As egg prices soar, Colorado’s backyard chickens gain hero status
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DENVER — Eggs are hard to find at grocery stores these days.
But in the backyard of a split-level home in Northglenn, Janelle McCarthy has more eggs than she knows what to do with.
“It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing [set-up], but our chickens are healthy and our chickens give us eggs,” McCarthy said of her family’s coop.
McCarthy is one of thousands of Coloradans who raise chickens in their backyards. The “Colorado Backyard Chickens” Facebook group, of which McCarthy is a member, has nearly 14,000 members from across the state.
“We wanted eggs,” said Luke McCarthy, Janelle’s husband. “And at the same time, to save money and to try homesteading in a way.”
Backyard chicken-keeping soared in popularity during the COVD-19 pandemic. Doubts around supply chain reliability combined with people searching for quarantine hobbies led to a surge in demand at hatcheries.
As the H5N1 avian flu influenza (bird flu) outbreak continues to spread, driving up the cost of eggs, amateur homesteading and backyard chicken-keeping are becoming a popular option.
The McCarthy’s have six chickens, the maximum number that the City of Northglenn permits. Luke McCarthy said they can depend on about five to six fresh eggs every day. The egg basket in their kitchen is running out of room and they haven’t purchased eggs from the grocery store in months.
The national average price for a dozen large Grade A eggs was a record-high $4.95 in January, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In Colorado, prices vary depending on the store, but recent reporting found that specialty grocers, as opposed to big box stores, offer the lowest prices. However, prices are expected to rise.
The egg shortage in grocery stores that’s driving high prices is due to a dramatic decline in the number of egg-laying hens in the United States. CBS News reported that nearly 150 million birds have been ordered euthanized since the current strain of bird flu reached the United States in 2022.
Bird flu mostly spreads in poultry farms, where chickens have limited space. The disease is less common in backyard coops because with fewer chickens and more space for each bird, the chance of exposure decreases.
In March of 2024, researchers discovered the bird flu in cattle for the first time. Dairy farms in 16 states have since recorded positive tests for bird flu, affecting 973 dairy herds, according to the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
While the CDC says the current public health risk is “low,” 70 people have tested positive for bird flu in the U.S. Researchers believe more cases have gone undetected.
Humans can become infected with bird flu after close contact with an infected animal, but recent research found that a small number of mutations could allow the current bird flu to spread between humans.
CDC data show Colorado has recorded 10 human cases of bird flu, trailing only Washington (11) and California (38).
“We are in a terrible situation and going into a worse situation,” Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada told KFF Health News. “I don’t know if the bird flu will become a pandemic, but if it does, we are screwed.”
The Trump administration has said it is developing a plan for combating the bird flu that “stresses vaccinations and tighter biosecurity” as opposed to the mass culling of poultry, according to the Associated Press.
Some experts have expressed their reservations about the Trump administration’s readiness to get a handle on the outbreak. Speaking to PBS News Hour, epidemiologist Dr. Katelyn Jetelina said she was concerned about the firing taking place at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Food and Drug Administration and CDC — federal agencies that are key to public health guidance and research.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture recently fired staffers who were working on the agency’s response to the bird flu as part of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s goals to dramatically shrink the federal work-force.
The USDA is now trying to reverse those firings.
“The less staff, the less resources we have, the harder it will get to get this H5N1 — as well as all the other health threats out there — under control and to prevent a pandemic,” Jetelina told News Hour’s Geoff Bennett.
In Denver’s East Colfax neighborhood, Amanda Slavik is very concerned about the health of her five chickens. Slavik and her boyfriend, Patrick Deal, have raised chickens in their backyard since July of last year.
Their hens live in a spacious, pristine coop, outfitted with radiant heaters and two nanny cams. Slavik works from home and said she checks on the chickens several times a day.
“It’s a lot of me stressing out, thinking something is wrong with them every single day,” she said. Two of the hens are in quarantine in the couple’s detached garage because they had runny noses.
“I’m nervous about bird flu with them just being in the backyard,” Slavik said.
The Denver Department of Public Health and Environment recently issued guidance about bird flu, saying the disease is “circulating in wild birds in Denver and surrounding areas.”
Boulder County Public Health recently confirmed a case of bird flu in a wild goose that was found near a private chicken run. The agency recommends people with chickens to keep their flocks enclosed and protected, like Slavik does.
“My biggest advice would be if you have anxiety, maybe don’t get chickens,” Slavik said with a laugh.
Slavik said the hens are very much their pets. “We don’t care about the eggs,” she said, even though they get two to three fresh eggs each day.
“The main motivation was fun,” Deal said.
“We need like 500,000 more eggs to break even,” Slavik joked.
Just a few miles away from Slavik and Deal, James Haug has a much different relationship with the hens he cares for.
“I tend to have a little bit more of an agricultural perspective on [chickens],” said Haug, who helps run the Park Hill Chicken Co-op. “There’s definitely co-op members who see them more as pets than egg producers.”
The Park Hill Chicken Co-Op, located on the Denver Urban Gardens plot at Park Hill Elementary School in Denver, is a community chicken coop that dates back to 2014.
Haug is a Denver Health psychiatrist who works in the city’s jails. He joined the co-op in 2020 and checks in on its eight hens every Wednesday.
Each co-op member is responsible for a different day of the week. When they check on the hens, the members can take the day’s eggs home with them.
“I grew up having chickens, and I liked it,” said Haug, who is from the San Luis Valley. “I wanted to have that for my kids, have them exposed… to getting fresh eggs. I didn’t want to be so disconnected from our food supply that just everything you eat comes from the store.”
The co-op model, Haug said, is better for him and his family. They have the benefit of fresh eggs without the 24/7 responsibility of caring for a backyard flock.
In the colder months, Haug usually leaves with a handful of eggs each week. It’s not enough to cover a week’s worth of eggs for his family of four, but it helps.
“You can raise your own chickens, you can get your own eggs,” he said. “It doesn’t have to come from some corporate factory.”
His main responsibility is keeping the hens fed and dry. Haug met with Rocky Mountain PBS Feb. 19, a day when the morning temperatures were in the single digits. He briefly let the hens out of the coop to walk around the garden.
“We definitely get more participation in the spring and summer,” Haug said, chuckling as he shoved his hands into the warmth of his navy blue North Face parka. “It’s freezing out here.”
Type of story: News
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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