Egg Production - Prices

This has been one of the best winters for my Barred Rocks. I'm pretty sure every hen is laying and that may be because of a mild winter. In general, I'd have to say that our summers are more severe than our winters in this part of the world. The heat affects the egg laying more adversely than the cool months here. It's not uncommon for the temps to reach 105-106F degrees here and sometimes remain at that extreme for 70 to 90 days. Anything living is not much interested in anything but survival during that time. So, egg laying suffers.

In this area of TX the price for a dozen, extra large, eggs is about $1.50 and the price seldom falls below $1.25. Considering the price of feed that isn't such a bad deal unless you have other reasons for raising chickens as well; Just raising them for eggs is an expensive deal. Personally, I use three or four dozen eggs per month and feed costs run about $75.00 per month. Hardly justifiable for that reason. The eggs we do not use we give away to family and neighbors. Once I figured it up and decided that I would have to charge $3.00+ per dozen for eggs just to pay for the feed. I guess that may not be unreasonable for the organic crowd. In the stores I see similar price tags on six egg "organic" packages. I hope eggs never become that important in my diet.

I'd be interested to know the egg prices around the rest of the country and how the egg/feed price ratios affect you whether you raise chickens for just your personal use or for the sale of eggs and chickens.