The egg shortage making national headlines is having real impacts on farmers in northern San Luis Obispo County.
Melanie Blankenship, Templeton farmer and owner of Nature's Touch Nursery & Harvest, said her chickens are laying far fewer eggs this time of year.
"As I walk into the chicken pen, I'm begging the girls, 'Come on girls, really?'' Blankenship said.
The owner of BeeWench Farm, Anne Defeyter-Loden, said she's having the same issue.
"We still have eggs. They just lay maybe once a week instead of once a day," Defeyter-Loden said.
However, laying fewer eggs is typical for chickens during the winter months, they said.
"Egg-laying is based off of daylight hours. We’ll probably get 100 eggs a day in the spring. Right now, we’re getting maybe a dozen," Defeyter-Loden said.
“Most of my chickens are molting because it's cold," Blankenship said.
To combat this, some producers keep hens in lit cages year-round to avoid the seasonal changes in egg laying. Stores then sell eggs from these producers.
California stopped this last year when Prop. 12 went into effect, requiring chickens to be free-range.
"Commercial industries are struggling right now because of this new regulation," Blankenship said. "You have to register with the state of California, and then you have to be inspected, verifying that your chickens are free-range."
“The new law says that they need at least two feet of room so they can put their wings out and stretch and turn around, and a lot of producers just can't keep up with that kind of cost," Defeyter-Loden said.
Farmers like Blankenship who are not yet compliant must then rely on other producers for their eggs.
“I've lost more producers that were supplying Nature’s Touch because they didn’t have the extra time to do the compliance," Blankenship said.
On top of that, outbreaks of avian flu have further cut the egg supply.
But local farmers say there are options while we wait out the shortage like looking for alternative sources for eggs, raising chickens of your own, or simply waiting for the local egg supply to improve in the spring.
“We should start seeing an ease in the egg shortage naturally locally about March," Blankenship said.
