Why is there an egg shortage?

At Voortman’s Egg Ranch in Ontario, there are three big barns which some 25,000 egg-laying chickens in each barn.

There are hens that lay white eggs. Others that lay brown eggs.

They average about 70,000 eggs a day here, which some buy at his on-property store. They’re less expensive than store-bought and shoppers here say the ones at the store are "a lot more than I’d like to pay."

The egg farmers get that. Both Eddie Voortman from Voortman’s Egg Ranch and Billy Mouw from a competitor across town say it’s the avian flu also known as the bird flu.

"I think so far there have been 40 million egg-laying chickens that have been euthanized across the country so that puts a strain on the supply," Voortman said.

"It’s just chaotic right now. There’s just a high demand for eggs and very little supply," Mouw said.

Voortman says the flu, "spreads through wild birds. They’re coming down and migrating out from Canada and they’re coming out across the flyways and they’re making their droppings as they’re flying." 

Voortman adds he’s never seen it this bad.

While the bid flu is the biggest culprit "killing a lot of birds" there are some other factors. 

"Feed prices have gone up a lot, Labor has gone up a lot. Right now most of it is due to just a shortage of supply," he said.

So whether at Billy’s or at Eddie’s hopes are high that this terrible bird flu season will end before things get much worse.