# \[Possibly\] dumb question from a city boy about farming **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 6, 2016, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240 "2016-09-06T23:21:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/21 "2016-09-07T09:13:52Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Aldi buys them in Sicily for one cent, selling them to Malta for four and a half cents, buying them back for seven cents, and finally selling them in their stores for five cents. Does Aldi also carry chocolate-covered Egyptian cotton? ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 11:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/22 "2016-09-07T11:02:30Z")
Eggs here in Ontario are currently at about $2 US per dozen, down from about $2.75 a year ago. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/23 "2016-09-07T13:04:42Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > Does Aldi also carry chocolate-covered Egyptian cotton? I’d rather have a parachute. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/24 "2016-09-07T13:30:49Z")
My mom’s a small-time chicken farmer (she only has a half-dozen hens, and sells only to a few neighbors), and she still manages to make a profit on them. Of course, she doesn’t have any middlemen and she’s able to charge more than the grocery stores, but IIRC, her costs are still only around 5 cents an egg. In addition to the commercial chicken feed, she also gives them some of the weeds from her garden and assorted vegetable scraps, and all the bugs the can scratch up, which stretches the feed a bit (and also improves the quality of the eggs). ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/25 "2016-09-07T13:31:53Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > I’d rather have a parachute. The desire for a parachute proves you are sane…which means you can’t have a parachute. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/26 "2016-09-07T13:36:41Z")
> [@PatrickLondon](#): > > It’s probably a lot less fun to be a battery farm egg-producing hen than to be your goldfish. Most definitable debatable. What’s more, unprovable. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/27 "2016-09-07T13:58:23Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Layers don’t make for great human food. When they are done they are something of a shocking wreck. Chicken Stock, pet food, possibly industrially processed meats. You don’t want to think about what goes into chicken nuggets (necks mostly I’m told). Nothing will be wasted, but layers are not meat hens and the final value will be very low in comparison. Maybe, but the total value of that chicken over its lifetime is probably higher, when you factor in the eggs it laid AND the carcass value once it’s done laying. And… if you’re in the business of making chicken stock, you WANT those old worn out birds. They make more flavorful stock than the young, meaty ones. We get them from a local farmer who sells eggs, and occasionally his scrawny, tough egg-layers when they’re done for, and they make stellar chicken stock and soup. Far better than a cheap fryer from the grocery store. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/28 "2016-09-07T13:58:41Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Cheapest eggs at Aldi in the UK are £1.00 ($1.34) a dozen, so either we treat our chickens a whole lot better or they are hugely profitable. > > Of course I can pay a lot more if I want to buy eggs that came from a chicken with a name, living a happy and fulfilled life in a woodland somewhere. UK battery hens are treated slightly less brutally than US hens. It’s a side effect of the veal controversy in the early 90s (and the general increase in factory farming awareness during the BSE scare). > [@eschereal](#): > > Does Aldi also carry chocolate-covered Egyptian cotton? Yes, and everyone has a share! ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/29 "2016-09-07T14:26:37Z")
Average price for a dozen eggs is 2.97. That is just about 25 cents per egg. Chicken feed can be had on the internet for 15 for a 50 pound bag. An egg laying chicken can eat 6 pounds of feed per month. That is 6 cents a day. Feed is only 25% of the cost of the average egg. Aldi is probably using eggs as a loss leader because they are charging 1 sixth of the average cost for eggs. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/30 "2016-09-07T15:29:41Z")
> [@Francis\_Vaughan](#): > > Layers don’t make for great human food. When they are done they are something of a shocking wreck. Chicken Stock, pet food, possibly industrially processed meats. You don’t want to think about what goes into chicken nuggets (necks mostly I’m told). Nothing will be wasted, but layers are not meat hens and the final value will be very low in comparison. Low or high, it must be factored into the total cost and profit figures. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/31 "2016-09-07T16:45:12Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Average price for a dozen eggs is $2.97. … > Aldi is probably using eggs as a loss leader because they are charging 1 sixth of the average cost for eggs. While Aldi is probably treating this as a loss leader your prices are too high: > [@](#): > > Three weeks ago, wholesale egg prices hit a 10-year low of 55 cents a dozen, and the number of shell eggs available as of Monday was the highest ever seen this time of year, Moscoguiri said. Prices have rebounded to “about 98 cents per dozen,” he said. > > Current trading supports prices in the 60-cent range and Rust said he wouldn’t be surprised to see them remain there for the short term. He also said the market it will work itself out. [http://bigstory.ap.org/article/174a4c21e8844feaa23ad4b77377f024/egg-prices-reach-10-year-lows-production-outpaces-demand](http://bigstory.ap.org/article/174a4c21e8844feaa23ad4b77377f024/egg-prices-reach-10-year-lows-production-outpaces-demand) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/32 "2016-09-07T19:01:58Z")
My family ran a chicken farm. 10,000 hens and 3,000 roosters. We produced hatching eggs for a major poultry company. We got paid by the dozen. There was also a hatching bonus at the end of the season. I think a 80% hatching average was required to get a bonus. It might have been a little higher or lower. This was quite a few years ago. Hens lay every other day. we averaged about 4,800 a day. We counted them by adding up the number of filled cases at the end of the day. The bad news? Hens start to molt and stop laying within a year. We got a fresh batch of six week old chickens every 10 to 11 months. The poultry company picked up the old chickens. We usually had a couple weeks to prepare the empty houses. Wash \*everything \*thoroughly with water hoses. Remove the old chicken litter. Bring in fresh sawdust and spread it out. Raking out the sawdust in all the chicken houses took 3 of us four days. The only break we got was after the six week old chickens arrived. We had a couple easy weeks before egg production started. Feed them early and the rest of the day was for relaxing. Consumer eggs are similar except their hens are in cages. No roosters needed. The eggs roll into a trough. They may have 25,000 hens in a typical operation. Several of my friends in school lived on chicken farms. I earned extra money working in chicken houses. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/33 "2016-09-07T19:59:43Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I earned extra money working in chicken houses. Worst job ever! I had the misfortune of having the job of helping remove the hens from their cages after their laying days were over. An assembly line of people handing the hens down the line, through the slatted floor and to the rolling cages which are moved onto the semi. Nothing like having thousands of excited hens right above shitting unbelievable amounts upon you. Literally raining shit. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/34 "2016-09-07T20:01:44Z")
Hens will continue laying for a lot longer than a year, and more often than once every two days, if you manage their lighting levels. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/35 "2016-09-07T23:14:57Z")
This discussion absolutely destroys the winter time advice, “Dress in layers.” That would be one noisy, smelly parka! ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/36 "2016-09-08T07:38:20Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Average price for a dozen eggs is 2.97. That is just about 25 cents per egg. Chicken feed can be had on the internet for 15 for a 50 pound bag. An egg laying chicken can eat 6 pounds of feed per month. That is 6 cents a day. Feed is only 25% of the cost of the average egg. > Aldi is probably using eggs as a loss leader because they are charging 1 sixth of the average cost for eggs. Chicken farmers producing those eggs aren’t buying feed online for 15$ per 50 pound bags. ---
**Author:** ![FordPrefect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e99b99/32.png) [@FordPrefect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FordPrefect)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/37 "2016-09-08T12:05:14Z")
Anecdotally and based purely off memories from when my dad was a pullet farmer… The split between farmer, processors and stores isn’t 50% 25% 25% as assumed in the OP, but closer to 20-25% 40% 35-40%. That’s in Canada under supply management, down south in the States, the farmers get fucked over way, way harder than that. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/38 "2016-09-08T14:50:16Z")
I recently bought 2 dozen of Aldi’s large eggs on super-sale. I forget the exact price, but well less than $1/dozen. I always buy size “large” and get them from one of 4 local grocery brands depending mostly on which one I happen to stop in first. So I often, but not exclusively, get Aldi’s eggs. The various brands always appear pretty interchangeable and consistent in size. But … The eggs in these two recent Aldi’s cartons were uniformly sized, but significantly smaller than any “large” eggs I’ve ever seen from Aldi’s or any other supplier. USDA says eggs are sized by the weight of a dozen: [FAQ link](http://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/portal/fsis/topics/food-safety-education/get-answers/food-safety-fact-sheets/egg-products-preparation/shell-eggs-from-farm-to-table/) (Expand the “Sizing of Eggs” entry). I should have weighed them; I’m convinced there’s no way they could have met the standard. I agree it’s insanely unlikely Aldi’s would deliberately sell underweight products; the reputational risk would be yuuuge. But there’s no getting away from the fact these eggs were visually much smaller than Aldi’s “large” on previous occasions. Or the other stores’ “large”. And this was true in the shell, in the pan, and on the plate. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/39 "2016-09-08T15:05:43Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > Of course I can pay a lot more if I want to buy eggs that came from a chicken with a name, living a happy and fulfilled life in a woodland somewhere. I was going to point out that Aldi’s eggs may be very cheap but they’re the low point for eggs. Even the plain white eggs will sell for more in other grocery stores and, these days, there’s about ten different choices on the shelf if not more. A super-cheap store brand white, a slightly more expensive “farm” white (both whites also in varying size grades increasing in price), different brown eggs, organic eggs, free-range eggs, etc. Prices can range from 69¢ a dozen to $5.79 a dozen. So you can’t figure all of the egg production happening at a penny or two per egg. ---
**Author:** ![Whiskey\_Dickens](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/9fc348/32.png) [@Whiskey\_Dickens](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whiskey_Dickens)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2016, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240/40 "2016-09-08T15:20:17Z")
Wow, do we ever get screwed on grocery prices in Canada. The standard price at my local grocery store for a dozen of large eggs is $2.89. Occasionally the omega-6 eggs (or whatever) will go on sale for about $3 a dozen. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/possibly-dumb-question-from-a-city-boy-about-farming/765240.md?page=3)