2022 Eggs - By the Numbers

Eggs.  Who would've ever thought that the prices for eggs would have risen like they did in 2022?  CPI data shows that the average retail cost in U.S. cities for a dozen eggs increased nearly 50% from $1.72 in November 2021 to a record-breaking $5.59 in November 2022.  We eat a lot of eggs, but we do sell a few and give a few away.

As we always do, we tally up our egg production and post the final numbers for the years.  We now have 10 years of data.  The results aren't really a good comparison from year to year as our number of birds in the flock fluctuate from time to time.  We lose some to predation and to old age.  We also add to the flock from time to time - both in birds given to us and birds sold to us.

Here is a summary of the data for 2022.  In 2022 our biggest month of egg production was April.  In 2021 it was March.  Our lowest egg production month in 2022 was a tie between December and January.  In 2021, the low month was November.  Our 10 year average is 8,196 eggs or 683 dozen.  In 2022 the hens laid 6,174 eggs or 514.5 dozen.  That's well lower than the ten year average, but we had a larger flock earlier on.

Below is a simple log of 2022 egg production by month:

We have about 50 birds.  Each bird lays roughly 123 eggs a year.  We pick up, on average, 17 eggs per day.  Each hen lays an egg every third day.  Earlier this month, we reported that we have 42 eggs on an incubator.  They've been in there for 14 days.  In another week, we'll be adding to the number of the flock.