New Colorado Cage Free Rules - Help me make sense of it?

So come January 2025, nearly all the eggs in Colorado disappeared from the shelves. It seems there is only one brand and two sizes to choose from, despite preparations and phases for this starting in 2020.

So I get the cage free thing.
BUT apparently that eliminated the organic brands? (I.e vital farms, happy eggs, and other store brand organic).


Someone school me on this please? It seems to me we lost choice, wasted precious food product, eliminatedcompetition.

Help!

Eggs are a seasonal product.

Unless one is using massive climate control, egg production drops or stops from about Christmas to Easter (the timing of the festivals are in part based on egg production) in the northern hemisphere.

How they get around this in canada, and I suspect most other places, is to store the eggs.  In the grocery store here, a mass "manufactured " egg can be upto a year old before it gets to the grocery store.

Add to that the pressures of bird flu, feed supply issues, etc... the news here has been warning of the upcoming egg shortage for weeks.  I wouldn't doubt it would be worse somewhere without a marketing bord controlling supply and price.

Global issues have a huge impact on what we see in the grocery store.  

The cure,  be kind to your local farmer.

The rules and regulations about egg production are very different between the US and Europe. I found This reference explaining some of the different labels. Interestingly their conclusion of the 'best' was the same as r ransons: Local eggs direct from the farmer:

Wood himself opens our eyes to what that entails. “Our hens are free range and eat lots of veggie scraps which also helps with compost and insect control at the farm,” he says. “We do not have specific labels on our eggs since they are picked up direct from us through our veggie box program."

Here the seasonal nature of egg laying melds nicely with the summer influx of visitors, so the extra eggs in summer are easily used in feeding them.

I don't know anything useful about Colorado law, but here in Minnesota, the grocery stores have a sign up apologizing for the national egg shortage, so maybe at least some of what you're seeing isn't related to your new local rules?

Grocery store egg options have a variety of sources. I am coming from an USA perspective on our labeling.

Conventional Eggs tend to come from conventional caged in large building hens.

Cage Free Eggs means that the hens are not limited to a small cage but they can be limited to a building. This essentially means they can walk much more.

Organic Eggs come from cage free hens who have access to some form or plot of outdoor space and follow other organic requirements for the label.

I don't interpret that these new rules will have a huge widespread effect on the market as conventional chicken houses will be driven to retrofit to the cage free requirements if they wish to keep competitive. I think other factors going on at the sametime just create a frenzy of worry. Like an impending snowstorm, some people most likely panic bought a bunch of eggs and it ripples.

I don't eat eggs, but they are a large part of what I feed to my dog in her homemade food. After hearing the above, all I can say is that I am so glad that one of my neighbors who lives around the corner, started selling their eggs about 3 weeks ago.  In zone 7b. I guess the chickens are laying plenty in this zone? I am confused about it all. We had some snow that is actually hanging around longer than I thought it would, but they are still selling eggs. The people don't wash them, and judging by the bits of debris on the various eggs, they look very fresh. In what zone do the chicken ladies start slowing their laying way down in winter?

Thank you all. I would like to keep learning about this subject. It just boggles my mind how there was an overnight change.

Another thing that might be affecting our egg supply locally is bird flu. Though I have not researched it yet to see the extent of it.