Got Eggs?
As I was filling out my loan application for my purchase of two dozen eggs at the local supermarket when I realized I didn’t know much about eggs other than they make a cake taste better and they are generally the hardest working item on the breakfast plate. So, after I received approval for my eggs, I decided to do some very extensive research on the delicious breakfast centerpiece.
According to Alexa, a wild female bird, say a turkey or pheasant will lay 10-15 eggs in a year. Considering that there are 365 days in a year, you can see that the reproductive pace for wild fowl is relatively slow. I am not saying that wild birds are lazy by any stretch of the imagination so don’t get me wrong. They just have a different schedule.
The eggs that we buy at the store come from mass produced chickens that through artificial lighting and a bunch of modern science, can lay up to 250 to 300 eggs a year! Now that is definition of working your tail off! I’m sure those hens are exhausted at the end of the year and probably pretty sore too.
They plunk all those eggs out so we can enjoy our, hard boiled eggs, eggs over easy, eggs scrambled, eggs sunny side up, eggs over medium, poached eggs, deviled eggs and our egg salad sandwich’s. And of course, one of my favorite cultural egg delights would be the… Egg McMuffin.
Oh wait, I forgot the other cultural eggs such as Huevos Rancheros and Eggs Benedict. All can be very tasty and if you use your imagination, can make you feel like you are a sophisticated world traveler. One of my least favorite cultural egg concoctions is Egg Custard Pie. I refuse to be tricked into thinking an egg is a desert just by throwing “pie” at the end of its name…
It is obvious that a wild bird lays eggs to propagate the species, a very noble and respectable thing to do. Without the circle of life continuing, the eco system would get out of balance, but I don’t want go down that rabbit hole. If you want to know how things can get out of balance just ask Alexa to look up the word Dinosaur. She will either describe an oversized extinct species of animal or perhaps she will describe the current political leadership. Her definitions depend on her mood that day.
Just so you know, I never grew up eating cereal. I grew up eating a traditional breakfast, and looking back now, I grew up lucky. I was blessed to have a breakfast that consisted of things like; eggs, bacon, sausage, and homemade biscuits. Just so you know, my mom made the best homemade biscuits you could ever possibly shove into your mouth on the way to meet the school bus.
Anyway, now that I have lost your attention and you have moved on to the next email, I will simply say, I don’t understand the sudden and ridiculous rise in the price of eggs, but it frustrates the heck out of me.
To my knowledge, there is no shortage of birds, the price of fuel has slowly edged back down, so the cost to pick up all those eggs and deliver them to the market is not commensurate with the price increase of the eggs. I hope you caught my flash of intelligence with the use of commensurate. I try.
Perhaps the chickens are on strike? Maybe their little butts or “vents” as we call them in poultry industry, have just worn out? Maybe they have just stopped laying eggs due to biological “Henopause”. Who knows… What I do know is that the average American can’t afford the price increases in dang near everything they reach for at the supermarket.
My Chicken &%#@ rant is over…