Good Lord, the price of eggs!

Purplekylie22

I usually buy the smartprice ones the big 15 or 18 pack. If I go tot the farm shop I will but from there though a tray of about 30 for £3-£4 depending on egg sizes I think and they ae sooo yummy and a lovely orangy colour instad of supermarket pale ones. but the farm shop is a good distance (I'm out of city at the bottom end, they are out of city at the top end) away so its really not as often as I would like

lostinrates

thriftwizard wrote: »

LiR, I've never had to use red mite treatment in the chicken shed; it's a converted garden shed with a corrugated bitumen roof & the mites don't seem to like bitumen at all. They did get into the broody ark, with a felt roof, long ago, but the bantams have decided they'd rather raise chicks in the main shed now so that's long gone. I only have 9 ATM, 4 bantams & 5 big girls, and they're mostly in a big "deep-litter" run at the end of our little urban garden; they come out for an hour so before dusk for a rampage round the garden. The "litter" is straw mixed with leaves, collected from the pavement outside my shop, where they're a hazard to pedestrians. I've been known to use shredded paper for bedding but straw is the main material, with a thick layer of newspaper underneath. I use Vermex once a year (cost shared with other backyard keepers on our street, basically pence) but always put a drop of cider vinegar in their drinking water, which seems to keep most mischief at bay. I also dry & grind eggshells to add into their feed for calcium; there's no shortage of grit in our riverbank-type soil. Eldest girl is nearly 9 (a Pekin) so either they're very hardy or OS chicken-keeping's not too bad for them!

I still think you have been very lucky. It always concerns me when people advocate keeping chickens as a cheap activity with no reourse to problems.....for most its not true and leads to worse animal welfare than is commercially available if people are not attentive. (fwiw i am not critising your keeping, but the general idea that it is generally cheap and easy yet still optimal welfare......my background is in farm animal welfare research). Even rather experienced people have problems. I have recently lost two chickens for no reason i can discern, so to protect my flock i have the costs of a vet visit and an investigation, despite the apparent health of the flock. I also had a panic with my ex batts recently, comparitively my purebreds are a doddle!

Fwiw i find my purebreds more hardy too, but obviously less productive so more feed per egg!

I have had red mite once, but not here, and still follow the practise of prevention being better than cure, so treat annually.....which also means having enough housing suitable temporarily.

curlytop12

sainsburys basic eggs-are barn laid eggs-10p each

Butterfly_Brain

Aldis medium eggs are £1.25 for 15.
I actually get mine from our local Greengrocer £1.50 for a dozen medium eggs that are from a local farm and very nice they are too
I tend to buy the Aldi ones on skint months because when people haven't got much money they are a cheap source of protein.....Getting not to be now thanks to the EU :mad: :mad: I don't know why we keep taking orders from them when we have our own richardheads to co*k things up all on their own and we never elected the EU faceless ones in the first place :mad: :mad: Yes I am a UKIP voter

lostinrates

Butterfly_Brain wrote: »

Aldis medium eggs are £1.25 for 15.
I actually get mine from our local Greengrocer £1.50 for a dozen medium eggs that are from a local farm and very nice they are too
I tend to buy the Aldi ones on skint months because when people haven't got much money they are a cheap source of protein.....Getting not to be now thanks to the EU :mad: :mad: I don't know why we keep taking orders from them when we have our own richardheads to co*k things up all on their own and we never elected the EU faceless ones in the first place :mad: :mad: Yes I am a UKIP voter

Well....it was a pretty strongly british influence to improve eu standards. They are probablywondering why they have to listen to us when we won't concede over the financial crisis.

worried_jim

I pay £2.98 for 30 eggs at Tesco.
http://www.mysupermarket.co.uk/#/shelves/eggs_in_tesco.html
Can't see what the fuss is about.

thriftwizard

I still think you have been very lucky. It always concerns me when people advocate keeping chickens as a cheap activity with no reourse to problems.....for most its not true and leads to worse animal welfare than is commercially available if people are not attentive.

Point taken, LiR, and agreed with. I'm able to cover any vet bills we might incur, but have been lucky enough not to need anything more than a little Baytril in the last few years. We've lost a few to old age and two to the fox (from said broody ark) but luckily not had any other problems. And I too wouldn't want people to start thinking of them simply as a way of saving money - like any other animal, they are both a delight and a responsibility and people need to be well-prepared & sure they've thought it through properly (vet bills, holidays, no lie-ins, always someone home at dusk, etc) before they take them on.

Stephen_Leak

Update. ASDA SmartPrice 15 packs are suddenly back down to £1.25 (8.33p each) on their website. No change on the Sainsbury's or Tesco websites.

building_with_lego

charlies-aunt wrote: »

I'd rather go without than buy eggs from caged hens.

:T:T Hear hear. We always used to keep chickies when I was gowing up. Seeing how they behave naturally, then learning about battery farming was deeply shocking.

I only ever buy free- range, usually the co-op's Simply Value 10 for £1.80 (they only sell free range eggs there) in an assortment of sizes. Once they go through the grading process the price begins to climb sharply. I will not buy anything less than free range for eggs on principle- at least barn reared meat birds have a shorter life

sonastin

Bloomin' typical. A friend's daughter is doing an A-level project for which OH volunteered to eat 4 eggs a day for 2 weeks. She called today to ask if he can start it on Monday - almost like they were waiting for the prices to go up before starting!

Need to work out the cheapest place to acquire 56 eggs over the weekend. Candidates are farm-shop, gate sale place near home, gate sale place on the way to work (sign says £3.50 per tray - how many eggs are in a tray?!), aldi, lidl, asda, sainsburys, etc. Maybe half a dozen from each and try not to go broke over the weekend ;-)