The chicken coop of Bethel farmer Tim Meyers is kind of the chicken dreamhouse — three levels, plushy straw, and panoramic views of the tundra.
Meyers and his wife Lisa run Meyers Farm in Bethel, the only large-scale vegetable farm on the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta. And they’ve kept chickens for a long time. Outside of Bethel’s two grocery stores, they’re the only other commercial egg seller, albeit on a much smaller scale.
“We’ve always had them,” said Meyers. “For the last 45, 50 years. We think about not having them and I don’t even want to try that. I don’t want to live without the eggs”
Eggs. Meyers might as well have said "gold." Watching him collect the afternoon’s lays, it felt a little like watching a jeweler handle diamonds or a bank teller count money.
The Y-K Delta, along with the rest of the United States, is experiencing an egg shortage. It's due to an outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), also known as bird flu. HPIA is passed between infected birds and rarely affects humans. Since October 2024, the virus has killed more than 20 million egg-laying chickens and has had impacts throughout the supply chain. With eggs in short supply, supermarket prices have swelled.
Rates of bird flu have had surges and dips since its outbreak in the U.S. in 2022. Two years ago, eggs became hard to find on Y-K Delta shelves after a spike in cases. Around the holidays, eggs were also in short supply, briefly endangering a local cookie fundraiser.
This week, Bethel grocery stores have again enforced a two carton limit per customer. That is, when the shelves are stocked.
“Egg is a basic protein and typically less costly than other proteins,” said Walter Pickett, general manager for the Alaska Commercial Company. “It is a critical item for many households. So I would say that in response to this repeat event, what we have done to try to help mitigate it is we have looked at alternate sources.”
Pickett said that this shortage is very similar to the ones the grocer has experienced in the past. When egg crises hit, Pickett said that the company looks to new suppliers to fill the demand. Buyers might start seeing new brands of eggs on the shelves.
“We're also seeing a lot of pressure from communities outside of Bethel, where they're trying to procure large quantities of eggs from us and we just don't have the supply right now,” Pickett said.
Newly-hatched chickens can begin to lay eggs after 16 weeks. Pickett said that, with that cycle in mind, he hopes the situation becomes regulated by the Easter holiday — kind of a big day for eggs.
The eggs on grocery shelves in Bethel aren’t sourced from Alaska; no wholesale egg suppliers exist in the state. The Alaska Commercial Company’s main supplier is in Centralia, Washington, which means its eggs, like most rural Alaskan produce and goods, travel from over 1,000 miles away.
But what about the chickens of the Y-K Delta?
“I sell these eggs and stuff and I think I cover my cost, and that’s fine by me,” said Meyers.
The Meyers Farm chicken operation is semi-retired.
“I’m not trying to get rich selling eggs,” Meyers said. “I’m glad I got this to do.”
Meyers said that he used to keep 75 chickens at a time, but now he’s got a flock of 25. And that’s partly because outside of egg shortages, his eggs aren’t in high demand. Meyers said that it’s just easier for people to go to the store. Buying eggs online from the farm is an extra step in the grocery equation.
This week, with eggs in short supply in the Y-K Delta, Meyers has gotten more orders than usual, and he can only fill a few of them. In the winter, his coop has been laying about eight eggs total per day. But in rural Alaska, with a small flock, Meyers said he’s not too concerned about the outbreak of bird flu.
“You know, I got 25 chickens,” Meyers said. “The wife says you gotta do something. But I don’t know how you can keep the little tiny birds out, I don’t know where it’s coming from. I mean, if it’s the geese, well we get geese here in the fall, they land here all the time. But in the spring they don’t, so I’m not worried about them in the spring and summer. I don’t know, what am I gonna do?”
Migratory waterfowl are the main carriers of the disease, which means the Y-K Delta is likely at a higher risk during the summer months. The last reported case of avian influenza on the Y-K Delta was in 2023 from a single glaucous gull. Human cases of bird flu are rare and there have been no reported human infections in Alaska.
Meyers said that the recent surge in bird flu cases has impacted the supply of new birds, which are high in demand.
“I can’t get chickens now,” Meyers said. “Everybody’s buying birds.”
While the imported eggs are in short supply, Bethel’s resident chickens are doing pretty alright; there just aren’t very many of them around. Meyers said that it invites a model of thinking that’s defined his work as the only commercial vegetable farm in the region.
“Well, think of the produce too. I mean, the potatoes, and carrots, and cabbage, and all that stuff growing here,” Meyers said. “It tastes better. It’s cold here, it’s hard to get stuff to grow, you get it to grow and what a great source of food.”
Local eggs and vegetables aren’t currently a staple of the Y-K Delta food system, a chain that’s dependent on aviation and egg production out of state as much as it is hunted moose and foraged berries.
But according to Meyers, it’s certainly possible — his chickens don’t mind the cold.
