As egg prices have gone up, some Florida residents are crowing about raising their own chickens.
Lacy Spencer, 26, a freelance fitness instructor in Trenton, made the leap last June when she chose to raise two chicks for the first time.
She said the biggest reasons for doing it were self-sustainability and the increase in egg prices.
“It was really just wanting to rein in the grocery budget,” she said.
Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), more commonly known as the bird flu, had outbreaks in December 2024 that caused the death of 13.2 million birds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The USDA also called for culling more than 100 million chickens since 2022 to contain outbreaks, per agency policy.
Average egg prices rose 36.8% between December 2023 and December 2024, according to the Consumer Price Index, and it increased another 15% between December 2024 and January.
Higher prices have sent consumers in search of locally produced eggs and inspired do-it-yourself chicken farmers among local residents.
Spencer now owns an Easter egger hen and rooster, two Rhode Island Reds and an Australorp hen. She said she plans on hatching some of her own eggs this spring to grow her flock.
“They're just really gentle creatures,” she said. “You know, I think of them also as my pets.”
Every city has rules for how many chickens an individual can own depending on where they live. In Gainesville, single-family residences in RSF-1 through 4, RC, U1 and U2 districts can own up to 10 hens.
As egg prices increase, some people are opting for fresh eggs from local chicken owners instead of grocery store eggs.
Gainesville resident Tonneika Buchanan, 40, decided to look for fresh eggs when the price of grocery store eggs increased too much for her mother to buy the 60 count eggs she usually bought.
Buchanan bought 93 eggs for her household and her mother’s household for $31 from a Gainesville local who owns chickens.
She said fresh eggs taste better than store bought eggs, and she plans to continue buying fresh eggs in the future.
“You can see the difference in even like the yolk of it,” Buchanan said.
Chicken farmers like 43-year-old Charley Harrold, the head farmer of Charley’s Chicks in Jacksonville, said his farm has experienced a higher demand for eggs and chickens in the last two months than before.
“The pressure is now on us as a local farm to provide eggs to our communities,” he said.
Harrold said the farm completely sold out of egg laying hens in the past two months. Charley’s Chicks sold more than 1,000 chicks on a recent Saturday, which is more than double the typical 400 the farm would regularly sell on the same day of the week.
“It's everything we can to keep up with just having day-old chicks available,” he said.
Harrold said he thinks the uncertainty of rising egg prices is a reason more people are investing in raising their own chickens.
“It's pushing folks that are willing to become more self-sufficient,” Harrold said. “It's pushing them to a place of taking the plunge.”
Julie Deeghan, 40, of High Springs, bought 12 hens a year and a half ago because of rising egg prices, and she now owns roughly 50 hens and six roosters. They’re like pets to her, she said, and they each have a name.
Deeghan began selling eggs when there were too many for her family to eat, but roughly two months ago the demand for her eggs increased greatly.
She now has a waiting list for people who want her eggs. Her hens lay seven to 10 dozen a week.
Deeghan said she hasn’t increased the price of her eggs because of the demand as her cost of production has remained the same.
“Being from Florida, I know price gouging,” she said. “That’s awful. Why would I do that?”
Williston resident Karina Fundora, 23, started Our Hen Garden, a business selling hatching eggs and day-old chicks, a year and a half ago.
She said she had to start a waiting list for customers this past December because of the growing demand for hatching eggs and chicks.
“It's been pretty crazy because I never really took this as like an actual business opportunity,” Fundora said. “Because what I specialize in is taxes and credit repair, so this is like completely out of my ball field, but I really, truly enjoy the process.”
People want to know where their food is coming from, Fundora said, and people can notice the difference between a store-bought egg and the tasty orange yolk of a fresh egg.
“I'm excited to see, I guess, for farmers to kind of take more control of the playing field,” she said.
Though the increase in egg prices benefits local farmers whose prices remain less expensive, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t concerned about the possibility of their flocks catching the virus.
The co-founder of Eggsotics, Kevin Folta, 58, of Archer, is concerned about the safety of the chicken, ducks, turkeys and geese his farm produces.
He said that small producers in Florida are vulnerable because the state is on the migratory flight path of birds that might carry the virus.
“We're thinking with a nine-month vision,” Folta said, “and the problem is if we had one bird get sick with avian influenza, the entire flock of probably close to 1,000 birds would have to be culled.”
A precaution he’s taking is hiding the birds’ food and water so wild birds can’t spread the bird flu through contaminating them.
People need to recognize avian influenza is a real thing, Folta said, and it’s important to avoid touching dead birds.
The owner of Los Pollitos Family Farm, Veronica Deza, 37, of Chiefland, wasn’t surprised when the demand for her farm’s eggs and chicks increased.
She said every time there’s an egg shortage, more people than usual call about buying eggs and chicks.
“I think it's positive in a way that it's making more people rely less on the big stores,” Deza said.
She said raising chickens is a good idea because you can control the quality of your eggs and the health of your chickens rather than trusting in the quality of eggs you find in the grocery store.
“I think this is like a wakeup call for a lot of people that they need to become more sustainable on their own,” Deza said.
Copyright 2025 WUFT 89.1
