https://www.agriculture.com/news/business/usda-pays-146-million-in-bird-flu-indemnities

This article is a couple years old but it seems the same old same old.

From what I read the growers don't want to vaccinate for fear of export business. So they just keep killing chickens as long as someone else is paying the bill. Aren't other countries vaccinating with a degree of success in fact for several years now. Is this not a priority or are we just waiting for warm weather to cure it?

Maybe if everyone would just quit eating eggs one day less than they usually do would help on price anyway. We saw what demand did to the price of gas during covid. Hope the bunny rabbit brings everyone lots of eggs !

They keep killing them because we pay them.

Eliminate the money for their loss and I bet they vaccinate them, but then we probably can't cut that out of our budget either.

They vaccinate every other animal we eat so why not chickens? does not make sense.

Eggs are cheaper than beer

On the other hand.......how expensive would eggs be if the growers lost all their birds but could not afford to replace them ?

Supply of eggs drops and prices rise.

Apparently the virus is also affecting cattle.

https://www.wsj.com/business/bird-f...Ja&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

I get farm ones delivered for 4$ dozen

I have to ask....Why has chicken meat NOT gone up by the same percentage as eggs? Honest question.

Moosetrot

Been hearing from a lot of folks waiting for the price of eggs to go down to near what they used to be. Just as in ammo shortages followed by supply....if they are getting away with charging these prices, why should they ever charge less?

Moosetrot

Eggs are $8 a dozen. But the store is filled with them. No rationing or waiting in line for them? Something is fishy

Eggs here are $10/dozen........when they have them

It's not the farmers who are choosing not to vaccinate. The USDA does not allow the chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys to be vaccinated for bird flu.

"According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), there are several licensed vaccines for avian influenza in poultry, but their use has not been authorized during the ongoing outbreak."

https://www.newsweek.com/why-us-not-vaccinating-poultry-against-bird-flu-2010511

There are miles of dead turkeys and chickens near a friend of mine's farm in Osgood, Ohio, laid out neatly in windrows, buried in 15' high piles of wood chips.

Keith

$9.43 at Sam’s club for 2 dozen with a 2 package limit.

Is this just a northern disease? I trap in the middle of the Mississippi flyway but haven't found a dead goose or duck in my days afield this winter. Does this strain not effect wild fowl? Haven't lost a chicken either.

Joel Salatin just had a video on how they shouldn't just kill all of the chickens and let the strong survive. Would make more resilient birds. Makes a lot of sense. He's a smart guy.

Meat chickens are not nearly as susceptable to the virus are the laying hens. May have a lot to do with the genetics and breeding differences in the two or the fact that most meat chickens only live about 8-9 weeks and thus turnover is very quick. Ducks are much more immune to the virus as well. May be some research that can be done studying ducks and meat chickens to help develop a vaccine or medications etc.
Laying hen pullets are also very susceptable. It would be good to know if those chicken farms that are located more in the major migratory flyways have more cases then those in areas with less migratory avian travel. Iowa is the leading poultry state in the USA. I don''t know the percentage of layers versus meat chickens however or turkeys etc.

Bryce

I am a delegate to a citizen committee that advises the WDNR concerning the Waterfowl seasons. We had a meeting Thursday night and our State Waterfowl Biologist made a short presentation on the topic. In a nutshell he said some of the longer-living migratory birds (ducks and geese) species have antibodies and are immune to the current Influenza. While there have been die-offs it may not be the "duckaggeddon " we are worrying about. Transmission is usually from smaller birds species getting into the large production facilities by various means.

Moosetrot

Another good reason not to live in a city.

Makes sense Moose starlings and sparrows

$9.50 a Doz. here, when they add tax it's $10.30

It's all about the next plandemic.
They will need an excuse for medical Marshall law.

bought eggs at the local weekly auction for 475 a dozen

I can send ya some ))

Its hard to keep birds out of buildings. I see them flying around in Walmart pretty often. I found a dead starling in the chicken pen a few weeks ago in that cold weather we had which concerned me some, but no signs of any sick hens.

All the more reason for the growers to vaccinate, no?

Maybe. Depends on the costs amortized over the life of the hen I would think.

4 bux here at the local NAPA when the growers bring some in. Should be getting better now with more daylight.

Seems like it's a moot point whether or not the chicken growers should vaccinate if the USDA is not allowing them to.

Here we have thousands of sick birds dropping infected waste all over the countryside up and down the flyway. The though here is the farm cats eat on the sick geese then move in and out of the coop drinking out of the chicken waters. Cats also dragging bird parts back to the home places that the chickens pick on is another real possibility. My neighbor did not let his birds free range and his coop is covered but he gets smaller birds through his wire.

Yezzum. Until that whole "health industry" gets gutted and overhauled, I don't put anything past them.

Everyone here has their smaller, healthy flocks. They will never put them down. There are no problems with smaller flocks kept the way older generations had them. When I had mine , for decades, I never once even entertained the thought of putting mine down. They were always well taken care of and healthy.

I feel so bad for all those wee lives lost.

Hoot buddy in the past said the mark up can be as little as .25 a dozen, but during a shortage there’s room for abuse you would think.

Tylan or Tiagard 12.5 will treat and cure the bird flu same as it does swine flu.

I bought 2 quarts before the govt figures it out and bans it.

Very good question.

Eggs today at the Butler Walmart are $5.49 dozen.

About the chikn meat.......what are y'all paying for a whole fryer chicken? There's a place here that raises and sells Smart Chicken. They are never frozen and sell for about $14 each for a fat bird. I like a 3# bird for frying but these are more about 5#

Over $8 around here.

Its flue, flue has a death rate of around 2%, broilers do not get it unless it originated in a flock of breeders nearby. meat chickens are not destroyed if a flock gets AI. but instead of letting the 98% and they're offspring develop immunity like we do during flue season the govn't is killing the flocks too get the price of eggs up. can you spell distraction? couple years ago the large egg farms were burning, guess that became to obvious.

Why does the government want the price of eggs to be high?

False. Broilers do get it and they are depopulated and composted in the house. If they weren't, the virus would spread to other farms through vehicles, people, birds going to processing, etc.
However, older birds get it quicker. Broilers usually only live to 37-49 days, Layers live over a year. The biggest factor in egg price vs meat price is the size of flocks. Some Layer farms that have been depopulated have a million birds. Broiler farms usually are less then 150 thousand. Also, those million birds were going to supply eggs for a year. That can't be replaced quickly like new chicks in a broiler barn.

6.95 dollar general

Had layers for about 25 years. Produce more than we eat ! Easy to keep with minimal investment.

saw a report the other day, eggs are 2.00a dozen US dollars in mexico. Around here in the poultry capitol of the state, they do not kill a whole house of broilers, they can't handle that many at once,you drive by and see 4-6 600' poultry houses in a row, your talking 100K birds, a lot of my friends run poultry operations so what I posted is not false, its facts. not saying a few don't die, but they won't kill a whole flock just cause it is detected. AI has been here 40 years, its common thats why they did GOF on it so it could be another scamdemic.

Local news the other night showed a place in Indiana that has 2 million infected layers. They showed track hoes digging pits. They had requirements on not letting rotting birds get into the ground water. They only killed enough each day that they could get buried and covered over that day. They had mapped out routes for hauling the truck loads of dead birds so as to not go near other chicken houses etc. Left me wondering why the birds were not incinerated at the producing location. Perhaps the shear amount and expense would just overwhelm the system ?

Sure is

were they food grade eggs or hatchery eggs? no consumer egg farms here, just hatchery eggs. those cover just as many miles in human populated areas as consumer eggs

Wasn't stated whether they was food or hatchery. A dead chicken is just a dead chicken I would assume ?

Is their any process for not passing flu on thru the eggs. For human consumption I would assume cooking would kill it. For hatching eggs would any kind of light help control it. Then also is there any chance those infected eggs could produce chicks that would have any immunity? Just throwing out some thoughts and I'm sure they have been discussed some where before.

It would cost a lot of money to vaccinate or provide antibiotic feed to that many birds at a commercial operation. Its getting worse now in livestock and Wy reported it 1st case in a human. As far as the prices, they are going up on everything, all food including beef and vegetables, gas and services.

Yes vaccination or medication would be expensive. The goal or the norm in the USA is to have 1 layer per person or 340 million layers. At the latest count they estimated there were about 280 million layers or about 20% short. If hatchery birds are dying as well then replacements will be slowed as well too. We may have to find or breed more immunity into the flock or at least get enough immunity so birds maybe impacted but not die.
There are billions of laying hens worldwide one would hope that we could find more resistant productive layers if we all worked together at trying to accomplish that goal. With such rapid mutations it is hard to get on top of the issue.

Bryce

My biggest question is if this is a real problem, or is it a created problem? An untold and unknown number of backyard and home flocks, yet you almost never hear of any problems with them.

They vaccinate in the EU I believe and from what I have read the vaccination is not that expensive it's the testing and monitoring that costs.

People keep talking about the prices of eggs, but around here they have stayed pretty consistent.

Does anyone else taste a difference between farm fresh eggs and those bought from the store? Or the difference between white and brown eggs?

I read that the USDA killed millions of layer hens that were not infected. I have no clue if it was true. Back yard flocks do get AI and die. Law Dogs chickens did.

I’m still charging 2.50/doz. We keep/use 2 dozen a week and sell 5.

Since Cotton deleted my comment, you guys are double coiled helix spiral in what info you can get.
Check Cosco's restaurant prices

$.33 Canadian pesos a piece at Superstore.

check this pot-ash
https://youtu.be/-V6pAdJeDM0?si=LscFjwwP2NGwvOBc

Pafoxman just for information most laying houses hold one million birds a piece.

As for antibiotics in feed that’s been severely curtailed by the greenies in all animal production.

This was on our news station a week an a half ago..

I just bought a dozen large eggs cost 4.99.


The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) reported that the presence of HPAI was confirmed on February 21 in a commercial flock of 3,090,400 laying hens in Darke County, and another commercial flock of 84,800 commercial layers in Mercer County.

Ohio in 2025 alone has lost 66 commercial poultry flocks to HPAI – more than any other state. Nearly all of those flocks have been in Mercer and Darke Counties, which have respectively lost 43 and 20 commercial flocks.

Hummm. Wonder if kids will be egging their teachers car at Halloween this year in the US?
Anyways, think I’m gonna toss a couple dozen. Probably still good, but they look kinda off white. I’ll go buy another crate in the morning.

Shakey they have cancelled the easter egg hunt and there is an Executive order there is no Pysanka this year