Egg prices high, could increase more
The nationwide increase in egg prices this year is affecting people in a variety of ways in southern Colorado.
At least one restaurant has raised some menu prices to cover higher egg costs and low supply makes it difficult for other businesses to order enough to meet their needs.
Meanwhile, smaller-scale providers report getting more customers seeking lower prices or healthier eggs.
The situation began earlier this year when 48 million hens were killed because of concerns about bird flu and the disease being transmitted to humans.
As a result, eggs rose from a commercial price of between $1.00 and $1.50 per dozen to between $3.00 and $7.00 per dozen.
Experts worry that a recent decision by restaurant chain McDonald’s to sell breakfast all day will increase the demand for and price of eggs.
Sheldon’s Luncheonette in Colorado Springs posts a notice alerting customers that they’ll pay $1.00 extra for egg entrees.
“But our customers still want them,” Germanetta Francis, the head cook, said. “We’ve come close to running out. We can’t order as much as we want. We’ll ask for 10 cases and get five.”
The restaurant staff said they’ve been told it could take as long as two years to replace the loss of hens and return commercial egg production — and prices — to previous levels.
The situation presents an opportunity for small-scale egg providers like Bonnie Simon and Chris Sniffen.
Simon lives in Colorado Springs and gets eggs from several hens she owns. She also manages a website, Hungry Chicken Homestead, containing information about other local egg providers.
“There are at least 100 of us,” Simon said. “We treat our chickens better and they’re healthier and their eggs are healthier.”
Sniffen owns more than 200 hens in Calhan and started an egg home delivery business aside from his soap business, Ray’s of Colorado.
“The higher prices don’t affect me at all,” he said. “I don’t base my prices off what the industry does. I don’t raise my birds like the industry does.”
Sniffen said his eggs cost about as much as commercial eggs.
“But customers want healthier food, so if the price is the same, they’re trying my eggs,” he said. “They taste so much better.”
For more information, visit: http://hungrychickenhomestead.com/.
