Wade Vandervort
Andy Stahl, left, holding a Polish Buff Laced chicken named Dolly and Linzy Stahl, holding a Cochin Bantam named Josie, pose for a photo near their backyard chicken coop Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023.
Sunday January 22, 2023 | 2am
Some Las Vegans have avoided the skyrocketing prices and low availability of eggs in grocery stores by going straight to the source.
Take Linzy Stahl, known as “the chicken lady”, who owns several hens and roosters, as well as an endless supply of eggs.
Stahl isn’t the only one growing her own eggs. His Facebook page, Las Vegas Backyard Pet Chickens, has 3,400 followers.
“We’re adding 15 to 20 people a day now, but also, since the price of eggs has gone up, it’s almost every day someone asks if people have eggs,” said Stahl, a resident of Centennial Hills. “They’d rather buy eggs from the locals here than in the store.”
A worse than expected bird flu season has taken its toll on the domestic chicken population. Combined with increased demand during the holiday season as well as pandemic-induced inflation and supply chain bottlenecks, the price of a dozen large eggs skyrocketed last month. to reach a national average of $4.66, according to commodity index tracker Urner Barry.
In some stores in Las Vegas, a dozen eggs cost $7.99.
All this clucking around the breakfast staple has sent residents searching for an alternative source for their eggs. Members of the Facebook group are sharing informative posts ranging from advice on building a new co-op to people looking to sell their own eggs.
“People call me the chicken lady because of the time I spend researching all these different breeds,” Stahl said. “I absolutely adore these little creatures. They are amazing.
Stahl was staying at an Airbnb about six years ago, which required guests to tend to livestock. After tasting farm-fresh eggs, she and her husband decided to build a chicken coop.
And once the pandemic hit, others began to follow. The egg shortage has taken the hobby to another level, with new farmers or residents asking where to find locally sourced eggs joining the social media group.
“Everyone is welcome,” Stahl said proudly.
Are chickens right for you?
Stahl warns that if you’re looking to start your own chicken empire, you might want to think twice.
While incredibly rewarding, she says, some start-up and maintenance costs won’t be for everyone. For starters, building a chicken coop can cost several hundred dollars between building materials, chicken wire, and furniture. And those living on the outskirts of the valley will also have to contend with predators like coyotes and hawks, Stahl said.
“It’s an expensive hobby. There’s not really a profit to be made out of it,” Stahl said. “You have chicks and you think they’ll stay small forever. They grow up so fast. So the most important thing is to have your coop and run set up before you even have any chicks.
And then there is the cleaning.
“So much shit,” said Heather Kimble, a member of Stahl’s Facebook group and owner of about 60 chickens. “But as long as they have access to shade and water 100% of the time, they will thrive just fine.”
Rules and regulations vary from city to city, but Clark County code allows residents to raise up to 10 chickens per property, with no more than five roosters. Residents must also live in the appropriate zoning district and must be on at least 80,000 square feet of land, depending on the county.
Both Stahl and Kimble said desert heat can stress chickens and hamper their ability to produce eggs, depending on the breed. Stahl even invested in a swamp cooler for his chicken coop, while Kimble has a wading pool so the chickens can pop in and out anytime.
All that extra hassle can be worth it, Kimble said, especially when the eggs start arriving regularly. Sometimes it feels like everyone in town is asking Kimble for a dozen eggs, while other times she can’t pawn them fast enough. A hen can produce one egg a day, so Kimble’s supply is plentiful.
“My number is in everyone’s phone as a chick,” Kimble said. “If I have a surplus, I will mass text everyone I have on my phone and let them know what I have. Then it’s first come, first served.
Stahl agreed.
“In most cases everyone understands what we put on and how much it costs for a bag of food and how often we have to buy food,” she said. “People are pretty amazing about it, and they offer us $10 for a dozen eggs without even asking.
“They understand that the difference between getting your eggs from someone’s garden that were just laid that day; you will never get this in a store.
Price up
The price of eggs in December rose 59.9% year-on-year and 11.1% from November to December, according to the latest Consumer Price Index report released last week by the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, a monthly government report can be used to track inflation.
Eggs were by far the most inflated “at home” food item, with the second highest spike corresponding to a 43.8% year-over-year spike in margarine prices.
The recent rise in egg prices can mainly be attributed to an outbreak of bird flu that has decimated egg-producing poultry in the United States, said Karyn Rispoli, an analyst at Urner Barry who studies the egg market. The outbreak, caused primarily by wild and migratory birds carrying the virus, has been particularly perilous for some of the country’s largest factory farms (which can often house more than a million chickens at a time), as entire flocks should be culled to prevent further infection.
At least 58 million birds have been affected by bird flu in the past year, more than three quarters of which were laying hens, Rispoli said in an email to The Sun. Coupled with a surge in demand and a low supply in November and December, it caused egg prices to skyrocket.
“Many contributing factors pushed prices to historic highs in December, but avian flu was certainly the most significant,” Rispoli wrote. “However, production losses are only part of the equation. National herd numbers were at a lower level in June and market values were less than half of those recorded in December – and that’s due to demand.
The last bird flu outbreak that had a significant impact on egg prices was in 2015, Rispoli said. But this epidemic, which has disrupted livestock quantities in Europe, Japan and elsewhere in North America, was by far the deadliest on record.
“The production losses can sometimes be quite significant,” Rispoli wrote.
An end in sight
If raising chickens isn’t your forte, relief could soon come for those used to shopping in supermarkets, Rispoli said. The average price of a dozen eggs in the United States fell to $2.89, down about 38% since its peak in late December, according to figures from Urner Barry released Monday.
Much of this decline can be attributed to slower demand for eggs after the holiday season. Bird flu cases should also begin to decline during the warmer months, likely giving way to a rebound in overall supply in the industry, Rispoli said.
“The reason for this is, again, largely demand driven,” she wrote. “It often slows down after the holidays, but retail prices have finally started to catch up to the highs set in December. Consumers have accepted price increases until recently, but the market will only bear too much – and it looks like we’ve reached this point.
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