eggs – Enviro Updates

Sonoma County farmers confront new avian flu wave

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The first tastes of wintry weather have brought an ominous feeling back to Sonoma County’s poultry producers. At least three farms have tested positive for Highly Pathogenic Avian Flu, or HPAI, in the past three weeks — early echoes of the 2023-24 winter outbreak that devastated the local industry.

“If the wind changes, as it did a couple days ago, we’re nervous,” said Mike Weber, who co-owns egg-laying operations Sunrise Farms and Weber Family Farms in Petaluma. “We’re on pins and needles until February. It’s simply scary as hell. We don’t get much sleep at night.”

Weber’s farms had been spared the contagion as of Friday — unlike two years ago, when the business lost 550,000 chickens and 3.2 million eggs at two sites.

The three recent Sonoma County cases are the first recorded among California’s commercial producers this winter.

Like human flu, avian influenza consistently spikes in colder months. HPAI spreads along the continent’s migratory flyways, including the Pacific Flyway that blankets the North Bay.

A last, lingering taste of farm eggs

October 17, 2018

Michele Anna Jordan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Although most of us don’t think about it this way, eggs are, for the most part, a seasonal food.

A few breeds continue to lay when there is less daylight and cooler temperatures, but for most hens raised naturally, outside on pasture where they can scratch and peck, egg production slows in fall and winter. The slow-down often begins sometime in September, when many breeds begin to molt. Some flocks lay no eggs at all for weeks and other months; others slow from an egg a day per hen to just a few eggs a week.

This cycle has little if any bearing on the commercial egg business, especially the larger ones. If you get your eggs at a supermarket, they are simply always there. But if you get your eggs from your own backyard flock or from a local farm stand or farmers market, you understand this slowdown has already begun. Some farmers have no eggs at all right now, and others have a fraction of what they had in late spring, when production peaks.

Most farmers markets have eggs year round, but not as many at this time of year. This means you need to reserve them or show up early at your farmers market. Depending on what sort of winter we have, production will begin to increase not long after the first of the year and by spring, you can sleep in on weekends and still snag great eggs at your local farmers market.

Agriculture/Food System, Sustainable Livingchickens, eggs, seasonal agriculture