The bird flu outbreak that started in 2022 is the main reason egg prices are up so much. Anytime the virus is found on a poultry farm, the entire flock is slaughtered to help limit the virus' spread. And with massive egg farms routinely housing more than 1 million chickens, just a few infections can cause a supply crunch.

Why are egg prices so high? A strain of bird flu, H5N1, has raged through coops across the U.S. It originally emerged among poultry flocks and wild birds in Europe in the fall of

The average price of a dozen large, grade-A eggs was $4.15 in December, up from $3.65 in November, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Egg prices were also up more than 36% year-over-year in December, according to the Consumer Price Index.