Americans grapple with egg shortage as bird flu devastates flocks

Americans around the United States are heading to grocery stores and noticing that many egg shelves are nearly empty or empty, period. “You can’t get eggs anywhere, I mean anywhere,” Fox News host Jesse Watters said on “Jesse Watters Primetime” on Wednesday evening, Jan.22.

“I can only get the bad ones that just are not yellow and aren’t fluffy.” In New Jersey, said Watters, “you just can’t get the good, pasture-raised, nice, organic eggs.” “So Donald Trump, before you settle the drone issue, we need eggs,” said Watters.“And we need them fast.” Eggs are indeed in short supply and Watters’ favorite pasture-raised eggs are even harder to find. “The national egg supply has been strained due to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza — also known as HPAI or bird flu — which is devastating to egg farmers,” Emily Metz, president and CEO of the Chicago-based American Egg Board, said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital.The nonprofit organization provides resources for “national category-level egg marketing,” according to its website. The U.S.

alone lost more than 40 million laying hens to bird flu in 2024, said Metz. While the entire country is experiencing egg shortages to some degree, Metz said it is worse in states with laws requiring that grocery store eggs be “cage-free.”The states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Washington all have this legislation, according to CageFreeLaws.com, which tracks cage-free legislation by state.“Supply disruptions may be more pronounced [among] retailers and in states that exclusively sell cage-free eggs due to impacts from HPAI on cage-free farms, which were disproportionately affected late last year,” Metz told Fox News Digital. About 40% of laying hens in the U.S.

are “cage-free,” she said. Of birds lost to bird flu, more than half of these birds are cage-free, Metz added.“It’s important to know that bird flu...