The Cost of Eggs Keeps Rising and People Want To Know When the Prices Will Go Down Again

You might never have thought that the cost of eggs would be a selling point during an election, but it was a topic that came up often during the 2024 presidential election. Now, people want to know why egg prices are so high and why the cost continues to skyrocket to previously unheard of numbers for a dozen eggs.

Some grocery stores have even set limits on the number of dozens of eggs you can buy at one time, despite the cost. This is because, as the cost raises and concerns of an egg shortage ramp up, there is a fear that grocery stores might even run out of eggs and that, in addition to egg prices being so high, eggs themselves will be harder and harder to find due to inflation.

If you regularly purchase eggs, or you bake, or you haven't been living under a rock, then you might have noticed the cost of a dozen eggs rising from less than $2 to well over $5 in some places. According to CBS News, this has to do with the bird flu, also known as H5N1 or avian influenza (HPAI). The outlet reported that the disease killed millions of hens that lay eggs in just the month of December in 2024.

Because of the death of birds in the United States, shoppers looking to purchase eggs have been victims to severe and swift inflation. And if H5N1 continues to ravage hens across the country, chances are, the cost of eggs will continue to rise as a result of the supply and demand.

Although egg prices are higher than ever, at least as most people remember them to be, chickens or chicken breasts and thighs, along with other poultry parts, remain at the same cost they have been. Or, more or less, anyway. That's because the bird flu has killed chickens that lay eggs, but not so much the chickens that are used for their meat rather than their habitual laying of eggs.

Users on social media have shared videos of grocery stores or membership warehouse stores with empty refrigerators where dozens of eggs once were. That's because people appear to be buying more eggs than they need right now out of fear that soon, eggs will be harder to come by, regardless of the rising cost.

How these people are storing those dozens and dozens of eggs is unclear. However, you can freeze eggs to use later. According to HGTV, you can safely freeze chicken eggs for up to one year. But freezing whole eggs in their shells can result in an expansion of the egg yolk and egg white inside and a cracked or even completely broken shell on the outside.

Instead, it is recommended that you beat them gently and then transfer them to freezer-safe containers to be frozen. Egg whites can be frozen just as easily, but yolks on their own can get gelatinous after being frozen. To avoid this, HGTV advises that you mix one-eighth of a teaspoon of salt for every one-fourth cup of yolk before freezing.