The price of a dozen table (shell) eggs is at an all-time high. As of early March 2025, large, white-shell eggs are more than $8 per dozen nationally. The previous peak in price came in January 2023, when eggs reached $4.82 per dozen. After a swift decline through August 2023—when prices bottomed out at $2.04 per dozen—egg prices have since been increasing (figure 1). This price increase has been driven by the loss of hens from highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI). Most of these losses are because of depopulation efforts on infected farms, which are done to contain an outbreak and keep it from spreading to nearby farms. Since the start of the current HPAI outbreak in February 2022, the United States has lost more than 123.8 million commercial laying hens to this incurable virus. There are currently discussions of methods to mitigate the impacts of HPAI on markets, including an HPAI vaccine and the use of eggs from broiler hatcheries.

HPAI Vaccination

Figure 1. Average Price per Dozen, Grade A Large Eggs
By EggPrices.org

Discussions over vaccination have been going on at some level from the beginning of this outbreak, considering what the last outbreak in 2015 did to the layer, turkey, and other commercial poultry industries. While vaccination holds some promise, it has its own set of problems and costs that must be balanced with the potential of controlling the virus. However, it seems the layer industry problem, along with commercial turkeys, has reached critical mass, losing over 50 million hens in the last year. Recently, a HPAI vaccine was conditionally approved for use against the virus. If successful, this could prevent the depopulations currently being used to contain HPAI. As laying hens are replaced, egg inventories could catch up and prices return to more normal levels.

Broiler Eggs

It has also been suggested that surplus eggs from broiler hatcheries could be transferred into the egg-product market to help the price situation. These surplus eggs come from the occasional oversupply of hatching eggs by the broiler industry. These oversupply eggs are currently either used for animal feed products or often simply disposed of. At one time, these eggs were allowed to enter the edible egg-product market, where they were used for things like dressings, sauces, etc. or for powdered-egg products like cake mixes. These products are pasteurized and considered some of the safest egg products available for human consumption. Using surplus broiler eggs stopped in 2009 when a law specifically targeting normal table egg handling and storage was passed that requires all human edible eggs—whether sold fresh or used for egg products—be handled in such a way that precludes the surplus broiler eggs from the process. Some are asking that this law be rescinded to help relieve the current egg shortage. However, would that offer any real relief? To answer that, you must look at a few big numbers.

First, it is estimated by the National Chicken Council that there would be an annual surplus of  almost 400 million broiler eggs (going) into the egg breaking supply each year. That sounds like a lot of eggs, and it is, but would it make a difference, and would it decrease the price of eggs at the supermarket? It is not likely. According to the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, total egg production for 2024 was 7.751 billion dozen or more than 93 billion eggs. December 2024 alone produced 652.8 million dozen eggs. That is 7.8 billion eggs being laid in one month.

If you assume that the surplus broiler egg supply would be evenly distributed monthly, it could supply an additional 2.8 million dozen eggs per month or about 0.4 percent of the monthly total, an amount not likely to make an appreciable difference in the current prices.  The other thing to consider is that the broiler industry is currently suffering from low hatch numbers across the country. This means there is likely to be extremely few broiler eggs available in the near term, as most companies are hatching as many eggs as possible to keep the broiler supply chain full. Still, there is no reason not to add available broiler eggs into the market, even if it does nothing else but provide a marketable solution to broiler companies for something that is often just a loss. And if it allows a few more eggs to hit the store shelves, that is a good thing, too.