RUSH, N.Y. (WROC) — As ‘Egg-flation’ continues across the nation that led many scrambling to the store to stock up on eggs, according to the USDA, prices are now about 10 cents lower on average for eggs per dozen in New York.

The USDA also said the demand is now ‘moderate.’

At Stonecrop Farm in Rush, owner Greg Hartt says nationally after a huge increase in prices around Christmas, egg prices are steadying again.

“At this point, we’re kind of seeing things come back down to Earth. For us here at our farm, our egg prices have fortunately been able to remain stable,” said Hartt.

That he said is because his farm has not had issues with avian influenza. That strain of flu impacted a lot of factory farms nationally — not so much the mom-and-pops like Stonecrop. 

“It was really driven by migratory birds, and we have plenty of Canadian geese flying overhead. Fortunately for us, we didn’t have any issues,” he said.

Hartt said allowing livestock here to live a freer life — less restrained — is a way to slow or stop the spread of things like the avian flu. 

“Really, I think is critical to the health of the animal,” he said.

The Center for Disease Control says that avian flu has some 58.6 million-plus poultry in 47 states across the US, including New York, and right here in Monroe County. 

Supply chain professor Steven Carnovale with Florida Atlantic University said the avian flu is one part of the high prices and inflation. Here’s the other. 

“Grain and other feed happened when the Ukraine war happened,” said Carnovale.

He said about a year ago, the global supply of food for egg-laying hens went up exponentially. That price goes up, and the supply of hens drops due to the flu, causing higher egg prices. 

“And taken together, it was inevitable for these prices to happen,” said Carnovale.

And much like toilet paper during the pandemic, once reports came out of high egg prices, people ‘flocked’ to the stores. 

“Oh my goodness, I can’t get eggs, I need to stockpile eggs,” said Carnovale in a bit of a parody. That of course lowered the supply.

And don’t forget, Easter is Sunday, April 9th — with that, we could again see a dash to the stores for eggs with supply and demand ‘hatching a plan’ for higher prices.