Hartland, N.Y. (WBEN) - Soaring egg prices are causing many Western New Yorkers to shop local. The high prices are the result of bird flu hitting poultry farms across the country, killing millions of birds.
Many people are going straight to the farm to get their eggs.
Shelby Mandaville-Wheeler has a small farm in Hartland in Niagara County.
She has a couple of dozen chickens, along with turkeys, ducks and guinea hens.
In just the last couple of weeks, she has noticed a lot more people asking to buy eggs from her. She is now selling out every week.
"I have a lot of regular customers; the same people buying who have been buying for several years. But in just the last several weeks a lot of new people have asked to buy eggs," she told WBEN.
With local stores selling eggs for $7 and higher, Mandaville-Wheeler is only charging half of that, as she is looking to supplement feed costs.
She said thankfully, bird flu has not affected her. She hasn't lost any birds, but if one tests positive for it, the whole flock has to be destroyed.
She has taken some precautions to keep her chickens healthy.
"When this was first discovered, I had locked my birds inside the coop for a couple of months. But when I realized it was not going to be a quick thing, I built a fence for them and put a net canopy above them, so that wild birds couldn't get in and my birds couldn't get out. It's mostly a matter of cleaning their feed pans and water pans really well," she added.
Shelby can't say enough about the quality of farm eggs.
"What you put into a chicken is what's going to come out of a chicken. I get my feed from a local mill, so the ingredients are sources locally. And freshness is a big deal. Eggs in the store can be months old. But if you're buying my eggs, they are all within the last week."
