By Lindy Browning | Contributing Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice
During the last few weeks, there have been a couple of notable changes you may have noticed at your local grocer.
The old saying that warns us not to keep all of our “eggs in one basket”, has now become, “I can’t find or afford eggs in my basket.” People are divided as to what has caused this “poaching” of their wallets, if they can find eggs on the shelf. No matter the cause, it has many people “fried.”
Some people believe that the new Colorado law, which mandates that only cage-free eggs will be sold in Colorado, is to blame for the nearly-empty egg shelves and high cost of eggs, if you can find them. The “egg-ception” to the law is that egg-producing operations with 3.000 or fewer hens are not required to be cage-free.
Personally, I have seen the price of eggs go up exponentially, as someone who loves to bake for those in my closest circles; I guess it’s fair to say that baking is my love language.
I purchase five dozen eggs at a time. Only a few short weeks ago, I paid $9.99 for the 60-count egg carton. Saturday, I paid $28.89 for the same carton. Needless to say, I left the store feeling a little less than “sunny side up.”
It stands to reason that given my career — “inquiring minds” is a skill set and requirement of my job — I have been looking into this whole chicken or the egg dilemma.
Pertaining to the Colorado Law, it occurs to me that Gov. Jared Polis counted on most of the people who don’t produce eggs commercially to know a whole lot about the four classifications of eggs. As a farm kid born and raised, I didn’t know the subtle differences and the pros and cons of each.
Here’s what I found out:
Cage raised eggs are laid by hens that have their own very small cages all in rows next to each other. Shockingly, small cages…
This operational style allows for the greatest automation, is the most cost-effective way to produce eggs and has more protection from Avian Flu, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture data. It is also the most restrictive for the hens. The cages are less than 1 foot by 1 foot and the hens do not have room to spread their wings. They live their entire lives in that cage. This type of egg-laying operation is the most cost effective for the producer and consumer.
Cage-free hens don’t fare all that much better in terms of space, even though they are housed on the floor, rather than a cage.
According to Colorado law, each hen is required to have 1 square-foot of floor space if there is vertical space provided, OR 1.5 square-feet of space per hen if there is not vertical space. The law requires that the hens have a scratch area, perch area and nesting boxes, but they are still housed in a building.
WATT Poultry is an industry association for egg operations. According to their data, Cage-free eggs cost approximately 24 cents more per dozen to produce. There are higher labor costs associated with cage-free egg operations; because of loss of automation, larger hen housing is required to keep the same number of hens, and feed cost goes up because of feed getting trampled into the ground and lost, and more activity in the hens.
According to USDA, Avian flu has more impact on cage-free operations. In 2024, cage-free egg operations were a third of the U.S. egg-laying operations, but contributed 60 percent of the Avian Flu deaths.
There are two other categories of egg-laying operations, although neither are a point of contention in Colorado law and markets, and by consumers. Free-range egg operations are defined as housed with significant outdoor times, depending on weather and local regulation.
Pasture-raised eggs is the last category and is defined as hens that spend most of their time outdoors and are usually housed in movable enclosures while they eat bugs and forage. These are for obvious reasons, mostly small, local farm operations.
On Jan. 3, 2025, in a weekly market report by USDA, it was said, “Unlike in past years, in 2024, all major production systems experienced significant losses, including conventional caged, cage-free and certified types.”
The report went on, “…of these, cage-free barn/aviary systems experienced the most disproportionate loss, resulting in significant price impacts for cage-free eggs, especially in states with legislated confinement requirements such as California….”
As of July 2024, nearly 1.8 million chickens have been culled in Colorado because of bird flu outbreaks. This is the second-largest number of birds killed since the disease was first detected in 2002.
I guess the answer to the chicken, the egg and the law question is a little of both.
Certainly there can be no denying that the impacts of the Avian Flu are a significant contributing factor to shortages and prices.
I think that it’s also clear that the newly implemented cage-free egg law is having an impact because of increased cost to producers, and this bird flu that has significantly reduced the number of producing laying hens, caged or uncaged.
In the end, it has left Colorado consumers and producers feeling like “rotten eggs.”
Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but even so we support the constitutional right of the author to express those opinions.