There’s a lot of housewives on the farm who must wish today they had never sold the flock of hens. It was their chore to feed the chickens, collect the eggs and take them to market. They got the money for groceries and a few glad items.

The mistresses of flocks of 200 leghorns gave up the field when the 10,000 layer guys came along, set up by feed producers, hen house builders and mass buyers.

Little housewives can’t survive the valleys waiting for an occasional price peak. But, oh, the agony of looking at the large egg price, 55 cents a dozen on the farm in mid-August 1973. “Why didn’t I stay?” they ask.

One of the few still “raising” eggs in the old small way are the Fesenmaier sisters on Highway 68 east. Some of their best customers are other farmers.

I have driven there for years to get a half dozen. Cora Fesenmaier always would give you a couple eggs too big for a carton, let you check her woods for mushrooms in spring or say goodby with a couple of squash in the autumn.

ANOTHER master of the small flock is Gene Kiecker, our farm editor. He raises enough to feed his family, and brings the balance to “in office” customers.

His first promotion was a sign on the bulletin board: 3 dozen eggs for $1.

Kiecker’s last price was 3 dozen for $1.50, but he, too, has gone on the inflation escalator.

One day this month, my wife came home from Walker with a dozen eggs marked 97 cents a carton. It was the most we had ever paid for a dozen eggs in our married life – in this country. But not abroad.

When we lived in London after World War II, rationing kept us slim and appreciative of food. The one-egg per week ration was no yolk. Having a dollar checking account in the U.S., we could buy easily in other countries.

We could send $12 to Copenhagen, Denmark and get six dozen eggs by air mail. Sunday morning was like it should be when you could crack up a plate of scrambled eggs to go with a side dish of kippers and English muffins.

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EGGS are treated with respect here at almost $1 a dozen. The coffee specialists don’t often settle the grounds with egg at that price.

One morning recently, I made French toast. That’s my specialty. There was a little egg and milk dip left over. Usually I gave it to the cat. When I thought it included an 8 cent egg, I put the mix in the refrigerator for another morning.

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GUYS LIKE me who go out to the farm to buy eggs are blamed in part for the present shortage of eggs by Howard Roeder, the good egg at Roeder’s Hatchery.

“There definitely is a shortage,”he asserted. “City slickers are going out to the farms to buy the eggs.”

Thanks,Howard!

He gave a for instance: “The past week, a year ago, I bought 143 cases directly from the farm. Same week this year, I got 11 cases of eggs – misshaped eggs that the city boys didn’t want.”

In his 34 distinguished and profitable years as a hatcheryman, Roeder has never seen prices so high.

Grade A large eggs are averaging around 55 cents on the farm, though some produce men pay more for an egg of top quality. With cleaning, packaging and advertising, some supermarkets are getting 92 cents a dozen locally for jumbo eggs.

Roeder is still hatching young chicks, the latest ever in the year. Old, tired hens are bringing fancy prices on the farm.

Usually,they go to Campbells for soup at a nickel a pound.

“A farmer called me up last week and said he had 68 culls to get rid of,” said Howard. “When I got there, the pen was almost bare. Only four hens were left. A city slicker had come through and paid him $2 apiece for the others, and that’s 40 cents a pound. I was offered $3 apiece for pullets Friday, but haven’t a one.”

New Ulm Daily Journal,

Aug. 12, 1973