Eggspensive costs breed creativity.
A Staten Island firefighter constructed his very personal hen coop in his yard to make sure a gentle stream of eggs — because the skyrocketing worth of the kitchen staple scrambles the remainder of the town.
“It doesn’t affect us at all, because we have them here every day,” Tommy Lane, 36, informed The Put up Thursday.
“And I don’t have to worry about where my eggs are coming from, what are they putting in them. I just come out here. I know that these chickens are healthy. I know exactly where the eggs are coming from.”
The Colonel, Ruby, Daisy and Jordan save the household of 5 as a lot as $120 a month monthly, Lane estimated, with every fowl usually coming out one brown egg a day — although The Colonel will not be at all times punctual.
The 11-year FDNY veteran introduced his 4 egg-making machines to his household’s residence a few 12 months in the past for his youngsters, ages 8, 6 and 4, after a number of of his fellow firefighters shared eggs from their very own coops.
“The Easter Bunny brought these about a year ago. The kids wanted a dog. They got the chickens instead,” Lane, who works out of the fifteenth Division in Brooklyn, mentioned.
The birds had been a boomerang reward for himself and his spouse, Jackie: Inflation was an ongoing burden and the couple might see the writing on the wall.
The fowl flu had been decimating flocks since 2022 however particularly ramped up in 2024 — greater than 20 million egg-laying chickens within the US died between September and December, knowledge from the US Division of Agriculture reveals. The scarcity has brought on the price to surge for eggs and egg merchandise.
If the Lanes had been to purchase their selection of natural eggs from the grocery store, they estimate they’d be spending as a lot as $30 per week on simply two cage-free cartons.
As a substitute, the Lanes spend roughly simply $18 monthly on fowl feed. There’s additionally much less waste of their residence due to their feathery pals.
“They eat everything. They eat scraps. If you have leftover vegetables or fruit, even meat, you throw it out. They like crushed red pepper. I put red pepper flakes in their food, and they love it. They’re like little scavengers. They eat whatever you give them,” continued Lane, who first talked with PIX 11 about his endeavor.
The birds — an Orpington breed, Isa Brown breed and two Golden Comets, respectively — live lavishly in an 80-square-foot wooden and mesh coop that Lane constructed himself utilizing leftover supplies from his woodworking enterprise. There’s additionally a mud flooring ladder for the birds to climb and a tire filled with sand for them to wash in. There’s additionally a nesting field the place they sleep, poop and lay eggs.
Aside from the cost-saving, the style is plain.
Paul Martinka
“Once you eat a chicken egg fresh from the chicken, you can’t go back. They’re so good,” Lane mentioned.
“It’s just a really rich taste. The yolk itself is a super orange color. It’s not like that yellow from store-bought. And you know how if you crack an egg to fry it, it kind of just sprays all over the pan? These stay together, and the white is super white.”
Not all chicken-lovers are reaping the identical advantages, nevertheless — as some say you want greater than a handful of birds for the house barnyard operation to be cheaper than a retailer.
Heidi Heilig’s two hens solely produce about 5 eggs per week, which is sweet to complement her household of 5’s provide however will not be sufficient to interchange full-blown journeys to the grocery retailer.
“It’s certainly nice to know that if there was a run on eggs and no one had eggs at all available that I could probably still bake enough brownies and cookies to make my kids happy, but it’s definitely not a way to save money,” Heilig, who’s elevating beloved fowl in her Brooklyn Heights yard.
The Brooklyn mother adopted the birds throughout the pandemic as pets for her youngsters, who’re allergic to cats and canines.
It prices a number of hundred {dollars} to construct the coop — and Heilig spends one other $40 each 4 months on feed for Queen and Beast-Jesus.
That’s comparable to simply 4 cartons of the $9.99 cartons of a dozen eggs being offered in Flushing supermarkets.
That’s to not say Heilig is discouraging of different New Yorkers who need some feathery pals and discounted eggs.
“It can be so rewarding, especially when you have children, you can speak knowledgeably to people about these things like about how chickens actually work and how eggs actually get to the table,” Heilig mentioned.
“My sons have a friend that comes over every week and we bake together. And it’s amazing to say, ‘Go out and get an egg. We’re going to put it into a cake,’ and then to see that process,” she continued.
“And they’re really fun animals. They’re funny, they have personalities. They’re very silly.”
