Backyard chicken farmers see increased interest in local eggs
BELLEVUE, Nebraska (Nebraska) – With high egg prices, pet chicken owners are beginning to realize that their pets have become highly valuable.
But eggs aren’t the main reason Logan Jones decided to have chickens last spring.
“We really just wanted to do it to have more pets,” Jones said. “We didn’t worry too much about eggs back in March, but now it’s nice to have them.”
Jones lives in Bellevue, and city regulations allow residents to own no more than seven birds. Jones chickens produce about 35 eggs per week.
With these eggs, of course, buyers come.
“We have more and more interest, probably from Thanksgiving through the holidays, definitely a lot more interest in eggs.”
“The rumors fly, and as soon as the rumors spread, you get a phone call and I don’t have time, my chickens don’t keep up,” said Brett Creyfels, who has 15 chickens in his yard near Springfield, Nebraska.
His flock produces about a dozen eggs every day.
“I sell mine for $4 a dozen, which is cheaper than the stores in some cases, so I think that’s one of the reasons I get more customers,” he says.
But even though they’re selling all those eggs, both Kreifels and Jones say they’re not making big profits.
“You have feed prices that have not gone down but only gone up,” he says. Kraifels says he has about 200 other chickens that serve other purposes.
“I’ve made laying hens pay for food for and for my other birds, so if I put pen to paper, I’ll probably make some money, not a lot, because feed is expensive.”
Jones agrees.
“I can handle feed costs by charging as little as $5 a dozen and it’s just a perk that I don’t have to pay for their feed,” he says.
Both say that if you want to save money on store-bought eggs, buying your own chickens is probably not worth it.
“It’s a living thing, not just an egg, so you have to commit to taking care of that living thing, and the eggs are just an added bonus,” says Jones.
“If you don’t care about the price of feed, okay, go ahead and get chickens, but feed isn’t cheap and it takes about, depending on the hen and the weather and all that, it takes about three to four pounds of feed to give you a dozen eggs.” , adds Kraifels.
But both say that buying eggs from local breeders may be the best bet in terms of price and freshness.
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