egg shortage chicken keepers feed
© Tik Tok
What exactly is causing the egg shortage? Many people are reporting that there are issues with the commercial chicken feed, speculating that it has even prevented their hens from laying eggs.

The rising egg prices in America have affected millions of homes. The cost of eggs in California has risen 550% in the last month, going from roughly $1.34 a dozen to $7.37. The state blamed it on an outbreak of bird flu, but others are not so convinced. In fact, several people have come out to say that their chickens did not produce eggs for months - until they changed their feed.

One man (@urbanchickenfarmer) uploaded a video on TikTok and theorized that something must be wrong with the feed. "Something is wrong with the chicken food we're buying, seriously," he said. "My chickens have not laid an egg since July, and nothing's changed. Then I was thinking, maybe it's because my chickens getting older, or maybe it's a bad winter. But, according to a lot of people on TikTok, they're having the same exact problem. And people are saying once they switched the food, their chickens are starting to lay again."

He continued, "So I'm gonna switch their food, and we'll see. Maybe something's wrong with the food, and was it intentional?"

The TikToker recently uploaded an update after switching his feed, explaining that one of his chickens has started "laying like crazy," but the rest of them haven't yet. However, he believes that they're doing okay and "things are improving."

@thehotmesshomestead was going through the same problem, and she was determined to find answers. "Is the commercial feed the reason so many people's chickens have not been laying at all?" she asked. "This is a question that I am asking myself, and I have seen all over TikTok, Facebook, everywhere." She then talks about the many posts on social media of chicken owners discussing how they ditched the commercial feed (specifically the brand known as "Producer's Pride") in order to get eggs.

@twosailorspotrero responded to the video above on January 14. "So, my chickens have not laid since, I wanna say, July 22. And I just switched their feed a week ago, and for the first time since July last year, I got eggs. It is the feed. It is definitely the feed," she repeated.

A woman from the Twitter clip below seemed to echo these findings by explaining how she got eggs after making the switch to goat feed. "I have to say, there's something to this," she said. "If I have to put my little tin foil hat on. It's kinda weird."

The government is telling us that the egg shortage is due to avian influenza - is it possible it's the chicken feed instead?