The Centers for Disease Control says the avian flu has affected more than 50 million birds since November, reducing the number of egg-laying hens — and the number of eggs available at markets.
That means empty shelves and high prices. And it creates some changes for Natalie Barber and her family.
"We've definitely pulled back our consumption. I mean, it would be six to eight eggs every single morning. Three for me, two for (her son) and three for dad, anywhere in between there. But, yeah, eventually we'll scale back what we have to eat, if it gets to that point," Barber said.
Some stores, including Costco and Trader Joe's, have put limits on how many eggs customers can buy.
Hilliker’s Ranch Fresh Eggs in Lakeside has also adopted a limit for customers, but so far they've kept their pricing between $5.00 and $6.00 for a dozen eggs, and $7.00 and $9.00 for a flat with 20 eggs.
Hilliker’s President and CEO Frank Hilliker said they are still seeing as many eggs as they did before, "But having a limit just kind of spreads them out. That way I'm able to take care of all my wholesale customers."
A dozen eggs cost between $5 and $6 and their egg flats with 20 eggs are sold between $7 and $9.
Hilliker's is home to almost 30,000 chickens, and they produce between 23,000 and 25,000 eggs a day.
Hilliker says if bird flu infected his facility, it would be devastating.
"All the chickens will get sick. One-hundred percent of the chickens will get sick," Hilliker said. "We'd have to euthanize all the chickens. We'd have to shut down."
The egg farm has implemented a few safety precautions to try to prevent a bird flu outbreak, like a foot bath for workers to trudge through before passing through a gate to the area where the chickens are kept.
"It's filled with Lysol and something similar to that. It's a disinfectant," Hilliker said.
Trucks also get disinfected. "The driver has to spray disinfectant on the whole undercarriage of the truck, tires and everything to make sure that no bird flu was picked up from the road. So anything that goes past our gates gets disinfected," Hilliker said.
They also limit visitors from entering their facilities, and not just human visitors, either. Wild birds are a primary source of bird flu infections.
"We do everything we can to keep wild birds from flying in the chicken houses," Hilliker said.
Wild birds are a primary source of bird flu infections. Hilliker said, "We keep all around the chicken houses really clean, that way we could spot if ... a bird was flying overhead and defecated and there was bird feces on the ground, we'd be able to spot it and we would clean it up real quick and disinfect that area."
The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts egg prices are going to increase another 20% in 2025.
