Egg price rise?? Where's the cheapest free range eggs??

toni_

we have our own chooks got 6 in total, dont know if its cheaper or not really, we spend £15.00 a month on food - layers mash and corn. They get wormed every 6 months which costs around £13.00 a year, get garlic supplements in the water to keep them healthy, you need treatments for redmites and scaly leg which you will get no doubt sometime in the summer, blue spray on hand if they peck and cut each other. Decent disenfectent is expensive too, trips to vets, oyster grit, straw for the nesting boxes and woodshavings for the shed floor, it all adds up i wouldnt be without them though, my eggs sell for 80p for 6, maybe i should put the prices up

Stephen_Leak

antrobus wrote: »

It's been known for some years that new EU regulations on egg production were coming into force on 1st January 2012. So all the money that was needed to be spent to implement these changes should already have been spent well before the start of this year, so there's no reason why there should be any further increases in the price of eggs.

Yes, that's what some people are saying. However the UK has also failed to meet the deadline as well.

http://www.farminguk.com/news/UK-fails-to-meet-cage-ban-deadline_22540.html

Please note that the article is from January, and - allegedly - only 30 farms (which, if they only have 500,000 hens (only!) between them, must be small) hadn't complied at that time.

LondonDreamer

There's a thread on the OS forum about egg prices, might be useful... Good Lord, the price of eggs!

Posted in that one, but I pay 89p for 6 from Tesco. They're mixed weight, but normally all of a good size.

pelirocco

SailorSam wrote: »

They've just been talking to an 'egg farmer' on Bbc breakfast, the rise in the price of eggs is 'cos of new regulations that have meant better conditions and more room for the chickens, so we are paying for these new cages. However although they've been implemented in the UK, Europe is lagging behind which means the British producers have to compete against others with lower costs.

I watched that , the conditions may be better then the old cages but I cant imagine the chickens are much better off . The poor birds must still be at risk of serious pecking from other hens .

pelirocco

toni_ wrote: »

we have our own chooks got 6 in total, dont know if its cheaper or not really, we spend £15.00 a month on food - layers mash and corn. They get wormed every 6 months which costs around £13.00 a year, get garlic supplements in the water to keep them healthy, you need treatments for redmites and scaly leg which you will get no doubt sometime in the summer, blue spray on hand if they peck and cut each other. Decent disenfectent is expensive too, trips to vets, oyster grit, straw for the nesting boxes and woodshavings for the shed floor, it all adds up i wouldnt be without them though, my eggs sell for 80p for 6, maybe i should put the prices up

We have 3 ( did have 4 but one died ) not sure how much we spend on food tbh , we just buy a bag when it runs out , but it lasts us a fair while .

Their coop and run cost a fortune tho , because we extended it , the kit that came was far too small .

They have just started laying , we had a poor summer because of broody hens , and when they have free run of the garden they tend to lay in the depths of a very big compost heap , we can find dozens of eggs , but are never sure of their age so bin them ( we've tried the float test and found that even when they have passed the eggs dont look healthy when cracked open )

Vivid

The reason prices are going through the roof is that there is a major shortage in the UK and in Europe.

Non compliant countries cannot import into other EU member states. Super markets may currently have deals but these are only because their buying prices were signed and sealed before this shortage, these will come to an end and become inline with more realistic prices. The likes of Aldi sold eggs from various countries including spain.

Spain has just had a mass bird cull due to the cage ban resulting in them going from 120% production ie having 20% to sell abroad to becoming a net importer.

France currently has a 21 Million egg shortfall a week!
Romania has seen shelf prices increase by 50% in a week!

The UK has invested 400 Million in this change - with 13 other EU members still not compliant.

European producers will find funding to convert to the new enriched system hard to find from European banks, resulting in overall reduced production in Europe.

The UK consumer seriously has no idea the current state of the UK / European egg market. Prices to producers in many cases prior to now have been well below production costs, with feed price rises and overall operating costs increasing.

We are seriously a long way from this situation settling down, the next knock on in price rises is food stuffs containing eggs.

People forget it's not only whats classed as shell eggs produced, but liquid & powdered eggs.

Simply put, throughout the UK and Europe we currently produce far less eggs than we all require.

terra_ferma

pelirocco wrote: »

I watched that , the conditions may be better then the old cages but I cant imagine the chickens are much better off . The poor birds must still be at risk of serious pecking from other hens .

Often they are debeaked, battery and free range chickens alike.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debeaking

katiejones

Nothing, have 6 chickens in a pen in the back garden xx

Manchee

Middy wrote: »

Failing that - £1 for 10 in Iceland.

LondonDreamer wrote: »

but I pay 89p for 6 from Tesco. They're mixed weight, but normally all of a good size.

Are these actually free range though? I think I would feel way too guilty to not buy free range

cleggie

http://www.iceland.co.uk/our-food/chilled-food
12 eggs for £1 at iceland. I owuldnt imagine they are FR though.