Egg prices were terrible enough a couple of years back when the last “scare” occurred, but nowhere as bad as this January in the PNW.We already have higher prices for eggs in Washington, Oregon, and California due to state laws on chicken eggs, which mostly went into action in January of 2023, that require all hens be cage-free (not a bad thing, but most large growers had to invest more money into their productions).
That being said, you can even find eggs in stock. It depends on the store, whether it is a chain, and who its supplier is. The small stores had eggs this week, but as soon as they sold out, they’d not have anymore.
I took these photos on Monday this week at a local independent store. Most of their eggs were sold out, but this is what they had on hand. They were not able to order anymore at that point from their distributor.
$11.99 for 12 eggs from a mid-level grower. Nothing fancy here. On average I use 6 eggs every morning for the two younger boys and me, every morning. That is $6 just for that, if I were buying eggs.
$17.99 for 18 eggs. There is no savings in buying 18 versus 12 either.
Even 5 dozen boxes of eggs were not a bargain, ranging from $26 to 30, or even more. Costco stores range from having no eggs to having some. But the prices have gone up quickly.
All it takes is a county, a state, or the Fed to say chickens must be culled to “prevent disease,” and suddenly, 100,000 hens are dead in a region with no new eggs coming. Once hatched, it takes 12 to 16 weeks for new hens to produce their first eggs, which takes 3 to 4 months, and hatching takes 3 weeks on top of that.
Since we got our Harvest Right freeze-dryer, one of the things we have dried a lot of was our hens’ eggs in the summer flow. When you cannot keep up with fresh eggs. We did it so we’d have eggs in winter to enjoy, when we only get 1 to 2 eggs (if lucky) till February.
We wrote a tutorial on freeze-drying eggs, which will get you going.
A freeze-dryer is a real investment and a major appliance, but it can help you reach prepping goals for long-term food storage. Even if you don’t have chickens on your land, the key is to buy eggs when they are affordable and process them. At this point, it seems that every two or so years, we are having an egg crisis.
Just knowing you have eggs you can open up, rehydrate, and use is a relief. We’ve actually gotten into ours this winter, and the boys had no idea they were not fresh. Freeze-dried raw eggs are not like the awful dehydrated egg powder you would get at hotels and hospitals, for they look and taste just like they did when you freeze-dried them.
~Sarah