BATTLE CREEK, Mich. — Egg prices have been making headlines for more than a year now, largely thanks to an uptick in the avian flu affecting flocks all over the U.S. and West Michigan.
That outbreak has pushed egg prices through the roof at the grocery store. For some, the idea of affordable eggs has flown the coop— for others, it was an inspiration to go straight to the source.
Take, for instance, the Simmons family out of Battle Creek.
“They see me,” Chris Simmons said referring to his flock of 10 hens.
As soon as their fence door swings open, these chicks know it’s feeding time.
“We use leftovers in the fridge or on a plate after dinner or stale bread,” Chris said.
The family’s scraps go to their hens and, in return, they get 8-9 eggs a day.
“And for our family of six, that's more than enough eggs for us,” Chris said.
Their coop has become a major cash-cutter recently, with egg prices soaring to $5, $6— sometimes $7/dozen.
For the past 7 years, the Simmons family has had a brood in their Battle Creek backyard, after an ordinance passed by the city allowed homeowners to raise chickens under certain restrictions.
The permit? $25 every five years. Chris says it's worth every penny.
“Some of these breeds will give you like 250-300 eggs a year,” Chris said. “You can usually get the baby chicks at one of the farm supply stores for a couple of dollars, and that chicken will live 5,6,7 or even longer, years,” Chris said.
With these egg-streme prices, we wanted to crunch the numbers to see how much it could be to raise your own chickens.
The price of chicks ranged from $2 to $7, so we averaged it out to $4.50 a chicken.
When you multiply that by 10 for the 10 chickens, the total comes to $45. According to Chris, a week of feed costs about $12.
The Simmons also had a fence around their coop, so we found a chicken wire fence roughly the same length for $220.
If you start with chicks, It will take them about six months before they lay. That’s about $288 worth of feed for those chicks before their first clutch hatches, bringing the total to $953 before they start hatching.
At about 60 eggs per week, and with the average price of eggs in the U.S. according to the USDA priced at $4.95 a dozen, it would take roughly 74 weeks to get back that money after they start hatching.
That, of course, is if your family doesn’t sell any of them.
While Chris is happy to save some money, the process is more about sustainability.
“We produce no food waste in this house. It's, it all goes to these guys,” Chris said.
At the start of March, the average price for a dozen eggs across the country was in the $8 range. Now, prices have fallen to around $6/dozen here in Michigan, with no new bird flu outbreaks. According to the USDA, the demand for eggs around Easter could keep prices higher for the time being.
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