Why are mixed eggs so much cheaper?
Discussion
Mixed eggs are much cheaper than e.g. small/large/medium eggs.
Struggling to think why this might be. One theory I had was there is some kind of quota thing with the buyers, like we want x small y large z medium every day, and the rest get chucked into the mixed box. But unless there's something weird about chickens that makes them unusually susceptible to universal envrionmental factors then presumably cause of blah blah central limit theorem, there are roughly the same number of eggs of each size laid every day? And the demand is presumably fairly constant too? And it's not that some farms don't have sorting equipment (Romanians?) cause while this doesn't apply to proper super-local artisan stuff like a proper farm shop (I'll call out Broom House Farm nearby where they'll make a small number of punnets a day also if you are reading this and are at all local you need to go there trust me) this applies to fairly small but still supermarket-supplying businesses like e.g. Derwent Valley Eggs (calling it as another local one) which all come from one farm but a bloody massive one so there should be some constency.
What on earth is going on?
Is it just pure market segmentation? You
s are so cheap you don't even care what size your eggs are so we need to have razor sharp margins while you lah-de-dah airy-fairy lot wot measure your eggs can be rinsed cause what are you gonna do, shop at Booths and Waitrose? Hahahahahaaha
Very very strange.
Struggling to think why this might be. One theory I had was there is some kind of quota thing with the buyers, like we want x small y large z medium every day, and the rest get chucked into the mixed box. But unless there's something weird about chickens that makes them unusually susceptible to universal envrionmental factors then presumably cause of blah blah central limit theorem, there are roughly the same number of eggs of each size laid every day? And the demand is presumably fairly constant too? And it's not that some farms don't have sorting equipment (Romanians?) cause while this doesn't apply to proper super-local artisan stuff like a proper farm shop (I'll call out Broom House Farm nearby where they'll make a small number of punnets a day also if you are reading this and are at all local you need to go there trust me) this applies to fairly small but still supermarket-supplying businesses like e.g. Derwent Valley Eggs (calling it as another local one) which all come from one farm but a bloody massive one so there should be some constency.
What on earth is going on?
Is it just pure market segmentation? You
s are so cheap you don't even care what size your eggs are so we need to have razor sharp margins while you lah-de-dah airy-fairy lot wot measure your eggs can be rinsed cause what are you gonna do, shop at Booths and Waitrose? HahahahahaahaVery very strange.
I suspect that an egg farmer would like 100s of chickens that produce the exact same size of egg every day, and would love to have a range of chickens that laid 2 or 3 different sizes in the "right" proportions to match demands of consumers and businesses.
Unfortunately chickens are not machines and despite lots of careful breeding, the farmer get what they produce.
As an aside I don't think egg farmers should be called egg producers. Because the chickens produce the eggs and the farmer just collects them.
Unfortunately chickens are not machines and despite lots of careful breeding, the farmer get what they produce.
As an aside I don't think egg farmers should be called egg producers. Because the chickens produce the eggs and the farmer just collects them.
It’s primarily because you are mopping up the outgrades in your box which represents a natural lay.
For egg producers there is a fair degree of sensitivity, it’s true you get what you put in, but you a dealing with an animal that is very sensitive & product output can be effected almost immediately.
Ideally they’d be consistent but a typical free range unit of 32,000 is a population like a large town & variations occur.
Farms control lighting (even with free range) protein levels in feed & whilst water & feed are ad lib, the hen chooses how much it consumes . It may be in our recent hot spell egg size has suffered, so there is not as many large ones & availablability of large has suffered or it may be that this market has been tapped to absorb the fluctuations at the beginning of the period of lay.
The egg market continually changes, it used to be producers targeted large eggs (they were paid a premium) then consumers felt the pinch & dropped to buy cheaper mediums so production was adjusted that way (basically starting the hens laying a few days earlier when they weren’t physically as large. (Medium hens laying medium eggs eat less too).
In the U.K. However There’s been a switch recently to white birds that lay white eggs, these birds live longer & are slightly smaller so eat less to produce an egg, it probable that they will be marketed as mixed as natural fraction of large is less & there’d be more smalls occurring, we don’t see smalls in the supermarket on their own, commercially they’d likely go to “crackers” & sold as wet eggs (think bakers, food industry & hair products requiring measured volumes in litres. So if this fraction has increased they’d need to figure alternative markets.
For egg producers there is a fair degree of sensitivity, it’s true you get what you put in, but you a dealing with an animal that is very sensitive & product output can be effected almost immediately.
Ideally they’d be consistent but a typical free range unit of 32,000 is a population like a large town & variations occur.
Farms control lighting (even with free range) protein levels in feed & whilst water & feed are ad lib, the hen chooses how much it consumes . It may be in our recent hot spell egg size has suffered, so there is not as many large ones & availablability of large has suffered or it may be that this market has been tapped to absorb the fluctuations at the beginning of the period of lay.
The egg market continually changes, it used to be producers targeted large eggs (they were paid a premium) then consumers felt the pinch & dropped to buy cheaper mediums so production was adjusted that way (basically starting the hens laying a few days earlier when they weren’t physically as large. (Medium hens laying medium eggs eat less too).
In the U.K. However There’s been a switch recently to white birds that lay white eggs, these birds live longer & are slightly smaller so eat less to produce an egg, it probable that they will be marketed as mixed as natural fraction of large is less & there’d be more smalls occurring, we don’t see smalls in the supermarket on their own, commercially they’d likely go to “crackers” & sold as wet eggs (think bakers, food industry & hair products requiring measured volumes in litres. So if this fraction has increased they’d need to figure alternative markets.
I can understand the point about a gradual market change as we transition mostly to white egg laying hens, that makes sense (I - obviously - have noticed this and wondered why, the less food per egg thing makes sense but also makes me wonder then why we weren't doing it before) but still confused about why egg production with a large flock is unpredictable on a day to day basis. Naively, tens of thousands of eggs really should average stuff out.
Why weren’t we doing it before?
Margins are razor sharp with most Agricultural & food production, look at latest news we have a salmonella scare again as certain sectors are buying cheaper imported eggs which don’t meet our U.K. production standards.
I genuinely think with mixed it’s to put eggs in supermarket boxes that would previously been seconds, they have 100% been across a multi million optical grading system with robots etc to check for defects & the like before being boxed.
(Now I don’t know if those packers are extracting the premium band, say all eggs 67-68g don’t go into mixed boxes? in some industries a “natural split” is required & you can’t remove a fraction. Eg Supermarket peanuts are different to branded)
You were prob bang on with the “people wanting cheap eggs don’t care”. However I don’t think the egg industry would get away with selling boxes of “wonky” eggs like “wonky veg” because of perception.
Whilst egg production is largely reasonably predictable age of hen & level of chilled out ness have significant impact they are very sensitive creatures, it’s not the same thing obviously but daily inputs v outputs we have different bathroom visits depending on things like how dehydrated we are & how we’re felling. Weather affects free range hens
Margins are razor sharp with most Agricultural & food production, look at latest news we have a salmonella scare again as certain sectors are buying cheaper imported eggs which don’t meet our U.K. production standards.
I genuinely think with mixed it’s to put eggs in supermarket boxes that would previously been seconds, they have 100% been across a multi million optical grading system with robots etc to check for defects & the like before being boxed.
(Now I don’t know if those packers are extracting the premium band, say all eggs 67-68g don’t go into mixed boxes? in some industries a “natural split” is required & you can’t remove a fraction. Eg Supermarket peanuts are different to branded)
You were prob bang on with the “people wanting cheap eggs don’t care”. However I don’t think the egg industry would get away with selling boxes of “wonky” eggs like “wonky veg” because of perception.
Whilst egg production is largely reasonably predictable age of hen & level of chilled out ness have significant impact they are very sensitive creatures, it’s not the same thing obviously but daily inputs v outputs we have different bathroom visits depending on things like how dehydrated we are & how we’re felling. Weather affects free range hens
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