By Robert Medley
Managing editor
The roosters are crowing along the original 1926 stretch of Route 66 where the road enters Canadian County.
West of the Lake Overholser iron truss bridge, a stretch of vendors in outdoor booths and portable buildings lines the old Mother Road on the west side of County Line Road.
Lakeview Market has a lot of chickens. There are ponies and calves to pet or feed. There are Oklahoma made goods and attractions like the pirate ship and the locomotive engine to keep the playful busy. A large whooping crane flew overhead, battling the wind as it moved toward the choppy waves of the lake.
And there is an old trailer that advertises eggs for sale.
There were other places cheaper eggs could be located in the Piedmont vicinity Saturday, March 8 too. Along NW 178 / Edmond Road, a family with enough land for chickens has opened an egg stand at Bluegill Drive. A dozen brown eggs there sold for $5.
The prices of eggs have soared across the United States.
At Lakeview Market, 9025 N. Overholser Drive, located within the Yukon mailing address in the Yukon Public Schools District and within the city limits of Oklahoma City, the eggs were slightly higher than at Williams Foods in Piedmont but a bit lower than at Homeland in Yukon.
Fresh Hansen’s jumbo eggs sold for $10.99 a dozen at the outdoor market. For those who prefer indoors when shopping for eggs, at the Homeland store, 2400 Cornwell Drive in Yukon, a dozen Hansen’s jumbo eggs sold for $11.29. The Hansen’s eggs are produced in Hitchcock in Blaine County.
And the best area deal found on the Oklahoma-produced eggs was found at Williams Foods in Piedmont at 410 Piedmont Road S. On Monday, March 3, the same carton of jumbo-sized Hansen’s eggs sold for $9.26 a dozen at Williams Discount Foods in Piedmont.
Plenty of Hansen’s eggs were in stock at Williams Discount Foods this week.
Back along Route 66, there were other specialty items for sale on the grounds too, such as fudge and even fungus. That’s right, the Fungus Family Farms offers a variety of fresh mushrooms.
And back to eggs, the cause of the hike in prices has been linked with inflation. But what is to blame, the chickens or the eggs?
The outbreak of bird flu in 2024 has been attributed to a factor in the egg price hikes along with inflation. Experts predict the price will only go up more this year and end up 20% higher than last year. There have been complaints of fowl play too, or egg-price gouging.
Steve Allen, owner of Lakeview Market LLC, said he has seen an uptick in people shopping for eggs.
The egg crisis at the grocery store has been in the news lately.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports egg prices were 45.50% higher in 2024 compared to 2021. A jump of 13.2% was reported in 2024 compared to 2023.
An online egg price tracker reported the average cost of grade A eggs was $4.95 a dozen.
That is a 15% increase since December 2024, the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index shows.
On the southside of what is now State Highway 66 that leads into downtown Yukon just five miles to the west, a rooster sculpture is tethered with wire to the top of the old Airstream trailer with the sign “Egg Mobile” and a silhouette on the sign of a hen. It is part of the Allen Farms and Vineyards venture that has grapes, pecans, and curios near Lake Overholser, the original source of water for the City of Oklahoma City and a source of water today for surrounding communities such as Yukon and Mustang that buy Oklahoma City water.
On the Egg Mobile is another banner with a chick hatching out of an egg and peeping out the words “We hatch all of our own eggs!” Local honey is also for sale at the Lakeview Market, another product that has been harder to afford for many consumers with price increases.
