As almost everyone knows, the price of eggs has more than doubled in a year, and shortages are common. Consumers are unhappy; Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) has called for a price-gouging investigation by the Federal Trade Commission. Most concerning of all? A lot of Americans are thinking of raising their own hens.

To which I have three words of advice: Don’t do it.

Yes, eggs are expensive. But that doesn’t mean you should run out to buy chickens.

It’s too late to stop some people in this doomed quest to save money. People who work at hatcheries — the companies that incubate, hatch, and send chicks to homes and stores throughout the country — are seeing demand for egg-layers that tops even the great chick boom of 2020. “We’re already having customers calling about preordering or asking if they can come in and buy them all,” says a farm store employee near my home in Oregon.