For more than two years, farmers have fought a battle with a fatal strain of bird flu that continues to disrupt the U.S. egg supply. Recent outbreaks of the virus in multiple states claimed roughly 7% of the U.S. flock of egg-laying hens in just three months. With limited supplies, shoppers have seen skyrocketing prices at some grocery stores, and many have encountered buying restrictions or empty shelves.
Egg prices rose nearly 38% in one year
The average cost of a dozen Grade A large eggs was $3.65 in November, up from $3.37 in October, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, retrieved from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis’ FRED site.
The latest consumer price index, or CPI, shows that the price of eggs is up 37.5% from where it was a year ago. That’s in contrast to the trajectory of food prices overall, which rose just 2.4% in the past year.
» MORE: Will prices ever go down?
BLS data tracking egg prices goes back to at least 1980, when large, Grade A eggs cost $0.88 a dozen, not adjusted for inflation. Before February 2022, the average cost of a dozen had largely stayed below $2 since March 2016. Then, the price of eggs more than doubled from the beginning of 2022 until hitting its peak of $4.82 per dozen in January 2023.
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Why are eggs so expensive?
The pandemic and inflation play a role in rising egg prices, but the real culprit is an outbreak of H5N1, a highly transmissible and fatal strain of avian influenza, or bird flu. The outbreak started in early 2022 and quickly grew into the largest bird flu outbreak in U.S. history. As of Jan. 6, the virus has affected more than 130 million birds in the U.S. since January 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More specifically, it has affected more than 98.5 million egg-laying hens, according to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. When an outbreak occurs, egg producers are forced to cull their flocks, which impacts the supply of eggs headed for grocery stores.
Generally, as supplies tighten, egg prices rise. That’s for at least two reasons: First, consumer demand for eggs has held steady despite persistently high prices. The mismatch between supply and demand tends to drive prices up.
Second, the tight supply of eggs has led grocery stores to change the way they price eggs altogether. Previously, it was common for retailers to keep egg prices low — sometimes even pricing them below what the store paid for them wholesale — because eggs effectively draw shoppers into the store. They’d come for cheap eggs and leave with a cart full of groceries.
But now, pricing eggs too low could mean selling out, which would increase the chances that shoppers encounter empty shelves and abandon their carts. Retailers will keep prices at levels that help them avoid that situation as much as possible.
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When will egg prices settle down?
Prices will remain volatile until producers can rebuild their flocks and recover egg production levels. But that’s hard to do when the virus remains out of control. Major U.S. egg producers continue to report new bird flu cases affecting flocks around the country.
Since October, multiple outbreaks spanning seven states, including Arizona, California, Iowa, Ohio, Oregon, Utah and Washington, affected more than 21 million egg-laying hens. There are roughly 312 million egg-laying hens in the U.S. population, according to the USDA. That means nearly 7% of all U.S. egg layers were lost in the past three months.
Why you might be seeing cage-free egg shortages
In 2025, eight states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — have laws in place that ban the production and sale of conventional eggs for animal welfare reasons. National retailers like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have made similar commitments.
Many of those states recently experienced major outbreaks of bird flu. In fact, bird flu had a disproportionate impact on cage-free egg layers in 2024. About a third of U.S. egg layers are cage-free hens, but they contributed nearly 60% of all bird flu cases for the year.
Not only does that mean the supply of cage-free eggs is down everywhere — which, as explained above, leads to higher prices — but it also has implications for how quickly supplies can recover, which are unique to cage-free eggs.
Already there are fewer sources for cage-free eggs. On top of that, in places where cage-free egg rules are in place, it can be tricky for retailers to find new suppliers that comply with whatever regulations the stores are required to follow.
As a result, grocery shoppers living in states or shopping in stores that restrict the sale of conventional eggs are especially likely to face higher prices, quantity restrictions and temporarily bare shelves.
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