Small egg farms avoid shortages, keep prices stable

Art King knows egg prices nationally have been on a roller coaster ride. They still cost an average of almost three times what they did in July 2023, but not at his farm market.

As co-owner of Harvest Valley Farms in West Deer, King has been selling eggs for about $6 per dozen for years, and his prices haven’t changed.

He attributes it to producing some of the eggs at his own farm and buying the rest from another small local farm, not a large national egg producer.

While this has made his prices more competitive with the national average of about $5.90 per dozen, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, King says it also affords some protection from the biggest cause of higher egg prices: avian flu.

In fact, smaller farms say they’ve been a beneficiary of rising egg prices.

Small egg producers don’t have giant flocks of chickens concentrated in pens. Most boast free-range, or at least pasture-fed hens, making them less susceptible to a widespread flu outbreak. Egg shortages — caused largely by the killing of entire flocks where the flu is detected — has had less of an effect on smaller producers so far.

“It’s a simple lesson of economics: when the supply goes down, the price goes up,” King said of the national prices.

It’s much the same formula at Nature’s Grove Farm near Latrobe.

Andy Vlcek, Nature’s Grove co-owner, has kept prices steady, even prior to the pandemic, by joining forces with other local farmers.

“We partner with a local Amish farmer who we have known for years, and he grows his own organic grains. He does not source them from another country; we don’t need to worry about the price of pesticides going up. It’s a fairly steady price from year to year.

So, when we are not dependent on government subsidized crops or chemical fertilizers, we are able to offer a true price for our eggs and meat, free from much of the influence of market swings,” Vlcek said.

Vlcek also attributes a lack of avian flu’s impact on good farming practices.

“When you cram 40,000 birds in a hen house, living on top of their own manure, stripped of any green grass, bugs and sunlight, and feed them a ration that is catered to either putting on muscle (for meat chickens) or increasing laying production instead of nutrition, you are putting all the pieces in place that create an immuno-suppressed animal … one dependent on pharmaceutical fixes,” he said.

Vlcek doesn’t know of a single pasture-based operation that has suffered mass losses from avian flu.

At Nature’s Grove, chickens are raised in pastures and are moved around freely. From his experience, Vlcek has noted poultry that consume grass are far less susceptible to avian influenza.

“Chlorophyll is one of nature’s best detoxes,” he said.

At Freehling Farms near Kittanning, where King gets many of his eggs, there is high demand. The family-owned and -operated poultry farm is seeing increased sales.

“We are very busy with the increased demand for eggs and chickens. The number of calls, texts and messages that we are answering on a daily basis is the highest I’ve ever seen it,” owner Roger Freehling said in a statement.

They sell 500 to 600 dozen per week, amounting to 2,000 dozen per month from the farm’s 1,500 hens.

At Freehling’s, they mainly sell to local markets and smaller farms, such as Harvest Valley and Dilner Family Farms, also in West Deer. Freehling said his farm’s eggs have consistently sold for $4.99 per dozen.

A real threat

Avoiding bird flu has required a few extra precautions, even for smaller producers.

Freehling’s birds normally would spend warmer months in pastures, but keeping them away from wild birds — a prime source of avian flu — has required the use of pens, where the hens are housed “loosely,” not crowded together.

“This is a very devastating infection and the widest infection in poultry,” said Dr. Suresh Kuchipudi, chair of infectious diseases and microbiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.

Biosecurity measures, like washing shoes or tires before entering the chicken house and washing hands and wearing protective clothing, are the greatest defense against bird flu, Kuchipudi said.

“It doesn’t matter how big or small the farm is or number of flocks. The key is not lapsing on biosecurity. Anything they can do to prevent the virus from entering is the best weapon they have to save their flocks.”

The current strategy the U.S. uses to control bird flu is to kill an entire flock if the disease is detected, Kuchipudi said.

The measure is supposed to prevent the virus from spreading. Any flock within 5 kilometers of the flock that was destroyed has to undergo regular testing to make sure the infection hasn’t spread.

In 2014 and 2015, that method worked, and the virus went away. This time is different because the number of viral sources has increased, including animals that have fed on dead birds, and the disease spreading to dairy cattle.

The first infection in cattle was reported in March 2024 in Texas. Since then, the cases in dairy cattle have been increasing to several hundred, with the highest rates in California and Colorado.

It’s the number of hens killed that resulted in the loss of egg-laying stocks. Farmers are not able to immediately repopulate. Then, the new birds do not lay eggs immediately.

“There is a loss of productivity and production time,” Kuchipudi said.

Freehling sees small farming as a way to avoid such shortages, “as long as it’s sustaining for the farmer to do so,” he said.

Small operations don’t have the number of hens mass producers have, but they can be more adaptive with them to meet market demands or guard against infection spread.

At Harvest Valley, there are 27 chickens, and no new chickens have come in for about six months — part of King’s care practices to avoid the flu.

At Nature’s Grove, they cut back on their egg-laying hens, but plan to grow their flock this season, Vlcek said.

Besides, King said, while egg prices are up, so are the prices for almost everything else. He doesn’t see the price of eggs as much different from the costs of other items from a consumer standpoint.

Other items have increased, according to the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics, since 2019. Bread per pound has increased by about 51%, milk per gallon by about 40%, ground beef per pound by 53% and chicken per pound by 37%.

In comparison to those items, he said, eggs aren’t all that expensive, especially when considering their high nutrient value.

Vlcek said the shortage is less about prices and more about the deplorable treatment of animals that has led to the spread of the bird flu.

“Any time we demonize wildlife and do not stop to question how we raise the birds, it gives us reason to pause,” Vlcek said.