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Concerns Over Egg Shortages Grow

Black Blade

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Concerns Over Egg Shortages Grow

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Eggs are priced on the commodity market, like corn and wheat. Temporary increases in egg prices reflect many factors,” the AEB said. “Like many sectors of the economy, egg farming is being impacted by inflation and experiencing supply chain challenges related to increases in cost and availability of feed and grain, labor and transportation. “Recent cases of bird flu have created additional strains on supply in limited situations,” the organization added.
BLACK BLADE: Meanwhile the USD buys less and less every week as prices for everything rises and wages are not keeping up. It's a slo-mo economic and dollar collapse happening now right before our eyes ...

No one is laughing at Preppers anymore ...
 

hueyville

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My biggest fleet account supplies eggs to Publix, Kroger and they have their own brand across the southeast. They just brought a new laying house online and have purchased two road tractors with trailers and five in 2022 to deliver the eggs from the new laying house. They are talking about beginning another house as they overbuilt their new washing, packaging and storage facility to support several more laying houses. Its America, may be temporary shortages but the producers will increase production and keep on chugging.

Whenever i go out to letter a truck they give me five flats of eggs fresh from the wash room that as chicken lays they drop to conveyor and go directly to wash room. They are washed three times in a special "steam cleaner" using hotter than boiling water steam to make sure all are clean and sanitized and another machine separates by size and grades them. I get my eggs warm from steam room and was told not to put in fridge till ready to use. In the old days everyone had chickens and a basket they kept eggs at room temperature. I was told to keep them in my basement covered with a towel so not exposed to light and would store for three months or more.

We gave it a try and have gone over three months storing eggs like this but if their ever chilled and let them warm they are ruined. Why ours always come from the wash room before hit the refrigerated packing room. We will sometimes bring five flats home while still have two to three left so we date each flat, as fridge empties wife brings 18 upstairs for refrigerator and repeats. When we see a date nearing four months we bring the entire flat up, and I bake two or three cakes and freeze the cakes. Can bring a four month old flat up, put in fridge and have two weeks before go bad. If leave at room temperature four months they will go bad in that same two weeks so there is your storage and max time if decide to get a few chickens. know people that will give away baby chickens and if your concerned put three or four in the back yard, pick up eggs each day, wash and keep in your egg basket. Problem solved.
 

brunop

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Local farmer has fresh eggs, 1.00 per dozen. We don't buy them at the grocery stores. No need to.
Farm fresh eggs - where you pull into rural person's driveway at the home-made sign and leave money in the box and pick up your eggs? $4.00 / dozen, because at the Hippy Co-Op they're $7.00 / dozen.

I've got 20 hens, and I'm about to get 10 more.
 

gordo63

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Keep about a dozen laying hens and plenty of yard/woods for them to forage. As long as I keep the predators at bay, I'm good to go on eggs.
 

hueyville

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If they have water chickens can fend and feed themselves. I learned if chicken does not have access to scracth and peck bugs, small rocks and dirt then they don't live as long. Their digestive systems need some "trash" to function properly. A fenced back yard then big pen (needs to be mobile so move over fresh area of yard every month) and you can leave chickens unattended for weeks to a month and they are just fine when you get home. Used to have one that lived at work, put a webcam in his cage and had people watching him everyday, coming from out of state to visit and finally had to shut webcam down because it was draining the bandwidth of my server so bad my hosting fees jumped $100 per month so many people watched that chicken.

Entire Story of the Little Chicken

Day the chicken adopted me as his "mamma". Luckily found a box, crushed a granola bar and had a spere newspaper as one of my political Op-eds" had run the day before.



Raised him in the house where he learned to behave better than 9 out of 10 kids I see in public.



Out of frame is another cat and two dogs. Have a rule, all animals get along but they always have a bit of competion for some "lap time" when I get home.



Phone rang and when came back the chicken was standing on the big wrench I was using to try and un-stick an old Flathead motor.



Kept trying to hop up on taable saw while cutting some redwood so when it was off let him pose to keep his self esteem up.

 
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V guy

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I live on a short, dead end rural road up near Canada.......4 chicken/egg producers out of 10.
2-3 Roosters in the am, like clockwork.

Must be a trend.
 

Story

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THE
MORE
YOU
KNOW

The virus, known as the Eurasian H5N1 avian influenza, began tearing through Europe, Asia, and Africa in late 2021 and is still raging, with Europe experiencing its worst bird flu outbreak on record. It was first detected in the US in January and has since spread to at least 32 states, resulting in the death of more than 36 million chickens and turkeys and triggering a spike in egg prices.

The horrific bird flu that has wiped out 36 million chickens and turkeys, explained - Vox

Edited to point out the gravitas.
36
million
birds
 
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hueyville

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One thing I will say about bird flue spread is would bet much is caused by companies short cutting their infection control. Plant I visit 3 to 7 times per year is where I got my commercial foot wash station used at our basement door to disinfect shoes before entering our "temporary air lock" I erected at basement entrance the week the government first went 100% "we have a problem, no international inbound air flights, suggest people stay home and wear masks if go out in public". We had already locked our doors at work to walk-in clients and had delivery drivers dropping off supplies at side door plus avoiding Lowe's and others as much as possible beginning first business day of the year due to warnings from doctors we trust.

While most got the vaxx, many have not it seems 85% have returned to normal life as if covid never happened. I had two people in my shop yesterday had never met buying some tools I am selling off with potential plans to upgrade with CNC versions I can program and just check on instead of massive setup time then having to babysit the things. First Craigslist buyer ever to not try and low-ball me (had told him since I told him he had first option two other buyers actually contacted me and offered more to kick him to curb) as had two buyers willing to pay more than what I had priced online. My prices were not under priced its just there is a shortage on good used and new equipment with long wait times for shipment. Knife making friend had an oven go down and replacement was over $4,000 and worse took 4.5 months to arrive.

Obviously decent guy with his college age daughter in new $80,000 truck with trailer and piece of equipment rented to lift and move one piece when told him the weight and I couldn't help load. I seldom help load, get my cash before they start moving so if they drop it it is theirs after having a buyer turn over a lathe he insisted could move without a forklift. If I didn't have his money he could have walked out leaving lathe on its back (wasn't hurt luckily) in middle of floor and drove away. Also had client in shop and first time had three people inside other than me and my two part time guys in three years. Even without the visitors would have still entered house through air-lock and done my routine that stops any virus or bacteria thresher, contains it till sanitized and is not drug in my house.

For years at the egg plant they erected dual security fences around the property, enter first gate and before get to second gate they have basically a huge drive through truck wash big enough for a road tractor with 53 foot trailer. Every vehicle goes through the wash that disinfects top, sides, bottom, front and rear of vehicle and if drive through too fast get a red light and have to do again. Inner gate has 24/7/365 security and if your not an employee, company truck or don't have prior permission and on visitor list your hemmed up till calls are made and a manager approves you through second gate. Security tells you where to go, where to park and if vary can be asked to leave.

Get out of vehicle and before enter building, even if wearing $800 salesman shoes you step in machine that sprays shoes with disinfectant, scrubs them and then when enter are in a small room where you wash hands, put on hair net and if have beard put net over face. This is to access offices or logistics office for non company drivers. If go in any part where chickens live, eggs are handled then you go though another layer of airlock and suit up in Tyveck coveralls and shoe covers. They have been doing this level of infection control for about a decade but each year more is automated and more steps added. My contact is number two or number three man in the company who told me a decade ago one feed truck arrives from another location with bird flu, sales rep hit one of the smaller farms that does not go all in on infection control or just the sign guy and they could lose every hen on the property.

Told me most facilities that have a major loss were not only following minimum government guidelines for food facilities were lazy and had holes where people could wander on property, neighbors yard chicken wander and most times it was traced to a feed truck or independent drivers truck that had been on a farm that did not take infection seriously and would pass trucks through without disinfecting them if regulars. Many don't have a million dollar automated disinfection wasyh and have to send out two or three men with backpack sprayers and ladders who don't do tops, crawl under trucks but spray wheels and what they can reach walking around and let it through even passing company trucks un-sprayed. I work in the big egg producer/packer/shipper, three big poultry processing plants, three fleets that haul live chickens to plants, etc so if they don't hit me with full routine and I was marking trucks at a hauler or processing plant day before or earlier in day could kill all their birds.

Laziness is the culprit and if you have a gazillion birds then not being lazy, firing lazy people is mandatory or you loose your living and several hundred or more people loose their jobs till able to disinfect and restock with layers that is a huge deal. When growers call me to clean up a coyote problem on their poultry farm I am required to disinfect fully even though have my blind set up a minimum of 300 yards from closest house and up to 500 yards away. Whenever I go on one of my regular facilities and see they have upgraded foot wash, hand wash, other equipment I ask if the old stuff is piled somewhere and usually leave with the nicest unit. My home has about a tight of a "heat envelope" as possible and runs at positive pressure so is always venting out and not sucking air in. If I bring a virus in and expose wife, then it propagates and we may be one of those couples who have had covid twice each instead of not even the standard flu or a cold since this began.

We have vaxx for two strains of covid and there are twelve identified strains in U.S. with a 1.7% mortality rate. Now monkey Pox is sweeping the country (won't hear much about it but has 7% to 9% mortality rate) and transfers from animals to humans, human to human and human to animal. All these folks that feel the need for exotic pets even if buy smuggled and improperly screened animals are dragging Monkey Pox in or just people who visited the zoo or wild animal preserve on a trip to Africa. the worlsd has gotten smaller, labs are making things designed to kill million or billions and have proved incapable of counting not counting purposeful releases.

When I leave house and interact with others am hitting the foot wash, dropping cloths in air lock and going straight to shower probably for the rest of my life so the next one that has a 30% or better mortality rate may stop it dead before get it home. Go in Lowe's I use hand sanitizer before get my truck keys out of my pocket and have spray bottle to disinfect shoes to reduce chance of infecting my truck. Paranoid? Heck Yes!!! Odds of dragging a virus home to wife, very low. The old saying "don't sh!t where you eat" is a wise saying with a lot of truth. If able to keep whatever people are passing out of my truck and then out of my home likely means I may have reduced that viruses spore picked up on shoe or hand before it infects me. I don't wear masks unless in a facility the requires them, not been vaxxed and not been sick a day since we went to DEFCON 2 and we have three moe levels ready to deploy up to DEFCON 5 if something like Monkey Pox or worse begins to hit in numbers like covid did initially. My bet is over half the layers lost came from lazy employees or owners trying to cheap out on FDA/USDA regulations.
 
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