travel distances that arent conducive to constantly going to the store. Time and cost issues are involved so I do keep a medium sized freezer where I commonly freeze things I buy. I know how to manage what I buy. Properly managed food isn't adversely affected.

Interesting that pasture-raised and free-range eggs are often cheaper now than regular eggs. I've been paying the same $3.99/dozen for pasture-raised for at least the past six months; maybe longer.

"Some shoppers have noticed free-range eggs are priced lower than the usually less expensive ''regular eggs.'' Caldwell said that's because free-range eggs prices are set on a contract price. ''The 'regular' eggs are market-driven,'' he said. ''Free-range eggs are on a contracted price for a period of time. The growers of the free-range eggs are not getting the advantage of this uptick in price.'' At Shoppers Value, Caldwell said they've expanded their freerange display space and reduced display space for regular eggs."

The BBC had an article that I read this morning that New Zealand is also facing an egg shortage. One of the ministers stated it was because of a shortage of hens although it sounded more like a shortage for them to live. According to the article a laying hen now costs NZD80 which depending on the exchange is $51 US. They are in the process of removing chickens from cages which would need a larger area for the hens. Nothing was said about what are commonly called "chicken tractors" which are large cages often on wheels that can be raised allowing the birds to move from area to area eating the plant and animals that end up inside of the cage.

Hasn't the avian flu been worldwide?

Not just distance which is very real, especially for those who live in smaller towns with limited shopping options, but also seasonal availability. And availability of superior product. I'll take frozen Georgia peaches and frozen Wisconsin strawberries over the 'fresh' grocery store product. Were it not for frozen okra, we would not be able to enjoy okra at all regardless of the season. Okra just isn't a thing in central Wisconsin. Rhubarb harvested from my own plants. Find me that in the grocery store in January. Being gluten intolerant and having limited options locally, I have gluten free flours in the freezer, mostly ordered in multiples from Amazon. And whole grain organic cornmeal along with fresh crop dried pinto beans--not the ugly brown ones in the grocery that were harvested perhaps years ago. Whole grain cornmeal is almost impossible to find in my grocery stores. Fresh crop pintos are hit & miss. I keep a couple of frozen half gallons of milk on hand just so I don't have to make a milk run when the temperature highs for the week are in the single digits. Along with a box of powdered milk for recipes that use it as an ingredient and as further milk insurance.

Update : Just in case anyone was wondering, our 8 year old lone hen eventually laid exactly 1 Dz eggs before retiring, again. They were nice sized at extra large but she did her job and is now going back into "pet mode", probably for another 8 months. It's time to get my free range egg guy on the phone for another 3 Dz., still holding @ $3/Dz

Due to our heavy snowfall amounts, I usually shop every 2 weeks for 8 months of the year. Good thing eggs have a long "use by" date. I freeze a great deal of things as we have been snowbound for days at a time. I paid 14.77 for 36 eggs a few days ago.

We are eating less of them for breakfast, not that the few extra cents would break us.

Vgkg, she must've known she was needed. What a sweetheart!

A store here in Oregon has been selling eggs from Chicago for $1.99 dozen because their local egg farm has been wiped out. They are medium but don't look much smaller than large eggs. Yesterday they dropped the price to $1.48 and I grabbed two dozen.

Eggs were $5.75 a dozen last week, which I believe is the normal price here. I generally eat no more than one egg a day (in the morning), but if I make an omelet for my brother and me, I use three eggs and therefore eat 1½ eggs.

Close to what Lars posted at about $6 a dozen when I checked yesterday. They were selling a half dozen for $5. Crazy.

Yesterday a little under $4 dz.

Got a dozen at Walmart for $4.36 for jumbo, price down slightly from the last one we bought.

I bought 2 dozen Egglands Best large eggs at BJs for $7.99 yesterday.

Safeway can't get rid of eggs....so they put them on sale! $2.50 a dozen. Guess people just stopped eating them since they cost too much. 😁

My farmer friend's flock has gradually picked up the pace of laying recently with the days getting longer and mild winter allowing them to be outside more. The flock of about 70 hens went from laying less than 2 dozen a day in early January to around four dozen now.

I got a dozen from her last weekend and will get more this weekend. Still $2/dozen.

still $4 to $5 per dozen ... and we have a million chicken egg farm just west of town ... the bird flu thing has caused millions of chickens to have to be destroyed ... so that's that many eggs a day short ...

I was watching a news article on TV about a month ago where it was being explained that someone having to euthanize a flock because the virus had shown up in some of the birds was not allowed by our state to bring in new to the same facility/property for 120 days. Same in all states? I don't know.

In this case it was ducks (yes, big market for the eggs as well as the meat). The family had been supported fully by the ducks, so that meant no income for the coming 4 months. They had taken all kinds of measures to try to keep wild birds out of their pastured flocks to potentially infect them but those had failed. Increased fencing, dogs, had some territorial geese, more.

I didn't need eggs today but looked when in Costco and they were $17.79 for a box of 5 doz. That didn't seem like an exorbitant cost to me. Limited to two boxes. When I really think about it, we don't use all that many eggs. We like eggs, I cook and bake with them, but we are not breakfast people so other than as an ingredient, just have them for egg salad or a breakfast-for-dinner meal every so often.

Prices have been pretty variable. I see I posted at the beginning of the thread that prices near me were between $4 and $6. For a little while they came down a smidge, but now they are back there or even a tad higher. Yes perhaps buying in bulk at Costco or BJ 's would be cheaper but we also don't use eggs much. Mostly for baking which I rarely do, or ingredients; sometimes for breakfast. A dozen eggs can easily last several weeks for us. We use them like @morz8 - Washington Coast does.

I do know though that probably the majority of people use them a lot more and on an almost daily basis. It's still, even at the terribly inflated prices today, a relatively "cheap" protein source. A dozen eggs is still probably more than a day's worth of a meal for a family so even at $7, you certainly couldn't spend $7 on a steak and feed a family.