Remember the old Aesop’s Fable, “The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs”? To refresh your memory, there was once a goose that laid a solid gold egg every day for a peasant man and his wife, which made them quite wealthy. But the couple got greedy and killed the goose to get all the eggs inside at once. There were none, of course, and now the Goose that Laid the Golden Eggs was dead.
If you go to the grocery store these days, you might think that chickens are laying golden eggs. The 14-carat golden eggs are pushing $5 a dozen. If this keeps up, a quart of eggnog will soon be more expensive than a bottle Dom Perignon champagne.
In the case of hen eggs, it’s not a question of greed, it’s Avian Flu, which has decimated hen houses across the country.
This bird flu strain going around is bad stuff. If even one laying hen is found with the flu, they must destroy all the hens in that house and clean it out completely and then sterilize the place.
With other foods, buyers facing high prices can switch gears – from beef to pork, for example, or from oranges to bananas. But with eggs, there are no other choices. Two fried eggs sunny side up now cost about a buck just for the eggs. Restaurants serving breakfast are scrambling – and not just eggs.
Next time you snuggle into a booth at Waffle House, take a deep breath before you see the prices on the menu. Makes a fellow think about a chicken coop in the back yard and a dozen hens. Okay, just 6 hens. I don’t want to be greedy.
