wmartin@brl-tgr.ARPA (Will Martin ) (05/09/85)
Regarding the surplus of eggs: Why are there egg-gluts now? Eggs cost 89 or 99 cents or more a dozen for months, and now, all of a sudden, they are free with $20 purchase, or 29 cents, or you can buy all you want at 49 cents a dozen! Is this time of the spring when all the chickens in the Northern Hemisphere go into overdrive and churn out eggs like spitballs or something? Or are there a mess of chickens producing eggs right now but will soon be slaughtered for "eating"-type chickens and the egg supply will drop precipitously? [I actually sort of thought that most chickens that get cut up or sold whole, either in groceries or through Kentucky Fried & etc. outlets, never got old enough to lay an egg, but then I'm a city boy and know naught whereof I speak...] Anybody have any idea as to the feasibility of changing the natural cycles or whatever so that such gluts don't happen, but that the supply year-round is increased, so that we could buy eggs all the time at the same reasonable price (like maybe 69 cents/dozen) instead of them being high some times and practically free other times? I suppose now is a great time for the makers of freeze-dried egg-powder gorp... Regards, Will Martin USENET: seismo!brl-bmd!wmartin or ARPA/MILNET: wmartin@almsa-1.ARPA
zben@umd5.UUCP (05/10/85)
If this turns out to be east-coast related, we just several months ago went
through a really bad Avian Flu epidemic. They had to destroy some thousands
of birds and quarantined everything (I know because my parking lot is right
next to the chicken coops - great cow college of the east :-) - and they had
these big yellow quarantine stickers on all the doors.
So perhaps prices were artificially high and are just now getting back down to
'normal'. I think I read something in the paper about abnormally high egg
prices because of the epidemic..
--
Ben Cranston ...{seismo!umcp-cs,ihnp4!rlgvax}!cvl!umd5!zben zben@umd2.ARPAeac@drutx.UUCP (CveticEA) (05/13/85)
>Is this time of the spring when all the chickens in the Northern Hemisphere >go into overdrive and churn out eggs like spitballs or something? >Or are there a mess of chickens producing eggs right now but will >soon be slaughtered for "eating"-type chickens and the egg supply >will drop precipitously? [I actually sort of thought that most chickens >that get cut up or sold whole, either in groceries or through Kentucky >Fried & etc. outlets, never got old enough to lay an egg, but then I'm >a city boy and know naught whereof I speak...] You're right, HOPEFULLY fryers never get old enough to lay an egg. Stewers do, but its not often you find them in the supermarket. Most commercial egg places are set up to fool the chickens into thinking its spring most of the year, so I can't explain the surplus. Unfortunately, it hasn't hit around here. It may have something to do with the fact that a large chicken egg farm in north Denver recently burned. By the way, egg whites freeze very well. So if you use an occasional yolk to thicken a sauce or add to a pudding, put the white in the freezer, when you have 12 of them, time to make an angel food cake! Betsy Cvetic ihnp4!drutx!eac