What’s with the egg shortage? (Hen not chocolate!)

[Somerville]

I’m pretty sure all the eggs consumed in the UK are laid in the UK, aye? So why is there a severe shortage? I get milk deliveries from milkman but he’s stopped bringing eggs as their dairy “can’t get hold of them”. DH walked to a village shop yesterday after “inadvertently” finishing the eggs and they had none as they haven’t come in their latest deliveries. Today he drove to co-op who were all out. Neighbour was heading on longer drive to supermarket and reported they were all out too. So we phoned farm shop who are sold out but might manage to reserve us some from the next laying.
Is everyone baking like demons?

Chickens can't lay any faster than they already do!

Not a single egg in tesco that isnt chocolate today.

Loads of eggs here

Of course not but their normal rate-of-lay provides all our eggs. Are people stocking up? Seems odd since eggs are nicest fresh.

Which region Rogue?

North west

Difficult to get here too. We managed to get a dozen after a week of no stock and I almost danced around the kitchen.

Everyone is home - scrambled eggs for breakfast or late brunch, maybe baking etc ...

They keep for weeks so lots of people probably stocked up. We've been able to buy them, this week, and they have pretty much the full 3 weeks on them.

Really hard to get eggs on supermarkets here, but local shops are ok. I'm ashamed to say that my usual standards have gone out the window and I'm buying eggs from caged hens if there are no alternatives . We get through so many eggs as a household that I just get then whenever I see them.

I collected these last week!!.
The middle one didn't go far!!

I would dance at eggs too!

I’ve already had one baking disaster at trying an egg substitution.

I’m not even especially keen on eggs cooked on their own (though the kids are) but knowing I can’t have them makes me crave pancakes.

I don't think there's a shortage per se, think it's selfish stockpilers who have moved onto eggs, a man in our local Sainsburys tried buying six boxes the other day whilst carrying a bag from the Co-op down the road with another six boxes in. They sent him packing.

I'd heard it was because of a backlog in egg box factories, caused by staff absence due to coronavirus

I bought box of 15 today (only size available) from Tesco. DC wanted to bake - maybe more people are baking so buying more than usual?

I think it must be mainly a distribution problem - I'm in the north west too, lots of egg producers locally, I've got lots at the moment. Various farm shops are offering them, as usual.

Maybe people over bought eggs because they keep a bit longer in the fridge than meat?

Also flour...
It seems people have taken up baking and bread making in isolation!!
You know, just Incase there isn't any bread left in the supermarket!!

Tiny egg!
And hen envy.

They were as rare as dragons eggs in London last week. Supply seems to be OK this week.

Basic biology & economics. Increased demand for a fixed amount of supply at a fixed price.

There are X amount of laying hens in this country which produce Y amount of eggs each day. For Y to increase significantly, X needs to increase significantly first. This obviously takes time, because the additional hens need to be born and grow to laying age.

Demand for eggs has increased, due to the current situation. Supermarkets could choose to manage this demand by increasing the price, as hotels and airlines do when selling a fixed amount of their product. They choose not to, because charging a tenner for a box of eggs in a national emergency might not go down too well.

Result : a temporary shortage of eggs until first X then Y increase, which will take time.

I think the kids being off school, lots of baking pics all over my Facebook page. Plus sandwiches for lunch. I got some a couple of days back, only wanted 6 but ended up having to buy 15

Hubby is going to be fed up of eggs!

Eggs are the cheapest form of protein and if weans missing out on free school meals are getting fed a 28p boiled egg for lunch then good on their parents.
But if there are boxes and boxes stockpiled that are going to go off without ever being used, like all the flour, then it’s a massive shame.
Egg box production problem is a theory I hadn’t heard before!

I am informed by a friend who's sister is egg farmer: Uk has been awash with free range eggs due to over supply until Covid -19 hit the shores and panic buying started. Definitely people buying more and baking etc as at home. Lots of smaller farms going out of business as price paid to the farmer so awfully low!! The wholesale market where the milk man would buy their eggs from has disappeared as this is primarily supplied by surplus stock not required by the supermarkets.

They were as rare as dragons eggs in London last week. Supply seems to be OK this week.

That fits with my Home Counties milkman - he could buy them in as usual last week but this week they were all sent to shops instead he said.

No supply issues where we are, but considering the flour and sugar shortage, I think that everyone has just decided they're going practice for bake off this year while they're stick at home.