This past weekend was supposed to be two days filled with lounging on the couch, being lazy, reading, spinning and general moseying around on the computer. Instead, I spent time shoring up my brooder and transfering some newly hatched chicks out of the incubator. I then sterilized the incubator and set another batch of eggs to hatch. The rest of the weekend was spent in the garden, as we have been having some nice warm weather.
So the eggmageddon is here and you're stuck paying exorbitant prices for your morning breakfast with some diners and restaraunts charging an extra 50 cents per egg or worse, using egg substitute! That dreaded bird flu is here and is wreaking havoc on farmers and backyard chicken keepers alike.
The same thing happened back in 2015 and it was just as devastating with over 50 million birds being culled. Biosecurity is a big issue with big poultry facilities as they have fleet vehicles coming and going which can introduce pathogens along with workers who enter and leave the properties. I do know they have measures intact, but the bigger you are, the harder it is to control and implement biosecurity measures.
My own small flock heads out at sunup and I see them only once or twice as they head into the coop to lay their eggs. It is with their return at dusk, that I lock them in the coop. I refuse to cage them up when no evidence of bird flu has been found within a several state area. They will remain on the loose, foraging and eating as nature intended.
I didn't fall in line with the covid plandemic and I won't kneel to this one either. When the need arises, I may comply.
As it stands, my incubator runs constantly, hatching either for neighbors, for sale, or for my own flock replenishment. Over the past few years I have preserved excess eggs by freezing, drying and pickling, to the extent that I have enough in rotation to last a good few years, which allows me to gift the extras out to my neighbors. I also have a couple of sales avenues that will buy if I am flush with surplus.
I set 25 eggs this hatch cycle and came out with 19 chicks. Hopefully I get a decent percentage of hens and the roos....well, they will also be useful. Sorry little fellas
The new scuttlebutt going round is that chicken meat is going to go through the same scarcity and inflated prices as the eggs. Hmm...I wonder why it hasn't already suffered the same fate as the egg trade? Granted, different chicken types, but a bird is a bird is a bird, right? I am so unconvinced. Is it just a further tightening on the food supply? They're culling cheap food, real food, not all food in general. You can still easily find all of their highly processed food-like substances. I wonder how long it will be before we can't get beef steak, ham or bacon to go with our eggs.
Hope everyone had a beautiful weekend,
Tammy
