why chicken egg prices are higher

WHY CHICKEN EGG PRICES ARE HIGHER

at our community garden we have 7 chickens
one is older
during the summer we get 6 eggs a day
the older one produces an egg whenever she wants to
the others lay an egg a day like clockwork
until
the nights get colder
the days get shorter
they start molting
molting means they lose their feathers and grow new ones
this growing new feathers and having to produce more body heat eats up a lot of energy
so
one egg a day is all we get in the dead of winter

now
you can put a light in the coop and have it come on about an hour or two before sunrise
they will start to produce more eggs that way
i never liked doing that since it felt like i was messing with mother nature

i did that at the country n once and increased production to about half the summers numbers
but i didnt feel good about it
i felt i was messing with mother nature
it cant be good for the chickens longevity doing that

im sure commercial egg producers do something like this to keep egg production up in the winter
they probably leave the lights on 24/7

for me when i go to the store i really dont pay much attention to what the eggs cost
i get  a particular egg type
brown free ranging large eggs 
i just grab the carton and buy it
i want my egg a day
no matter the costs

now i do have access to the eggs from the garden but i try to leave those for folks we donate food to 
i figure they need them more than i do
however
during high production i usually grab an egg occasionally

so why are the egg prices higher

there was an outbreak of of avian flu
lots of chickens died
they also killed millions of egg laying hens to fight the outbreak

less chickens to lay
less eggs produced
more demand than supply
equals
more expensive eggs

also
less daylight hours less eggs produced adds to the problem
more costly feed 
the price of grains went up 
russia and ukraine are the largest grain producers
more labor costs
inflation

these all added up 
has lead to 
higher egg costs

except
i havent really noticed a shortage at our grocery store
the price i havent even noticed whether its up a lot or not 
i just buy them

now if we were still living at the country n where we got all those eggs we wouldnt even notice an increase in prices 
those chickens just keep on producing the eggs no matter what the economy is doing

so
in an eggshell thats why the prices are higher

so
you have four choices
pay the price
dont buy eggs
use egg substitutes
or
get your own backyard chickens

the organicgreen doctor