DENVER (KMGH) – The egg section in some grocery stores are looking pretty empty.
Many Colorado residents may be wondering whether the new cage-free law or an outbreak of bird flu is to blame.
Farmer Nick Shor is trying to keep up with the demand for eggs.
“Just in the past week, we’ve almost doubled the amount of customers,” he said.
His hens are a popular choice for eggs for people living in Parker, Colorado.
“Out of my total customer base, half of them are coming to me just because of reliable eggs,” he said.
Notices have been going up at various Denver Whole Foods stores, saying they have been experiencing difficulty sourcing eggs that meet the animal welfare standards.
King Soopers stores have similar notices, with one about a 2020 law requiring cage-free eggs sitting next to empty shelves.
Bill Scebbi, with Colorado Egg Producers, said the cage-free law is not the culprit behind the egg shortage, however. He said the problem is the recent bird flu outbreak instead.
“Those signs in the store got people up in arms… the word that I got is that the shortage is caused by the law, and that is not true. That’s just not true,” he said.
Scebbi said farmers have had to decrease their flocks by over 100 million hens because of the outbreak.
“When you take that many hens out of the system, you don’t get eggs,” he said. “That’s just the bottom line.”
Local farmers like Shor are stepping up to meet the demand through the darker, colder winter months.
“Whenever the sunlight decreases, the amount of sunlight per day, the chickens produce less eggs. We put out lights, so that way we can at least get eggs year-round,” Shor said.
Experts said the shortages won’t last forever.
“The bottom line is, you’ll see, you won’t see stacks and stacks of extra eggs, but you will see a supply of eggs,” he said.
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