April 2025 | Vol. 22 Iss. 4
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Midvale
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More families are raising chickens for fresh eggs and sustainability By Julie Slama | j.slama@mycityjournals.com
Demand for chickens similar to Covid era as more families are embracing the trend of homesteading.
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few years ago, Barbara Ingebrigsten’s adult daughter, Heidi, was hiking near the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon when she spotted three chicks abandoned in a plastic container near the trailhead. Heidi brought them to her Sandy home, and after struggling to find anyone willing to raise them, she built a chicken coop. Together with her mother, they began raising the hens. “We didn’t set out to do this, but we’ve loved the fresh eggs which have more Omega-3,” Ingebrigsten said. “It’s been quite a process to learn, but the hens love people. I open the back door, and they know I’m coming; they can recognize 100 different faces. We can hold them, one hops up and down for treats and they’re funnier than heck. Each has a different personality.” Ingebrigsten isn’t alone. There are more than 85 million backyard chickens in the United States, with 17 million households owning an average of five chickens, according to the National Institute of Health. The organization reports this trend grew during the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m definitely considering it,” said Midvale resident Jaime Dawson about the possibility of raising chickens. Dawson was purchasing eggs at WinCo in early March. “(The price) is getting out of hand.” IFA-Draper Assistant Manager Elizabeth Maycock isn’t surprised by the rise in chicken ownership. “More people own chickens than you
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Eggs prices reflected the reduced supply because of an ongoing bird flu outbreak as seen here at a Smith’s grocery store in Sandy in early March. (Julie Slama/City Journals)
think; in my circle alone, four households have chickens,” she said about her Magna neighborhood. “This morning, we got 160 chicks with our weekly delivery at 11 o’clock and they were gone within 40 minutes. It reminds us of COVID, when we were selling out within an hour. Everybody wanted the chicks to kind of start their homesteads then and we're seeing the same kind of a demand.” Maycock believes the current bird flu, which has reduced commercial egg production, plays a big role in the trend. “Egg prices have skyrocketed and there’s a push where people want to go back to home-
Raising chicks into laying hens is a growing trend in light of raising egg prices and a desire of more people wanting to know what they’re eating. (Julie Slama/City Journals)
steading and providing their own food. That movement has slowly risen over the last five years, but the panic surrounding the egg prices has really been an issue over the last three or four weeks and I've seen it getting worse. I've seen it creeping into Utah, up in Cache Valley. It's been hitting hard there,” she said. Maycock, like Ingebrigsten, owns chickens herself. She currently has 14 and was purchasing five chicks to add to her flock. “We get enough eggs for the five of us
living at home and then, we give some to my son and his family every once in a while, because the four he's allowed to have don't provide enough for his small family,” she said. In the winter, her hens average four eggs per day, but in the summer, it increases to a dozen. “I’m not selling any right now, but I know people are selling them around $8 per Continued page 5