For devoted egg heads, these are brutal times.
Empty shelves now sometimes greet them at Trader Joe’s, Costco, Whole Foods, King Soopers, Natural Grocers and other Boulder County supermarkets.
When eggs are available, the prices can fluctuate wildly, sometimes doubling per dozen compared to what they were a year ago. Some retailers are limiting egg purchases per visit.
Meanwhile, breakfast prices are rising across the country. The Georgia-based Waffle House chain added a 50-cent per egg surcharge to its menu in response to the “unprecedented rise in egg prices,” the company announced recently.
In Boulder County, omelet, quiche and eggs benedict fans are suffering sticker shock.
According to owner and chef Alec Schuler, eggs are part of 90% of the menu items at Tangerine, his brunch restaurants in Boulder, Longmont and Lafayette.
“We use about 450 dozen eggs a week. Each dozen cost $6 more than it did a year ago. That’s about $2,500 extra a week,” Schuler says. “That’s why I’ve added an Egg Supply Fee — 4% to every bill at Tangerine. I’ll be happy to remove or reduce it when things improve.”
Moxie Bread Co. in Boulder, Louisville and Lyons relies on organic eggs for its baked goods and menu items, according to owner Pippa Clark.
“It’s very challenging. It is getting harder to source organic eggs, particularly at this time of year,” Clark says. “Egg prices are fluctuating incessantly, making it hard to manage food costs.”
For the owners of Boulder County’s cafes and bakeries, this crisis comes on top of escalating prices for chocolate, coffee and labor.
“Only about 30% of what we make at Lucky’s Bakehouse doesn’t contain any eggs,” says Jennifer Mesinger, chef and founder of Lucky’sBakehouse and Lucky’s Bakehouse Cafe.
“The ongoing impact of avian flu has made eggs harder to find, and the costs have skyrocketed,” she says. “But as bakers and cooks, we adapt.”
Cage-free isn’t the culprit
If you are looking to hard boil a villain, blame it on Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), according to Bill Scebbi. His Brighton-based Colorado Egg Producers does not represent every farm in the state, but it has a lot of eggs in its basket.
“We represent five, large commercial farms in the state which produce about a billion eggs per year,” Scebbi says. “One farm alone is home to more than 2.3 million hens.”
That was before the avian influenza epidemic wiped out whole flocks.
“Farms have lost all their birds. And when we say ‘lost,’ we mean they had to kill a million hens,” he says. “Once the farm gets this disease, it’s very virulent and the entire flock is slaughtered to help limit the spread.”
Despite a wave of social media comments, the crisis has nothing to do with HB20-1343, Colorado’s cage-free egg law, which went into effect in January.
“All of our farms met cage-free standards in 2024,” Scebbi says. “This problem is entirely caused by the avian flu.”
And don’t blame the farmers for the high prices, either.
“Eggs are a commodity,” he says. “Once the eggs are out there, farmers have no control over the pricing.”
“The egg industry is very complex,” Scebbi continues. “What you see in stores depends on suppliers, not farmers. The eggs you buy may be from Colorado, California, Utah or Idaho.”
How to beat egg-flation
Egg demand will rise as Easter approaches, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts prices will soar another 20% this year. But it’s not all doom and gloom.
In a pandemic-era flashback, shoppers are rediscovering eggs from local farmers, including Black Cat Farm and Cure Organic Farm in Boulder, 7th Generation Farm in Louisville and Rocky Mountain Milkhouse in Mead.
While we may not see $2-a-dozen eggs soon, Scebbi says he expects egg supplies to be back to normal by late summer, barring further calamities.
He has some simple consumer advice until then.
“Don’t run out. When you see eggs, buy them,” he says. “I’ve had eggs in my refrigerator 30 days. They do last a long time.”
Even when whole eggs aren’t available, hard-boiled eggs, liquid eggs and liquid egg whites are often on the shelf.
“Everyone should try to be a little bit understanding in the short term,” he says. “They’ll get their yolks soon enough.”