NYers are beating rising egg prices with their very own chicken coops: ‘I don’t worry about where my eggs are coming from’

Eggspensive prices breed creativity.

A Staten Island firefighter built his very own chicken coop in his backyard to ensure a steady stream of eggs — as the skyrocketing price of the kitchen staple scrambles the rest of the city.

“It doesn’t affect us at all, because we have them here every day,” Tommy Lane, 36, told The Post Thursday.

“And I don’t have to worry about where my eggs are coming from, what are they putting in them. I just come out here. I know that these chickens are healthy. I know exactly where the eggs are coming from.”

The Colonel, Ruby, Daisy and Jordan save the family of five as much as $120 a month per month, Lane estimated, with each bird typically popping out one brown egg a day — though The Colonel is not always punctual.

The 11-year FDNY veteran brought his four egg-making machines to his family’s home about a year ago for his children, ages 8, 6 and 4, after a few of his fellow firefighters shared eggs from their own coops.

“The Easter Bunny brought these about a year ago. The kids wanted a dog. They got the chickens instead,” Lane, who works out of the 15th Division in Brooklyn, said.

The birds were a boomerang gift for himself and his wife, Jackie: Inflation was an ongoing burden and the couple could see the writing on the wall.

The bird flu had been decimating flocks since 2022 but especially ramped up in 2024 — more than 20 million egg-laying chickens in the US died between September and December, data from the US Department of Agriculture shows. The shortage has caused the cost to surge for eggs and egg products.

If the Lanes were to buy their choice of organic eggs from the supermarket, they estimate they’d be spending as much as $30 per week on just two cage-free cartons.

Instead, the Lanes spend roughly just $18 per month on bird feed. There’s also less waste in their home thanks to their feathery friends.

“They eat everything. They eat scraps. If you have leftover vegetables or fruit, even meat, you throw it out. They like crushed red pepper. I put red pepper flakes in their food, and they love it. They’re like little scavengers. They eat whatever you give them,” continued Lane, who first talked with PIX 11 about his endeavor.

The birds — an Orpington breed, Isa Brown breed and two Golden Comets, respectively — are living lavishly in an 80-square-foot wood and mesh coop that Lane built himself using leftover materials from his woodworking business. There’s also a dirt floor ladder for the birds to climb and a tire full of sand for them to bathe in. There’s also a nesting box where they sleep, poop and lay eggs.

Other than the cost-saving, the taste is undeniable.

“Once you eat a chicken egg fresh from the chicken, you can’t go back. They’re so good,” Lane said.

“It’s just a really rich taste. The yolk itself is a super orange color. It’s not like that yellow from store-bought. And you know how if you crack an egg to fry it, it kind of just sprays all over the pan? These stay together, and the white is super white.”

Not all chicken-lovers are reaping the same benefits, however — as some say you need more than a handful of birds for the home barnyard operation to be cheaper than a store.

Heidi Heilig’s two hens only produce about five eggs per week, which is nice to supplement her family of five’s supply but is not enough to replace full-blown trips to the grocery store.

“It’s certainly nice to know that if there was a run on eggs and no one had eggs at all available that I could probably still bake enough brownies and cookies to make my kids happy, but it’s definitely not a way to save money,” Heilig, who is raising beloved fowl in her Brooklyn Heights backyard.

The Brooklyn mom adopted the birds during the pandemic as pets for her children, who are allergic to cats and dogs.

It costs several hundred dollars to build the coop — and Heilig spends another $40 every four months on feed for Queen and Beast-Jesus.

That’s comparable to just four cartons of the $9.99 cartons of a dozen eggs being sold in Flushing supermarkets.

That’s not to say Heilig is discouraging of other New Yorkers who want some feathery friends and discounted eggs.

“It can be so rewarding, especially when you have children, you can speak knowledgeably to people about these things like about how chickens actually work and how eggs actually get to the table,” Heilig said.

“My sons have a friend that comes over every week and we bake together. And it’s amazing to say, ‘Go out and get an egg. We’re going to put it into a cake,’ and then to see that process,” she continued.

“And they’re really fun animals. They’re funny, they have personalities. They’re very silly.”