- The avian influenza has caused egg prices to surge across the country and prompted new restrictions in grocery stores and higher prices in restaurants. Some consumers have tried to combat the costly shortage by buying up chickens to get their own eggs.
As bird flu sweeps across the nation, consumers are facing elevated egg prices, and chicken supply companies are selling their chicks two to three times as fast.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 21 million egg-laying hens have been euthanized this year so far after 13.2 million were put down in December.
In accordance with the lack of egg-producing hens, egg prices have surged throughout grocery stores and restaurants. In supermarkets across the U.S., a dozen eggs can cost up to $10. Grocery stores are “holding prices at record or near-record highs to dampen demand,” the Agriculture Department said.
Additionally, Trader Joe’s is capping purchases to a dozen eggs of any kind per buyer a day and Waffle House is charging an extra 50-cents per egg in their restaurant.
The factors have sent poultry sales catapulting and more Americans are now learning how long it takes chickens to lay eggs in a new backyard coop.
John Berry, a manager of a livestock company in Houston, Texas, says that chicken demand has increased as consumers cope with the egg shortage.
“Our sales for poultry have doubled or maybe potentially tripled,” Berry told AFP. “I mean we’re selling 100 chickens a week or more.”
When egg accessibility is bountiful, Berry said it takes two or three weeks to sell that many birds. Many of Berry’s chicken clientele are new to the industry and have no experience when it comes to backyard coops and egg production, he said.
Arturo Becerra, a 57-year-old poultry production rookie, recently bought 10 hens for $400, he told AFP.
Earlier this week Becerra purchased five additional hens, and plans to acquire 10 more. Beccera said it’s “because I have a large family.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) outlined that the public risk for avian flu remains low, but those who deal with birds recreationally or professionally carry a higher risk.
Unfazed by the CDC guidelines, Becerra said, “I think it will be cheaper to buy hens and raise them.”
While the virus continues to plague poultry populations across the country, Berry said chicken reinforcements come sparingly.
“You have to have had anticipated this and raised a thousand extra chickens or a million extra chickens,” Berry said.
Berry said it will take time for egg prices to fall in stores and recommends consumers stock up.
“It’ll be a couple of months, I would guess at the soonest,” Berry said. “Seems like it’s two or three months or more before things kind of get right.”
