Here in New Zealand we are experiencing a egg shortage as the government has now banned all caged chicken egg production..eggs are very expensive at the moment until the operations switch over to non cage production
@@chamqual6480 not really..the fact that hens are caged their whole life to produce eggs was deemed as inhumane…I agree..no animal should be caged just to produce ..just like puppy mills basically the same thing
@@chamqual6480 keeping chickens locked up the entire lives is animal cruelty..hence the law to ban this practice…so yes this type of egg production has now been banned…all others not
While egg prices have increased, we’re still able to get them. We go to Costco. I appreciate your telling us about the birds that have been eradicated. And how it’s being handled. I didn’t realize it was so bad. So sad for the farms that rely on eggs as their business. Thanks for sharing!
Here in small town Ohio, a guy walked up to me and asked if I needed organic eggs. Seemed super random at the time, but if there's a shortage, it's starting to make sense.
First time with quail and they are being raised in a garage which is not an ideal setting but this spring I am planning on building an ample Quail Hutch for them that will give them a room to stretch out and enjoy their life. They are now about 10 month old and they're producing quite a bit of eggs. They are so much fun and they have great little personalities. My niece raised a rooster from a hatched egg and it was a Rhode Island red... she also had two ladies and Mr cricket and Cricket passed away when he was 11 years old and he was a giant but he was a pushover and such a loving bird who followed my niece like a puppy-dog everywhere LOL
We bought 15 brown egg layers in the fall from Murray McMurray. Also bought five buff orpington roosters. One was a hen, and our free ones were rooster and hen. You can't really recognize their breeds but are enjoying them also. Yes, all are now laying eggs. I still have five older hens who lay occasionally. They will have to go soon.
It was terrible. First time in my life I stopped eating meat. The smell turned your stomach, I remember it like yesterday. I'll never forget the day they came for the pet sheep at the farm next door, she was part of the community in her own way.
I started getting eggs from my neighbor who has about 80 hens. We had very cold weather just before Christmas. The hens slowed down laying but didn stop. At the same time the late summer chick's started laying. The price of the feed has almost doubled in the last 18 months. The price of eggs has gone up accordingly. I pay $4.00 dozen right now, willingly as these are fresh, free range eggs and so glad that my neighbor puts all the work for my fresh eggs. So enjoy your channel and all your chickens/birds. Your children are really growing up.
We once got a flock of hens that had been surrendered to the animal shelter because someone had died and the shelter wanted them out of there pronto and waived all fees. We found out because my daughter was volunteering there at the time. A week of chicken antics was more than enough for them.
We have seven chickens and get at least six eggs a week right now. Our blue egg layer had a super hard molt, she is also low man on the totem pole, and hasn't laid an egg since late September. I'm glad we aren't huge egg eaters, there are just the two of us in the house, so we are getting by. I'm already over wintertime and I'm ready for spring!
I just noticed yesterday the "limit 2 per customer" signs by the eggs and had no idea what that was about, so thanks for addressing that! I haven't bought eggs in a while because the prices are just getting so high. Right now they're almost double what I used to pay, it's crazy!
Im in New Zealand and we also are experiencing egg shortages. I live on a life style block and we have 20 laying chickens and get 13-18 eggs a day. We have 8 heritage and 12 hyline adult hens, 5, 14 week old hens, and 2 9 week old hens.
If there is one piece of advice I can give on having eggs without extreme measures, it is buy a few girls that will time to start laying in winter each year. We add two to three girls just for that reason each year. We get cheaper prices as the local shops are trying to clear "inventory" and enough eggs to get us through the down times. Our ducks are also great layers in the winter but we live in California and a happy duck is usually a laying duck. With all this rain we are not just swimming in water but duck eggs. Our cochin flock is refusing to leave their coop or lay eggs but our ducks are happily making up for the losses. Anyways, love the video, thank you for being the sunshine on my wet Monday morning.
I love how you let the girls have a rest from laying over the Winter. I think that is better for the overall health and longevity. Have a great week. Mags
40 hens and we are getting maybe 1 or 2 eggs a day :))~~~ Thank you! I needed this refresher, I do not like using artificial light either, but we are getting desperate. And, our eggs are $35 for 5 dozen if we can find any. Glad to see that your family is well and carrying on in the midst of the insanity in the world. God bless.
Wow! In NC, 3 years ago we got 3 hens from tractor supply & had no expectations- they were producing like 6 eggs every morning. We let them roam freely on the property, plenty of fresh well water or pond water, and also supplemented with feed too. Never expected that amount of eggs. We didn’t know what to do with that many.
I have heard that a lot of problems are being caused by the Avian Flu. Big production egg operations are being wiped out by the Avian flu. It is common sense if you look at it closely. Limited supply of a commodity and a lot of people are looking to buy the product. Prices go up. On top of that prices on all food products are going through the roof. I don't know how people with limited incomes are able to get by. Last year my weekly trips to the grocery store I was averaging $35-$40. Now they are averaging $60-$65 a week. Plus I am a single divorced man in his late 60s.
I SO miss my chickens...rehomed to an apartment during quarentine. Yes, lack of light in the winter. AND the chicken viruses. Not safe to keep chickens so close together, in such large numbers. You can try to feed more protein and provide artificial light. Yes, I loved my colored eggs! I figured a rainbow would be more interesting than all white or brown! Our house chickens laid more regularly, but that may be that they were indoors most of the time so got more "light hours" and likely more protein as they shared our food. It is natural to have a lul in egg production during the winter. The first day of molting....we thought someone EXPLODED....LOL.
My hens just started laying again last week 🎉. After a few months of next to none, I've been getting 5 out of 6 a day! But I had noticed a significant reduction this winter too. Even the shops are often low locally (SW UK). Agree on letting them live out a natural laying season.
I've had free range eggs all my life. In the UK a compulsory housing order came in for all poultry & captive birds last year. The supermarket shelves are often bare now & much like the huge hike in price of butter & milk (and everything else here) eggs have increased significantly in price. One report I read last week quoted 85%.
I think you should name the white fisty one, Snowy or Yuri, which is Japanese for roughly the same thing. She did get threw a harsh winter, and she is quite the tough girl, just like winter. Or hey! Winter! There you go 3 possible suggestions; Snowy, Yuri, or Winter. Eeeee! I love naming animals! Hope you have a good winter!
Thank you so much for the update on the egg shortage. I live in New Zealand and we also have a major egg shortage due to new rules and regulations that came in on January 1st. We no longer have cage eggs and all our chickens must be free range. It's a little tough at the moment but in 5-6 months it will level out we hope. Thanks again for the information also I love watching you videos.
So imagine what the prices for eggs are in California! I was tempted to leave my number on the empty egg shelve at Whole Foods. 😂 I have 17 hens and I am getting about 8-12 eggs a day, but I did wait until they all finished molting before adding the lamps. I also have quail eggs that are great for snacking on. Bite-sized hard-boiled eggs are fun and delicious! I think quail eggs are underrated, consider raising them since they are much easier to take care of and take up much less room.
The way I usually tell between welsummer and marans eggs is that marans are shiny, but welsummers are matte. Marans are usually darker and welsummers speckled, but this isn’t always the case, so if it’s reflecting light it’s probably a marans. This might depend on the quality, I breed pure breeds so they match this pattern, so I can’t guarantee it for hatchery birds. Hope it helps though.
Also, marans eggs are supposed to be round at both ends, welsummers are supposed to have a very distinct egg shape. I know it’s funny to say that any eggs aren’t egg shaped, but for wellies the top should be quite narrow and bottom quite wide.
Here in Wisconsin we have had a mandarin duck show up at the lakefront. I believe this is the second year in a row. Makes me wonder if someone had tried raising one and either quit of it escaped. But it has attracted attention from a lot of people. When I saw it I thought of you guys right away!
Here in the Uk eggs have gone up in price like other food. Can only buy 12 eggs per customer, the drought and bird flu hasnt helped, we dont eat alot of eggs. Alot of ppl online have been freezing eggs when they get them. Great idea i think.. Xx
My chicken also didn't lay eggs in the winter so I gave them warm food and warm water so they started to lay after few days. I pre-order eggs for incubating: Marans, Araucana, Cream Legbar, Ayam Cemani, Vorwerk , Olive Eggers and Wyandotte. I wish I could find Swedish isbar eggs too but they are very rare in here. I wish you all the best in the new year!
You just summed up my life 😂 We haven’t seen anything from our EEs, only getting eggs from the Brahma, barred rocks and golden laced Wyandotte. And no one molted 😂
I live in Alaska and naturally everything is more expensive. I have 7 chickens and 1 goose. I make my special mix food, buy lettuce, mealworm, beef suet etc. They all including the goose are under 1 year old and lay well, goose started on Christmas eve. If I had to sell my eggs i would need to charge $35 a dozen to off set the food and bedding. Lol...but I love my birds and their eggs.
Whenever I realize I have no eggs and I need to bake, I use flax-seed mixed with water. It helps to tide us over until we can get more eggs. We do miss eating eggs in the meantime, though!
Over here in Colorado we have a pretty nasty shortage and what we do have is like gold. I am glad you guys always keep us all informed about this kind of stuff.
Yup! I'm in Aurora. I've been able to find eggs, but then, I pay extra for cage-free, pasture-raised, organic, etc... I've also got 3 chickens, but due to partial feeding of purina organic feed, only one of my girls was still laying. Stopped the feed, and now I'm getting more eggs!
Thank you for sharing! I was amazed that a friend of mine was willing to pay me $5 for half a dozen eggs of mine. Mostly to support me, but she also loves the fresh eggs. I do free range my birds. They live happy lives and that seems to make for tasty eggs 😊. PS: my oldest chicken I ever had lived to be 13 years old, same breed as your Amber, and I also had named her Amber 😂 what are the odds?!
I’ve definitely been thinking about you guys seeing the egg shortages and how nice it must be to know you don’t have to worry about that. BTW Isaiah is so cute! Getting so big. He looks so much like Becky. He has her eyes (the blue version 😉).
U got to follow his channel b cause he is giving great information about forming…and how to raise animals ❤❤❤ god bless his family and him…keep going bro love from 🇮🇳
What a precious Family, You are my number one favourite channel on youtube! Becky is amazing! Thank you Jake for all the chicken information, I heard that egg prices are through the roof, but I haven't experienced it yet. Great to see how much you care for the Chickens and all your animals! GOD BLESS!!!!
Also I've heard people talk about it in the groups that the feed cause causing backyard hens to stop laying. Most of us switched feed and now theybare laying again. So something suspicious is going on 😔
Not true. In NC, we bought 3 baby hens from a tractor supply store with no expectations on eggs. Once old enough, they immediately began to lay eggs, 3 hens had 4-6 eggs daily. They got to enjoy the yard freely, well water or pond water was avail too, and we did supplement with feed, but they preferred to go for the insects in the ground. This may be why they were better at laying eggs their very first season. Cage wise, we had one house for them, 2 story, 2 “rooms” & they preferred to all stay together. We had a lamp in there for heat with hay & it went way better than expected. If we did not check for eggs for 2-3 days, we would have to double bag a plastic grocery store bag bc it was so heavy & full. We had to give them away- we didn’t know what to do with that many eggs & at that time didn’t know how to keep eggs in water (canning). I think some things coming from above is why yours may not prefer what’s in the ground now- it’s full of so many toxins. Just look up- preferably early morning. NC is bombarded weekly with checkerboards “up there” & it’s not for good! It’s absolutely to harm US, & if it can harm us then it will the animals. I would expect the animals senses to be better than ours & immediately know it’s a no-go for them.. I would also expect other animals to die off due to this. Expert DaneWigington talks about this “weather modification” (although it’s not just that)… & he states what all is really coming down & that it’s worse than people can imagine. Something like 200megatonnes every so often- I can’t recall if it’s in like one week or something like that. It’s worldwide & “part of the plan”. I have seen P4T3NTS that are specific to the: fliers+c+1+nine… which rains down. That & so much more bad bad stuff. Yt don’t like the truth, so gotta be careful or it’ll be taken down. Also, it has been discovered that in many animals products, they’ve got bad things in them as well. Be prepared to hear about the animals getting vaccinated so to pass it along to the consumer- such as beef & chicken… they must have had more resistance than they’ll admit to.
I’m in Salt Lake City, UT we have weeks of no eggs at Costco. My flock are on the older side so I don’t get as many eggs, I also don’t give them artificial light to keep them laying in the winter. My ducks are laying so I get enough eggs to get my family through the winter.
I have adopted ducks and chickens from people who thought it was a great idea for backyard chickens. Lots of house dogs taking out the flocks and leaving one alive kind of stories.
We live in derby, western Australia We can't constantly buy eggs up here, if there is there usually $6 per dozen shop brought or $10-15 local. Chooks also cost $30-$50 to buy and very limited quantity
Our girls are 2 years old and most went through their first moly in late fall. So we are only getting about 1 egg a day . We have 6 hens. We do think we’d like another 6. I can definitely see how it’s beneficial to space your hens out a bit so you have different ages of birds. One think I jave noticed is our hens barely touch the tractor feed. I do supplement their diet with seeds and scraps.
It's very cold here in Utah. So I was keeping the chickens and ducks in. They were not happy. And at 20° I started letting them out. Ok so I went to feed and water and they charged out the door. Even in snow, they want out. They like eating snow too. The ducks taught the chickens to stand in the water dishes to warm up their feet. And the coop is always open if they want to go in. And I started getting eggs on December 23rd. I have 40 chickens and one roo. Seven ducky girls. And even some of them are laying. As long as it's 20° and up, out they go.
This is happening with my chickens. Only one is laying but I know it’s winter and like you said they are not getting much sunlight. We have a heat lamp but it doesn’t give off light it gives off heat to keep them warm
Never have I regretted less buying my eggs from a local friend--our price per dozen is $5. I think 10 years ago it was 3.50, so that's feed price. We had chickens when I was a kid. I'd raise them from chicks ($0.25 each from the feed store) and my dad built a coop in the side of a shed. It was genius, the coop was elevated and there was a ramp down to the outside, the birds slept in the rafters, the poop fell through a wire floor, the nesting boxes had doors to the inside of the shed at waist height, so we didn't have to open the coop to look for eggs. There was a door on a pulley to open and close the door to the outside, and the ramp had little boards on it as kind of "steps" to help the birds get up it. He had the outdoor coop framed on all sides and the top, a large, spacious area, but we never lost a bird to predators, and they were very happy with their garden scraps and gravity fed feed and water. Not the kind of thing you can move, but we pretty much brought the garden to them. Inside, there was a heat lamp on a timer, egg production slowed in the winter but didn't stop. I think (this was the 80s) we sold eggs for a dollar a dozen. The chickens were great, we had a mix of rhodies and leghorns and cornish crosses, and the rhodies were definitely the nicest. It was so easy to keep clean, and easy to clear out the guano for the garden. The birds were hilarious during apple season because they'd get the slightly fermented fallen apples and go ham on them and get tipsy. I can't deal with commercially raised eggs. Something about how they wash them, I think, I get a stomach ache. The backyard eggs come to us not-washed, and never make me sick. (I buy a dozen commercial eggs for dyeing at easter and cannot eat egg salad made from them.)
It was also the feed they were getting from Tractor Supply. People weren’t getting eggs since the end of summer on year old chicks. TikTok homesteads reached out to others and they found the problem, it was 2 different feeds from the same company Purina. Changed feeds and got the some (normal amount for winter) of their eggs back.
In Belgium eggs got expensive also 9€ , but not because of chicken shortage, its because the feed TRIPLED in 1 year! Its really awfull.. we have our own chickens and quails
My massive extended family (menonite, amish, and LOTS of christian farmers) does like you guys, natural chicken life. So we all do lyme glass eggs for winter. its how they would preserve eggs before refrigerators. the eggs will last 12 months at room temperature in a pantry. it has saved me from having to buy ANY eggs at all during this shortage and now several of my friends that have their own chickens are planning to preserve their own eggs in spring when the chickens lay more than they can eat so that if their flock doesnt lay enough or at all they still have eggs as well
I started out with my grandpa! We have always had chickens and after my grandpa passed away I really got going with birds. I now have 66 laying hens, 35 bantam hens, 7 bantam roosters, 5 big roosters, 3 turkeys, 10 peafowl, 7 ducks, 5 Guinea fowl, and I have 44 eggs in my incubators now. My laying hens quit laying sometime in November and just got started laying again. I got 20 eggs today and they are slowly laying more and more. My grandpa had 2 Black Sexlink hens, and 2 Ameraucana hens, since then I have bought lots more from Craigslist and Facebook all the way from older hens that were 4 years old to young pullets that were just starting to lay! I have added several different breeds and actually raised a few babies from his original hens! I have expanded my flocks into bantam Cochins and I plan to raise the Bantam Cochins, bantam silkies, polish, Amerauacanas, Brahmas, and marans. I LOVE watching your videos! They are very informative and just a pleasure to watch! I absolutely love y’all’s birds and cannot wait to do some experiments y’all have done with my own flock! 😁
Our local egg producer just lost million chickens. No eggs for a week or so, now a limit of 2 doz. I didn't look at the price, should have. Wish I could have chickens, but I live in an apartment. All local farm co-ops are full as well.
I think daylight is a big factor in how many eggs they produce. In the winter, the days get shorter, and some will just straight up stop laying all together.
We aren’t getting much eggs but the reason is that we had a Wiesel or something to and kill about 16 of our chickens November-December2022. We don’t know if some of the hens remaining(7) are to old or are still scared from the tragedy. Do you think the The Wiesel or whatever killed them will be a long lasting effect and those chickens won’t lay the same from now on or will it just take time?
Also - research - several well known feed companies have altered their feed. As soon as chickens are taken off these feeds - laying returns! Free rangeing is great as well.
I'm assuming the losing of feathers and lack of eggs doesn't happen everywhere because the coldest it gets where I live in Australia is maybe 15 C° and our chickens would lay all year round
I’d be curious to know how much you sale your eggs for when you do have them available. We are starting to get 6 a day now with a total of 24 hens and I’m so happy because I hate buying eggs. Cost 5bucks for a dozen at my local store. Costco is over a 2hr drive so we only go once every few months. Also, like you we don’t use heat lamps, some ppl think we’re crazy or cruel but chickens handle the winters where we live really well. Plus they have pine shavings and straw.
This is why I am so glad I started a flock last spring. Here in Louisiana my five laying hens are having close to regular egg production. But we are further south than you guys so we are getting warmer temps and a little more daylight!
I'm hatching Barbu D'anvers, Brahmas and probably australorps this year. I already have two hens hatching our local heritage breed, im currently trying to concentrate specific traits like Rosecomb+ Bearded+crested without crossing with other breeds. I already have some hens that go broody but 2 are already on work and others aren't going broody in the frosty temperatures and honestly its good to have a incubator as well.
My family is planning on getting chickens and bunnies so we will be doing it very soon because we have everything ready if you could give us any advice it will be very helpful
When we hatched ducklings this summer, I posted in a local backyard duck group on Facebook. I offered them for free and was surprised how many people wanted to pay me for them. I guess for the reasons you mentioned in the video. We just wanted them to go to a good home because we aren’t ready for our own birds (we kind of ended up with the eggs by accident. I found this channel looking up videos for hatching advice). Even though we never planned to keep them, we did take excellent care of them. I made sure they had an awesome diet and pristine accommodations every day. We still miss our baby ducks. Someday. Someday we’ll have our own birds.
Could you possibly do a similar video on quail? I'm thinking of starting with them due to space limitations. I know they start laying eggs petty early but is it worth it?
I've had some friends in the same exact area who had issues with their hens refusing to lay... They switched from Producer's Pride to Purina and they started laying again not even a week later (temps were consistent and did not rise or lower). I've fed my chickens purina from day 1 and they slowed down during the winter as expected, but never stopped even though friends' did. Apparently there's an issue where Producer's Pride lowered some of the nutrition in their feed. Not sure if there is merit to the claim, but we have seen a ton of evidence just in this group that the brand may be at least a partial issue.
Meanwhile, here I am in Maine getting 6 to 9 eggs a day from 11 hens. Now that the kids are grown and moved out, we can't eat them fast enough! I've been giving them away to family.
My chickens up here in Canada slowed from oct are laying like crazy by adding light on timers to supplement light hours , some are 4 years old still laying . Chickens will start laying at 3 .5months old starting with small eggs then with age they lay bigger sizes . It does not shorten the life of the chicken . Winter is when mites affect laying because they seek the heat of the bird . So I spray poultry mite and lice spray every month and alway supply calcium ,sand ,diatomaceous earth, and apple cider vinegar in their water . My family has been using just a 60 watt bulb for the light for over 80 years and I supply my neighbourhood constantly at 3$ Canadian nowadays and used purchased pellet feed and still manage to make money on a 150 bird flock . 7 roosters are added to the flock for 2 months on and 2 months away to keep hens on the lay .
We have 5 chickens and 2 ducks and we get about 4 eggs a day and right now we only have 2 people living in our house so I give a few out to my neighbors every few days
we had this in Hungary for a while... Egg prices (and food in general) are getting higher and higher... in my home town a lot of people own atleast a few chickens now so that they don't have to buy eggs, they can have their own and they also share it with eachother but eggs are really egg-spensive (I had to make that pun). I don't understand the world, everything is getting more and more pricey and salaries aren't getting higher...
In Israel Lately There's been a great shortage of butter. Israel deports it's as really butter to China. Generally speaking I've seen lots of shortage lately
Our favorite chooks are the standard cochins, Jersey Giants, and Brahmas....and their mix babies in our flock. They are CHONKY! Fun to hold, calm, affectionate, friendly... We also like the Speckled Sussex, because they are the nosiest, friendliest, most fearless of all our chooks.
Hello from the Caribbean, I have 67 Hens + 14 that are 2 mnts old + 10 eggs in the incubator and started with Quail 2 weeks ago also for incubating. I have been on backorder to my buyers thanks for the info.
We have eggs at Trader Joe's and Costco. The ones at the local markets are running $6-$8 dollars a dozen and I am in the Los Angeles area. So far I only eat 2 eggs a week.
Here in New Zealand we are experiencing a egg shortage as the government has now banned all caged chicken egg production..eggs are very expensive at the moment until the operations switch over to non cage production
Sounds like government in business they shouldn't be.
@@chamqual6480 not really..the fact that hens are caged their whole life to produce eggs was deemed as inhumane…I agree..no animal should be caged just to produce ..just like puppy mills basically the same thing
@@HelenNetoken then why don't they make laws about animal cruelty? Not about what eggs are legal?
@@chamqual6480 @Helenbabyblue is right
@@chamqual6480 keeping chickens locked up the entire lives is animal cruelty..hence the law to ban this practice…so yes this type of egg production has now been banned…all others not
While egg prices have increased, we’re still able to get them. We go to Costco. I appreciate your telling us about the birds that have been eradicated. And how it’s being handled. I didn’t realize it was so bad. So sad for the farms that rely on eggs as their business. Thanks for sharing!
I fully appreciate Becky and Jake for sharing their homestead journey with "us"!
Costco gets Kirkland organic eggs from multiple farms in USA that are cage free... AND from Shanghai, China.
Here in small town Ohio, a guy walked up to me and asked if I needed organic eggs. Seemed super random at the time, but if there's a shortage, it's starting to make sense.
Eggs on the black market! 😆 😳
I can confirm Costco looks exactly the same in the UK as it does in the USA.
First time with quail and they are being raised in a garage which is not an ideal setting but this spring I am planning on building an ample Quail Hutch for them that will give them a room to stretch out and enjoy their life. They are now about 10 month old and they're producing quite a bit of eggs. They are so much fun and they have great little personalities.
My niece raised a rooster from a hatched egg and it was a Rhode Island red... she also had two ladies and Mr cricket and Cricket passed away when he was 11 years old and he was a giant but he was a pushover and such a loving bird who followed my niece like a puppy-dog everywhere LOL
We bought 15 brown egg layers in the fall from Murray McMurray. Also bought five buff orpington roosters. One was a hen, and our free ones were rooster and hen. You can't really recognize their breeds but are enjoying them also. Yes, all are now laying eggs. I still have five older hens who lay occasionally. They will have to go soon.
I ordered from mc Murray hatchery! I’m so excited for them to come in April
In the U.K. in 2000, we had " foot and mouth animals " killing thousands of different animals, it was awful, the smell travelled for 30 miles
What is the foot and mouth animals
It was terrible. First time in my life I stopped eating meat. The smell turned your stomach, I remember it like yesterday. I'll never forget the day they came for the pet sheep at the farm next door, she was part of the community in her own way.
@dragonkitty1475 it's an animal disease. Farms had to kill and burn their livestock
😢
It's a disease, where I live in Carlisle Cumbria England, they have made a nature reserve where they buried some of the animals.
My chickens laid 8 eggs today, pretty proud of them
I started getting eggs from my neighbor who has about 80 hens. We had very cold weather just before Christmas. The hens slowed down laying but didn stop. At the same time the late summer chick's started laying. The price of the feed has almost doubled in the last 18 months. The price of eggs has gone up accordingly. I pay $4.00 dozen right now, willingly as these are fresh, free range eggs and so glad that my neighbor puts all the work for my fresh eggs.
So enjoy your channel and all your chickens/birds.
Your children are really growing up.
We once got a flock of hens that had been surrendered to the animal shelter because someone had died and the shelter wanted them out of there pronto and waived all fees. We found out because my daughter was volunteering there at the time. A week of chicken antics was more than enough for them.
We have seven chickens and get at least six eggs a week right now. Our blue egg layer had a super hard molt, she is also low man on the totem pole, and hasn't laid an egg since late September. I'm glad we aren't huge egg eaters, there are just the two of us in the house, so we are getting by. I'm already over wintertime and I'm ready for spring!
I just noticed yesterday the "limit 2 per customer" signs by the eggs and had no idea what that was about, so thanks for addressing that! I haven't bought eggs in a while because the prices are just getting so high. Right now they're almost double what I used to pay, it's crazy!
Im in New Zealand and we also are experiencing egg shortages. I live on a life style block and we have 20 laying chickens and get 13-18 eggs a day. We have 8 heritage and 12 hyline adult hens, 5, 14 week old hens, and 2 9 week old hens.
If there is one piece of advice I can give on having eggs without extreme measures, it is buy a few girls that will time to start laying in winter each year. We add two to three girls just for that reason each year. We get cheaper prices as the local shops are trying to clear "inventory" and enough eggs to get us through the down times. Our ducks are also great layers in the winter but we live in California and a happy duck is usually a laying duck. With all this rain we are not just swimming in water but duck eggs. Our cochin flock is refusing to leave their coop or lay eggs but our ducks are happily making up for the losses.
Anyways, love the video, thank you for being the sunshine on my wet Monday morning.
I love how you let the girls have a rest from laying over the Winter. I think that is better for the overall health and longevity. Have a great week. Mags
I just started supplementing with dried meal worms. 52% protein. When the season changes I plan on raising earthworms
We live in the Rhône Valley in France and have mild winters. We’ve been thinking of getting 3-4 chickens exactly for eggs. This is good info ❤
40 hens and we are getting maybe 1 or 2 eggs a day :))~~~
Thank you! I needed this refresher, I do not like using artificial light either, but we are getting desperate. And, our eggs are $35 for 5 dozen if we can find any.
Glad to see that your family is well and carrying on in the midst of the insanity in the world.
God bless.
Wow! In NC, 3 years ago we got 3 hens from tractor supply & had no expectations- they were producing like 6 eggs every morning. We let them roam freely on the property, plenty of fresh well water or pond water, and also supplemented with feed too. Never expected that amount of eggs. We didn’t know what to do with that many.
We also had one hen house, they loved to lay together, & had installed a light inside for heat- it worked out great
Same thing is happening to us
I paid $19.99 for 60 eggs at Wally World last week !
Very tough times !
Thanks for the rundown 💖
JO JO IN VT 💞💨❄️⛄
I have heard that a lot of problems are being caused by the Avian Flu. Big production egg operations are being wiped out by the Avian flu. It is common sense if you look at it closely. Limited supply of a commodity and a lot of people are looking to buy the product. Prices go up. On top of that prices on all food products are going through the roof. I don't know how people with limited incomes are able to get by. Last year my weekly trips to the grocery store I was averaging $35-$40. Now they are averaging $60-$65 a week. Plus I am a single divorced man in his late 60s.
I SO miss my chickens...rehomed to an apartment during quarentine. Yes, lack of light in the winter. AND the chicken viruses. Not safe to keep chickens so close together, in such large numbers. You can try to feed more protein and provide artificial light. Yes, I loved my colored eggs! I figured a rainbow would be more interesting than all white or brown! Our house chickens laid more regularly, but that may be that they were indoors most of the time so got more "light hours" and likely more protein as they shared our food. It is natural to have a lul in egg production during the winter. The first day of molting....we thought someone EXPLODED....LOL.
My hens just started laying again last week 🎉. After a few months of next to none, I've been getting 5 out of 6 a day! But I had noticed a significant reduction this winter too. Even the shops are often low locally (SW UK). Agree on letting them live out a natural laying season.
I've had free range eggs all my life. In the UK a compulsory housing order came in for all poultry & captive birds last year. The supermarket shelves are often bare now & much like the huge hike in price of butter & milk (and everything else here) eggs have increased significantly in price. One report I read last week quoted 85%.
lidl my bro.
at least where I live there's organic eggs at a reasonable price for days
I think you should name the white fisty one, Snowy or Yuri, which is Japanese for roughly the same thing. She did get threw a harsh winter, and she is quite the tough girl, just like winter. Or hey! Winter! There you go 3 possible suggestions; Snowy, Yuri, or Winter. Eeeee! I love naming animals! Hope you have a good winter!
Thank you so much for the update on the egg shortage. I live in New Zealand and we also have a major egg shortage due to new rules and regulations that came in on January 1st. We no longer have cage eggs and all our chickens must be free range. It's a little tough at the moment but in 5-6 months it will level out we hope. Thanks again for the information also I love watching you videos.
So imagine what the prices for eggs are in California! I was tempted to leave my number on the empty egg shelve at Whole Foods. 😂 I have 17 hens and I am getting about 8-12 eggs a day, but I did wait until they all finished molting before adding the lamps. I also have quail eggs that are great for snacking on. Bite-sized hard-boiled eggs are fun and delicious! I think quail eggs are underrated, consider raising them since they are much easier to take care of and take up much less room.
The way I usually tell between welsummer and marans eggs is that marans are shiny, but welsummers are matte. Marans are usually darker and welsummers speckled, but this isn’t always the case, so if it’s reflecting light it’s probably a marans.
This might depend on the quality, I breed pure breeds so they match this pattern, so I can’t guarantee it for hatchery birds. Hope it helps though.
Also, marans eggs are supposed to be round at both ends, welsummers are supposed to have a very distinct egg shape. I know it’s funny to say that any eggs aren’t egg shaped, but for wellies the top should be quite narrow and bottom quite wide.
Here in Wisconsin we have had a mandarin duck show up at the lakefront. I believe this is the second year in a row. Makes me wonder if someone had tried raising one and either quit of it escaped. But it has attracted attention from a lot of people. When I saw it I thought of you guys right away!
I see quite a few in the wild in the some of the lakes and ponds near us.
Your videos are truly amazing and I watch them all the time and I love that you spend the time to make them ❤
Here in the Uk eggs have gone up in price like other food. Can only buy 12 eggs per customer, the drought and bird flu hasnt helped, we dont eat alot of eggs. Alot of ppl online have been freezing eggs when they get them. Great idea i think.. Xx
I just finished bingeing over 6 months of your videos! glad to be back caught up :)
My chicken also didn't lay eggs in the winter so I gave them warm food and warm water so they started to lay after few days. I pre-order eggs for incubating: Marans, Araucana, Cream Legbar, Ayam Cemani, Vorwerk , Olive Eggers and Wyandotte. I wish I could find Swedish isbar eggs too but they are very rare in here. I wish you all the best in the new year!
You just summed up my life 😂 We haven’t seen anything from our EEs, only getting eggs from the Brahma, barred rocks and golden laced Wyandotte. And no one molted 😂
Can you make a video about what you czn do with beeswax
I live in Alaska and naturally everything is more expensive. I have 7 chickens and 1 goose. I make my special mix food, buy lettuce, mealworm, beef suet etc. They all including the goose are under 1 year old and lay well, goose started on Christmas eve. If I had to sell my eggs i would need to charge $35 a dozen to off set the food and bedding. Lol...but I love my birds and their eggs.
Thanks for the fact on the chickens shedding
Whenever I realize I have no eggs and I need to bake, I use flax-seed mixed with water. It helps to tide us over until we can get more eggs. We do miss eating eggs in the meantime, though!
Over here in Colorado we have a pretty nasty shortage and what we do have is like gold. I am glad you guys always keep us all informed about this kind of stuff.
Thanks, Ashlynn!
Yup! I'm in Aurora. I've been able to find eggs, but then, I pay extra for cage-free, pasture-raised, organic, etc... I've also got 3 chickens, but due to partial feeding of purina organic feed, only one of my girls was still laying. Stopped the feed, and now I'm getting more eggs!
Thank you for sharing! I was amazed that a friend of mine was willing to pay me $5 for half a dozen eggs of mine. Mostly to support me, but she also loves the fresh eggs. I do free range my birds. They live happy lives and that seems to make for tasty eggs 😊. PS: my oldest chicken I ever had lived to be 13 years old, same breed as your Amber, and I also had named her Amber 😂 what are the odds?!
I’ve definitely been thinking about you guys seeing the egg shortages and how nice it must be to know you don’t have to worry about that. BTW Isaiah is so cute! Getting so big. He looks so much like Becky. He has her eyes (the blue version 😉).
Fantastic advice on how to get chickens. Many people just don’t know and you gave good info.
U got to follow his channel b cause he is giving great information about forming…and how to raise animals ❤❤❤ god bless his family and him…keep going bro love from 🇮🇳
What a precious Family, You are my number one favourite channel on youtube! Becky is amazing! Thank you Jake for all the chicken information, I heard that egg prices are through the roof, but I haven't experienced it yet. Great to see how much you care for the Chickens and all your animals! GOD BLESS!!!!
Also I've heard people talk about it in the groups that the feed cause causing backyard hens to stop laying. Most of us switched feed and now theybare laying again. So something suspicious is going on 😔
Not true. In NC, we bought 3 baby hens from a tractor supply store with no expectations on eggs. Once old enough, they immediately began to lay eggs, 3 hens had 4-6 eggs daily. They got to enjoy the yard freely, well water or pond water was avail too, and we did supplement with feed, but they preferred to go for the insects in the ground. This may be why they were better at laying eggs their very first season. Cage wise, we had one house for them, 2 story, 2 “rooms” & they preferred to all stay together. We had a lamp in there for heat with hay & it went way better than expected. If we did not check for eggs for 2-3 days, we would have to double bag a plastic grocery store bag bc it was so heavy & full. We had to give them away- we didn’t know what to do with that many eggs & at that time didn’t know how to keep eggs in water (canning). I think some things coming from above is why yours may not prefer what’s in the ground now- it’s full of so many toxins. Just look up- preferably early morning. NC is bombarded weekly with checkerboards “up there” & it’s not for good! It’s absolutely to harm US, & if it can harm us then it will the animals. I would expect the animals senses to be better than ours & immediately know it’s a no-go for them.. I would also expect other animals to die off due to this. Expert DaneWigington talks about this “weather modification” (although it’s not just that)… & he states what all is really coming down & that it’s worse than people can imagine. Something like 200megatonnes every so often- I can’t recall if it’s in like one week or something like that. It’s worldwide & “part of the plan”. I have seen P4T3NTS that are specific to the: fliers+c+1+nine… which rains down. That & so much more bad bad stuff. Yt don’t like the truth, so gotta be careful or it’ll be taken down. Also, it has been discovered that in many animals products, they’ve got bad things in them as well. Be prepared to hear about the animals getting vaccinated so to pass it along to the consumer- such as beef & chicken… they must have had more resistance than they’ll admit to.
That's interesting. Good to know if I were to ever get hens for eggs in the future.
3 hens had 4-6 eggs daily? Hens only lay once a day though 🤔
I’m in Salt Lake City, UT we have weeks of no eggs at Costco. My flock are on the older side so I don’t get as many eggs, I also don’t give them artificial light to keep them laying in the winter. My ducks are laying so I get enough eggs to get my family through the winter.
I have adopted ducks and chickens from people who thought it was a great idea for backyard chickens. Lots of house dogs taking out the flocks and leaving one alive kind of stories.
I never have been so happy to have chicken tell the egg shortage
We live in derby, western Australia
We can't constantly buy eggs up here, if there is there usually $6 per dozen shop brought or $10-15 local. Chooks also cost $30-$50 to buy and very limited quantity
Crazy
Your follower from Iraq 🇮🇶🇮🇶🇮🇶
اني هم من العراق
Walmarts crappy cheap eggs in Central California was $5.98today
Our girls are 2 years old and most went through their first moly in late fall. So we are only getting about 1 egg a day . We have 6 hens. We do think we’d like another 6. I can definitely see how it’s beneficial to space your hens out a bit so you have different ages of birds.
One think I jave noticed is our hens barely touch the tractor feed. I do supplement their diet with seeds and scraps.
It's very cold here in Utah. So I was keeping the chickens and ducks in. They were not happy. And at 20° I started letting them out. Ok so I went to feed and water and they charged out the door. Even in snow, they want out. They like eating snow too. The ducks taught the chickens to stand in the water dishes to warm up their feet. And the coop is always open if they want to go in. And I started getting eggs on December 23rd. I have 40 chickens and one roo. Seven ducky girls. And even some of them are laying. As long as it's 20° and up, out they go.
This is happening with my chickens. Only one is laying but I know it’s winter and like you said they are not getting much sunlight. We have a heat lamp but it doesn’t give off light it gives off heat to keep them warm
Heartland Hatchery rocks!!!
Never have I regretted less buying my eggs from a local friend--our price per dozen is $5. I think 10 years ago it was 3.50, so that's feed price.
We had chickens when I was a kid. I'd raise them from chicks ($0.25 each from the feed store) and my dad built a coop in the side of a shed. It was genius, the coop was elevated and there was a ramp down to the outside, the birds slept in the rafters, the poop fell through a wire floor, the nesting boxes had doors to the inside of the shed at waist height, so we didn't have to open the coop to look for eggs. There was a door on a pulley to open and close the door to the outside, and the ramp had little boards on it as kind of "steps" to help the birds get up it. He had the outdoor coop framed on all sides and the top, a large, spacious area, but we never lost a bird to predators, and they were very happy with their garden scraps and gravity fed feed and water. Not the kind of thing you can move, but we pretty much brought the garden to them.
Inside, there was a heat lamp on a timer, egg production slowed in the winter but didn't stop. I think (this was the 80s) we sold eggs for a dollar a dozen. The chickens were great, we had a mix of rhodies and leghorns and cornish crosses, and the rhodies were definitely the nicest.
It was so easy to keep clean, and easy to clear out the guano for the garden. The birds were hilarious during apple season because they'd get the slightly fermented fallen apples and go ham on them and get tipsy.
I can't deal with commercially raised eggs. Something about how they wash them, I think, I get a stomach ache. The backyard eggs come to us not-washed, and never make me sick. (I buy a dozen commercial eggs for dyeing at easter and cannot eat egg salad made from them.)
Breeding project?
Indio+silky frizal
Indio+Ayam Chimay
Silky +Ayam chimney
It was also the feed they were getting from Tractor Supply. People weren’t getting eggs since the end of summer on year old chicks. TikTok homesteads reached out to others and they found the problem, it was 2 different feeds from the same company Purina. Changed feeds and got the some (normal amount for winter) of their eggs back.
In Belgium eggs got expensive also 9€ , but not because of chicken shortage, its because the feed TRIPLED in 1 year! Its really awfull.. we have our own chickens and quails
Yep, our feed has gotten ridiculously expensive.
My massive extended family (menonite, amish, and LOTS of christian farmers) does like you guys, natural chicken life. So we all do lyme glass eggs for winter. its how they would preserve eggs before refrigerators. the eggs will last 12 months at room temperature in a pantry. it has saved me from having to buy ANY eggs at all during this shortage and now several of my friends that have their own chickens are planning to preserve their own eggs in spring when the chickens lay more than they can eat so that if their flock doesnt lay enough or at all they still have eggs as well
Good information, thanks for sharing. A carton of 18 large eggs here in Vegas today were $8.99. 😮
I started out with my grandpa! We have always had chickens and after my grandpa passed away I really got going with birds. I now have 66 laying hens, 35 bantam hens, 7 bantam roosters, 5 big roosters, 3 turkeys, 10 peafowl, 7 ducks, 5 Guinea fowl, and I have 44 eggs in my incubators now. My laying hens quit laying sometime in November and just got started laying again. I got 20 eggs today and they are slowly laying more and more. My grandpa had 2 Black Sexlink hens, and 2 Ameraucana hens, since then I have bought lots more from Craigslist and Facebook all the way from older hens that were 4 years old to young pullets that were just starting to lay! I have added several different breeds and actually raised a few babies from his original hens! I have expanded my flocks into bantam Cochins and I plan to raise the Bantam Cochins, bantam silkies, polish, Amerauacanas, Brahmas, and marans. I LOVE watching your videos! They are very informative and just a pleasure to watch! I absolutely love y’all’s birds and cannot wait to do some experiments y’all have done with my own flock! 😁
Our local egg producer just lost million chickens. No eggs for a week or so, now a limit of 2 doz. I didn't look at the price, should have. Wish I could have chickens, but I live in an apartment. All local farm co-ops are full as well.
I like how the ice stomping was on beat with the music 😂
My parents have chickens, and we kids can buy bags of feed to get eggs from them!
I think daylight is a big factor in how many eggs they produce. In the winter, the days get shorter, and some will just straight up stop laying all together.
Yes, I talked about sunlight being the major issue in the video.
We aren’t getting much eggs but the reason is that we had a Wiesel or something to and kill about 16 of our chickens November-December2022. We don’t know if some of the hens remaining(7) are to old or are still scared from the tragedy. Do you think the The Wiesel or whatever killed them will be a long lasting effect and those chickens won’t lay the same from now on or will it just take time?
Also - research - several well known feed companies have altered their feed. As soon as chickens are taken off these feeds - laying returns! Free rangeing is great as well.
I'm assuming the losing of feathers and lack of eggs doesn't happen everywhere because the coldest it gets where I live in Australia is maybe 15 C° and our chickens would lay all year round
Congratulations on 1M subscribers
Here in Southern California, we are definitely seeing fewer eggs in stores.
I’d be curious to know how much you sale your eggs for when you do have them available. We are starting to get 6 a day now with a total of 24 hens and I’m so happy because I hate buying eggs. Cost 5bucks for a dozen at my local store. Costco is over a 2hr drive so we only go once every few months. Also, like you we don’t use heat lamps, some ppl think we’re crazy or cruel but chickens handle the winters where we live really well. Plus they have pine shavings and straw.
We were selling for $3/doz but we need to reconsider that with raising feed costs. I think $4/doz or more would help us break even at this point.
This is why I am so glad I started a flock last spring. Here in Louisiana my five laying hens are having close to regular egg production. But we are further south than you guys so we are getting warmer temps and a little more daylight!
Yeah, I work at subway and we were out of eggs for 2 weeks because the company we buy from hasn't been getting enough eggs from their chickens
funny enough, we here in Malaysia, the other side of the world also experiencing shortage of eggs suplies.
Crazy
So far I've been able to get eggs from the store, the cheapest was $4.99 for a dozen. We're not out yet at the store but it's getting close.
Very timely topic. Keep up the great work!
I'm hatching Barbu D'anvers, Brahmas and probably australorps this year.
I already have two hens hatching our local heritage breed, im currently trying to concentrate specific traits like Rosecomb+ Bearded+crested without crossing with other breeds.
I already have some hens that go broody but 2 are already on work and others aren't going broody in the frosty temperatures and honestly its good to have a incubator as well.
My family is planning on getting chickens and bunnies so we will be doing it very soon because we have everything ready if you could give us any advice it will be very helpful
When we hatched ducklings this summer, I posted in a local backyard duck group on Facebook. I offered them for free and was surprised how many people wanted to pay me for them. I guess for the reasons you mentioned in the video. We just wanted them to go to a good home because we aren’t ready for our own birds (we kind of ended up with the eggs by accident. I found this channel looking up videos for hatching advice).
Even though we never planned to keep them, we did take excellent care of them. I made sure they had an awesome diet and pristine accommodations every day. We still miss our baby ducks. Someday. Someday we’ll have our own birds.
Could you possibly do a similar video on quail? I'm thinking of starting with them due to space limitations. I know they start laying eggs petty early but is it worth it?
Happy winter ❄️
I've had some friends in the same exact area who had issues with their hens refusing to lay... They switched from Producer's Pride to Purina and they started laying again not even a week later (temps were consistent and did not rise or lower). I've fed my chickens purina from day 1 and they slowed down during the winter as expected, but never stopped even though friends' did. Apparently there's an issue where Producer's Pride lowered some of the nutrition in their feed. Not sure if there is merit to the claim, but we have seen a ton of evidence just in this group that the brand may be at least a partial issue.
Meanwhile, here I am in Maine getting 6 to 9 eggs a day from 11 hens. Now that the kids are grown and moved out, we can't eat them fast enough! I've been giving them away to family.
My chickens up here in Canada slowed from oct are laying like crazy by adding light on timers to supplement light hours , some are 4 years old still laying . Chickens will start laying at 3 .5months old starting with small eggs then with age they lay bigger sizes . It does not shorten the life of the chicken . Winter is when mites affect laying because they seek the heat of the bird . So I spray poultry mite and lice spray every month and alway supply calcium ,sand ,diatomaceous earth, and apple cider vinegar in their water . My family has been using just a 60 watt bulb for the light for over 80 years and I supply my neighbourhood constantly at 3$ Canadian nowadays and used purchased pellet feed and still manage to make money on a 150 bird flock . 7 roosters are added to the flock for 2 months on and 2 months away to keep hens on the lay .
Your favorite frizzle- name her Miss Frizzle like from the Magic school bus show!! Lol soo cute!
We have 5 chickens and 2 ducks and we get about 4 eggs a day and right now we only have 2 people living in our house so I give a few out to my neighbors every few days
we had this in Hungary for a while... Egg prices (and food in general) are getting higher and higher... in my home town a lot of people own atleast a few chickens now so that they don't have to buy eggs, they can have their own and they also share it with eachother but eggs are really egg-spensive (I had to make that pun). I don't understand the world, everything is getting more and more pricey and salaries aren't getting higher...
In Israel Lately There's been a great shortage of butter. Israel deports it's as really butter to China. Generally speaking I've seen lots of shortage lately
In Australia we have a frozen chip shortage
The red chicken that is closest to the camera at 4:26 looks exactly like my chicken named Maple!
Great informative video appreciate all the hard work to bring us the videos.
My hens have just started laying again, have had only 2 each day for the last few months, but 6 today.
Help that baby find the chicken with stripes on it! 😆 He is just too cute! ❤
God bless your family and may God keep you guys safe! I watch you for so long that I love you guys like my own!
Our favorite chooks are the standard cochins, Jersey Giants, and Brahmas....and their mix babies in our flock. They are CHONKY! Fun to hold, calm, affectionate, friendly... We also like the Speckled Sussex, because they are the nosiest, friendliest, most fearless of all our chooks.
Isaiah’s pronunciation is spot on. The kid can do voice over 😊
Damn that price is still ok for gamebird feed. Sacramento gamebird feed is over $30 for 50lb bags
Hello from the Caribbean, I have 67 Hens + 14 that are 2 mnts old + 10 eggs in the incubator and started with Quail 2 weeks ago also for incubating. I have been on backorder to my buyers thanks for the info.
Name the white frizzle hen snow white!
Quail lay eggs in 6 to 8 weeks!!
We have eggs at Trader Joe's and Costco. The ones at the local markets are running $6-$8 dollars a dozen and I am in the Los Angeles area. So far I only eat 2 eggs a week.