Local farmers explain high price of eggs

CAPITAL REGION, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Are you experiencing shell shock when shopping for eggs? You’re not alone.

A Pattersonville farmer’s phone has been ringing off the hook with people trying to get a better deal from his shop.

“We are running out very fast in the morning time,” said Joseph Alesandrini, Farm Owner of Serenity Silos in Pattersonville.

Serenity Silos collects eggs twice a day, and at $3 a dozen price according to their Facebook page, people have been flocking there.

“Hopefully next year will have all of our 100 chickens laying eggs, and will be able to give everybody eggs,“ Alesandrini said.

That price is a far cry from what you’ll see at area grocery stores. One local chain selling a dozen large brown eggs for $6.79. A different chain selling a dozen white for $5.59.

Jennifer Thomas of Thomas Poultry Farm in Schuylerville explains the driving forces behind this. First, a nationwide bird flu outbreak.

“It first started appearing last spring and it reappeared with the fall migration, she explained. “It’s airborne, and that caused 39 and a half million layers to be put down. We lost them, nationwide.”

Seasonal factors contributed, too.

“Because of storms, because of the holiday baking, there just weren’t enough eggs to fill the need, so the prices kept going up and up, and even Canada was buying from us because the bird flu wiped out their supplies up there as well,“ Thomas said.

Industry experts see hope on the horizon for prices coming back down.

“We’ve started to see the market come down last week and again this week, so consumers will start to see that change over the next couple of weeks,“ said Christina Hudson Kohler from Hudson Eggs in Elbridge.