I know I’m out there. I guess I always have been. Most of the members of any given group hang together and think the same thoughts and agree with the loudest voice (whether or not it is correct) or the most charismatic person. It’s how we get so many worthless politicians—we get suckered by their flattering words, smooth talk, charming smile. And I sit off in a corner wondering what the heck is going on, how people can fall for the lies, etc.
So sometimes I come up with odd articles on topics that most other bloggers don’t touch. Here’s another one for you to consider today.
The other day, Becky showed me a Facebook video about how raising chickens serves as a gateway to becoming a conspiracy theorist. It was actually pretty humorous—and entirely true. And beside the point.
Kinda.
See, I think very unsettling times—challenges—war—are in our future and coming pretty close to home this time around.
I first started pondering today’s topic around fifteen years ago, when an internet friend wrote of his grandfather’s experiences raising and bartering chickens and selling their eggs. He built the family’s wealth just with chickens and eggs during the Depression and WWII. This friend’s story will be posted tomorrow. Today, however, I wanted to share some other historical accounts of the value of chickens and eggs, particularly during interesting times.
In San Francisco, after the Gold Rush began—not even a time of war—eggs were so scarce that they ran up to $1 each—the equivalent of $30 in 2019.[1] (It appears to be about $36 now.[2]) Eggs cost up to $3 each out in the gold fields.[3] That was a chunk of change. The mostly male population was working hard and needed protein.
In his autobiographical Little Britches, Ralph Moody related that his parents paid 25 cents per chick in Colorado in 1907. That was a considerable sum back then, and according to one inflation calculating website that 25 cent chick would cost $8.17 today. However, most chicks don’t cost that much in the feed stores; I think ours run about $4-5. But what about in the future? Hens today have had the nesting instinct bred out of them for the most part. Chicks in our feed stores are shipped from hundreds or thousands of miles away. That luxury will disappear in a collapse. Where will we get chicks then? And how much more will they cost?
Numerous websites provide data on the cost of eggs in this country over the past 100 years; they were a very inexpensive source of protein. Of course, that’s with everything in the economy running smoothly—with just-in-time delivery, with fuel and refrigeration, with air conditioning running to keep the chickens cool, producing, and alive in the summer, with feed and without bird epidemics or governmentitis wiping out egg laying populations. Skyrocketing feed costs and disease goosed the price we pay for a dozen eggs pretty high a few years ago, or so it seemed.
Another fascinating story comes to us from Korea, just after the Korean War ended. In Beggar at the Banquet, Dr. Woo Jun Hong shared that he and his wife bought chickens with their wedding gift money and bartered their eggs to build their wealth. They traded 4 eggs for 35 square feet of land regularly. I decided to check what 35 square feet of land might run in my area, so I found a 10-acre lot (436036 square feet) in my area for $170,000 without any structures on it (remember it’s basically a desert out here and that land has no water rights, either). That works out to 39 cents per square foot. Multiplying that by 35 yielded $13.64 for 4 eggs, or $3.41 per egg.
The prices people paid for eggs in San Francisco 175 years ago were outrageous. Paying 25 cents for chicks in 1907 and $8.17 today seems a little more reasonable, but that will only be the case with everything in society running smoothly. Trading eggs for land is crazy to me, and yet Dr. Woo Jun Hong and his wife were able to build the largest Christian school in the world due to the trades they made with their eggs.
I’m not trying to persuade anyone to go out and buy chicks. I don’t want to do it myself; I’ve been very content to let my son and daughter-in-law raise them and share the eggs with us. Our winters are bitter and the ground outside is uneven now and icy in winter. Taking care of chickens when it is 20°F outside for months is something I’d rather avoid. But maybe I need to rethink that.
With the government planning to implement a digital currency, some people are looking for options for trade and income outside the digital economy. Junk silver and gold are nice, but not necessarily practical in some situations. Eggs, on the other hand, may serve quite handily as currency, at least for a little while.
Regardless, we shouldn’t underestimate the importance of eggs in our food storage programs and plan accordingly.
Anyway, these are just some random chicken thoughts on a quiet Thursday.
Links to related posts:
References:
https://www.in2013dollars.com/Eggs/price-inflation
https://stacker.com/business-economy/cost-goods-year-you-were-born
[1] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/when-california-went-war-over-eggs-180971960/
[2] https://lithub.com/how-a-war-over-eggs-marked-the-early-history-of-san-francisco/
[3] https://lithub.com/how-a-war-over-eggs-marked-the-early-history-of-san-francisco/
I look forward to your egg story. I hope you don't mind a story from my Grandmothers diary of Wiemer Germany:
ReplyDeleteAs I'm fond of the first person view of History as opposed to the Grand Sweep viewpoint a little my own family's Weimar Germany story and thought.
I read my Grandmothers diary and is seems while Grandfather was a "well paid" Banker sort, the loss of value of the Mark created this situation:
Grandfather would get up early to visit the baker while the bread was still steaming. He'd buy 2 loaves of bread and go to the butcher for a dry sausage. He'd got to work keeping the food SECURED in his locked desk to provide his lunch and after work would carry the 1 and one half loaf of bread and the 2/3rd of the sausage homeward. He'd trade a half of a loaf and a bit of the sausage for garden veggies and come home with their evening meal.
He COULD have sold that extra loaf for about the SAME number of Marks he spent for the 2 loafs AND Sausage but neighborly kindness and the garden veggies were worth more to him.
The VALUE of that extra loaf of bread in Marks OFTEN DOUBLED between the wee hours and that evening. Thus, the trade value was high that afternoon.
My family fled Germany and the Banker worked as a dockworker in NYC to get a roof over the family's head and eventually they moved to Golden Colorado where I got to share experiences in Grandmom's MASSIVE Truck Garden-Chicken yard. She wasn't going to be worried about food ever again, she said.
So, WHAT exactly is the value of an egg, again?
Wow! Thank you so much for sharing this bit of your family history.
DeleteSomeday I'll pass on Grandmoms Depression era story of the 9 eggs.
DeleteI'd absolutely love to hear it.
DeleteA dab of social history. Remember Snuffy Smith the cartoon hillbilly chicken thief? Funny stories and cartoons work best when there is a gram of truth in them.
DeleteGreat Depression brought out some of the best and a lot of the worst in humans. In bad times humans' default to tribes. Refer to the Irish and Italian Gangs fighting in NYC and such during the Depression. Neighbors in geography but "Not MY People" when resources are scarce.
The "NEW FOLKS" were always not MY People. My Grandparents were the New People and Krauts at that in Golden CO.
So, you have to work hard and be honest to earn some respect and trust in the area. And STILL some will never accept you.
Seems a local Snuffy Smith gang stole a widow's sitting hen. Left the eggs. Grandmom heard the fuss and came over to drive off the Snuffy and his friends who seemed interested in more loot.
The widow had already been trading with Grandmom for house cleaning and veggies from Grandmoms Garden and after assuring the neighbors those "Damn Krauts" didn't steal from her gave her the 9 eggs from the nest.
Great Grandmom and all the ladies of the house spent the next couple weeks keeping those candled and thus fertilized eggs warm in their bras to act as sitting hens. Of the 9 eggs 3 hens and 4 rooster chicks were kept in the warmest baby holder until they were feathered out and brought into the VERY WELL-BUILT Chicken Yard-Garden. Snuffy Smith and Co were still around.
Two roosters became soup that was shared with the widow and that was the basis of Grandmoms chicken flock that the widow until she passed got some eggs weekly from.
Lots of lessons in that bit of your family history. I must admit I have never heard of incubating eggs in such a manner, but now I will never forget. Thank you so much for sharing.
DeleteThis is actually something I've thought about myself. It's very helpful to have some historical examples and numbers to add to my thoughts. I live in an HOA subdivision, so have quail instead of chickens (I think of them as stealth poultry). They daily give me the equivalent of two chicken eggs, which is more than enough for DH and myself for now, but it I do have several neighbors with children or are who are elderly that would probably welcome some eggs during, as you say, challenging times.
ReplyDeleteA couple of my city-dwelling brothers-in-law raise quail.
DeleteVery good article. I would love to be able to have chickens or quail, but can’t in this neighborhood. Moving isn’t an option, so I’m hoping I can still get eggs from a local farmer if SHTF.
ReplyDeleteMay I suggest you get busy looking up local farmers and getting into their production schedule NOW?
DeleteEven better join in in his-her production by offering to buy approved feed for his chickens for a share in the eggs.
Make yourself a useful KNOWN person before your family really NEEDS those eggs is a very good idea in my experience.
When things get crazy, we ALL get Tribal and outsiders even with a wad of rapidly depreciating cash (OR WORSE Credit Card-EBT in Hand) are LAST on the sell them eggs business.
The BIG Lesson I found in the Germany diaries and Great Depression stories is that good neighbors take care of each other, and Friends and FAMILY Come FIRST.
The outsider even with a pocket of pre-65 silver coins (aka junk silver) is SECOND on the list at BEST IF we have extra.
Thank you Michael! I already buy eggs from a local farmer. I’m hoping he keeps his hens because he’s an older guy who is talking about getting out of the “business”. I need to find a back-up just in case…
DeleteMichael....Good response...Great advise
DeleteChickens are quite tolerant of cold weather. I had a small flock for 9 or 10 years with an unheated coop/run in my back yard in Wisconsin. I chose large bodied breeds with small combs and they never had frostbite. The coop was in a sheltered location so they were protected from wind.
ReplyDeleteHeidi, I was definitely not clear in my post above. We've raised chickens in the snow and ice--I'm not worried about them. I'm worried about me slipping and falling on the ice to get out to them--and half the time I'm here alone. Even if I were able to yell for help, no one would hear me. I wouldn't have given a second thought to the situation ten years ago, but now it's a different story.
DeleteTotally understand. Ice is scary, especially as we age. I don’t bounce anymore either. Our driveway is so steep that if it rains and then freezes a car can (and has) slide down to the street. I never walk on it in the winter without those little slip on ice grippers on my shoes. Of course the mailbox is at the bottom of the hill.
DeleteI've been raising chickens since 2010. I'm not talking a massive flock, only 4-6 hens. Just had my first Rooster, who ended up at a petting zoo a few towns over. My town has a regulation (No Roosters). I can live with that, still get my eggs.
ReplyDelete