From the Fields - Frank Hilliker

By Frank Hilliker, San Diego County egg farmer

I am in the process of keeping the farm locked down because avian influenza has raised its ugly head in California. It’s in the cows, and there’s been egg farms down with avian influenza all over the Central Valley. I’m hoping it doesn’t make it over the mountain down south. I’m making sure there’s no unnecessary visitors, no unnecessary employees with the chickens. We’re constantly cleaning and disinfecting. It’s basically the same stuff we’ve always been doing.

We have an egg store on the farm. We also do farmers markets, and we do direct delivery to stores and restaurants. Because of bird flu, there’s been so many birds that have been killed. Egg prices are a little higher. We’re a little busier. The Costco in the area keeps running out of eggs, so we get a few more customers coming to the farm to buy eggs. But once (the stores) fill back up, people go back to their habits. I figure if I get 20 people to come here for the first time and one of those 20 becomes a repeat customer, then it’s good.

With Thanksgiving and Christmas, this is the baking time of year. People are using more eggs. It’s colder, so they’re eating more hot breakfasts. This is the time of year when egg farmers can make their money. We try to produce more eggs, but it doesn’t always work out, unfortunately. I’ve got a flock that we’re going to depopulate by the end of November because they’re almost 90 weeks old and ready to go. There’ll be birds in (to replace them) by the middle of December. They’ll start laying eggs by Christmas.

Feed prices fluctuate a little bit, but they always fluctuate. A couple years ago, they were really high, and everything was super shaky, but they’ve gotten a little bit better. Right now, things are OK on the supply-chain side. We’re getting our feed OK.