DENMARK, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — It may soon be harder to find eggs in the grocery store, as new numbers warn egg production in Wisconsin is sitting at half of what it was at this time last year.
A shrinking number of laying hens is resulting in the sharp decline in output — and avian flu is being blamed for the drop.
New data collected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture shows in April, Wisconsin produced 91.7 million eggs. That’s down 57% from April 2025. Additionally, the average number of egg layers in April 2026 was 3.69 million, a decrease from about 8.3 million birds in April 2025.
Nancy Kellner said her son’s organic family farm, Kellner Back Acre Garden in Denmark, is starting to recover after a shortage of birds last year.
“Even though we had them on order, we’re not a big enough farm, so they would take and they would give them to other people,” Kellner said.
She said production at the large commercial egg farms has been hit harder by the avian flu. Fortunately, this family farm now has a comfortable number of egg layers.
“We’re keeping up. We’re producing and keeping up,” Kellner said.
While quantity isn’t a huge issue for this farm, the family is worried about market prices. Despite low statewide egg production, eggs remain cheap in grocery stores. According to the USDA, a dozen large eggs currently sells wholesale for 24 cents. A year ago, it was $2.71 a dozen.
Kellner is concerned these lower prices will undercut the cost to produce the eggs. Right now, the farm is close to breaking even, but more expensive fuel and egg cartons have contributed to the problem.
“Everything went up,” Kellner said. “The organic feed price kind of went up. The egg price should be up, and we can’t figure out why it’s so down.”
Because of this, Kellner feels like the farm is going through eggs faster for less money.
As for low statewide production, it takes time for farms to recover. Kellner said farms have to order birds about two years in advance, then wait for hens to start laying. Until then, she hopes to see production costs fall as soon as the industry climbs back up.
