Erica Gottshalk holds a pair of newborn chicks as she gathers them for a customer at Orchard Ridge Farm in Gorham on Thursday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

GORHAM — With egg prices and avian flu worries on the rise, Orchard Ridge Farm can hardly hold onto chicks for more than a day before running out.

The farm operates year-round. In the summer, it runs largely as an orchard, said Erica Gottshalk, who owns Orchard Ridge Farm with her mother, Mary Walker. In the colder months, they sell baby chicks and pullets, typically moving a few dozen birds each month, she said.

But this year?

“Running my numbers, I am up 1,000% year-to-date for sales versus this time last year,” Gottshalk said on a Wednesday phone call.

Orchard Ridge sold 69 chicks in February and March of 2024 — in line with figures Gottshalk has seen since buying the farm in 2021, she said. As of Wednesday afternoon, this season’s count was already at 809 chicks sold.

Across Maine, and much of the country, a rise in egg prices and heightened anxieties — over avian flu, price stability, trade — appear to have fueled a similar increase in demand for backyard chicks. Chick sellers of all sizes, from backyard farmers to national chains, are reporting increased sales; some are struggling to keep up with demand as illness threatens the national supply of chicks.

Egg supply anxiety has even extended to the border. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials say they’ve been catching more people trying to bring eggs in across the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, and egg seizures are even outpacing interceptions of fentanyl at the border.

Ed Cherrier of Campbell’s Ace Hardware in Winslow is handed a container of Rhode Island Red chicks by store assistant manager Lisa Cranford before the chicks were placed inside a brooder for warmth, food and water on Thursday. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

At the Hennery, a poultry farm in Hope that sells chicks and fresh eggs, demand is up for eggs (for both hatching and eating) as well as hatched chicks, said owner Beth Gindel. She’s kept an egg waiting list for most of this season.

“I’ve got people that are repeat customers coming back for more. Other customers that have reached out are looking to expand their flock for various reasons,” Gindel said. “I am seeing several callers wanting to start a flock as well because of the egg prices, I’m sure.”

Meg McCormick, owner of McChicks Hatchery, described this season’s demand as “higher and more chaotic this year than previous years.”

“I do feel that there are more backyard farmers in both urban and rural areas who want to become more self-sustainable with how unsettled the world is currently,” she said in an email.

Larger retailers, including the national Tractor Supply Co. and Maine-based Paris Farmer’s Union, are reporting similar demand based on preliminary sales figures.

“There’s definitely an uptick in orders,” said Brian Stevens, operations manager at Paris Farmer’s Union. But he said the final numbers would not be available until April. “The ingredients are there for a good year.”

Mary Walker gathers chicks to bring to the store at Orchard Ridge Farm on Thursday. She puts some chicks in the store to let customers know they are available and she says kids visiting the store enjoy seeing them. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

Stevens said there are likely several reasons behind this year’s uptick.

“I think egg prices are part of it. I think there’s more people getting into backyard farming. And I do think that every few years, two or three years, people do replenish their land flock,” he said.

Tractor Supply is also seeing “a high demand for poultry” this season, though that company only recently began taking orders for the year, spokesperson Karen Callahan said in a written statement.

“Last year, Tractor Supply sold more than 10 million live birds, and we expect to sell more this year,” Callahan said.

FLOCKING TO CHICKENS

Orchard Ridge’s customers this season have been a healthy mix of experienced coop-keepers looking to expand their existing flocks, people who cared for chickens years ago but are starting again from scratch and total newcomers, she said.

“It seems potentially tied with eggs, and the avian flu and potentially some insecurity about the economy,” Gottshalk said.

Last week, an order of 250 chicks sold out within 24 hours, Gottshalk said. A handful of customers waited outside the gate before the store even opened for the day, to make sure they got the birds.

A new batch of ISA browns went on sale Wednesday, and while the relatively basic-looking birds don’t attract the same attention as more exotic breeds, at least one woman waited in her car for the farm store to open at 8 a.m. Thursday morning. Though she declined to stop for an interview, she said her son called the night before to make sure the birds were still available.

Charles Brown, of Windham, carries a box of newborn chicks he purchased at Orchard Ridge Farm on Thursday. Shawn Patrick Ouellette/Portland Press Herald

Windham resident Charles Brown stopped by for the second time in as many days on Thursday morning, about 20 minutes after opening.

He left with a cardboard carton’s worth of chicks destined for his brother, who built a coop this year but has struggled to find chicks still available, he said.

“Everyone’s having a hard time getting them right now, because they’re so popular. Honestly, I think it’s to do with probably the bird flu thing everyone’s talking about and obviously, the egg prices skyrocketing,” Brown said. “People are probably trying to do their own thing.”

Rachel White, sustainable agriculture and livestock educator at the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, said she started getting inquiries in January from new farmers asking where to source chickens.

“I don’t know if that’s related to market egg prices, but I’m willing to bet it is,” she said on a call in late February, as the chick season was still beginning. “It’s really hard to gauge actual metrics for the reason of purchasing chicks or chickens versus buying eggs.”

Backyard flocks can be fulfilling in many ways, White said, but she said “it’s not entirely worth it” for households looking for an easy and cheap source of farm-fresh eggs.

The upfront costs — a coop, feed, heating lamps and more — can add up quickly, and hens lay eggs seasonally, so future trips to the grocery are still on the table, she said.

“Chickens are relatively easy to get into, but there are some nuances,” she said. “If anyone’s actually trying to compensate (for grocery prices), they will be sorely disappointed.”

Rhode Island Red chicks stay warm inside a brooder at Campbell’s Ace Hardware in Winslow. Rich Abrahamson/Morning Sentinel

It’s a lesson Smithfield resident Kimmy Hunt, 59, learned when she started keeping hens three seasons ago. What started as a handful of chickens intended to be a source of eggs has transformed into a small flock of free range birds, including one who moved indoors after being nearly killed by an owl, she said.

“We thought it’d be fun to have chickens to give eggs. And then, then we started naming them — and that’s a problem,” Hunt said. “I didn’t know I would become so attached to chickens. We basically got them for eggs, and they have, like, changed our lives.”

Hunt said buying chickens mostly for their eggs is a “mistake,” and she worries that an increase in inexperienced keepers could lead ultimately to “chickens being dropped off on the side of the road,” an anxiety echoed by some suppliers.

“They have their own personalities. And they make bonds,” Hunt said. “If they lay eggs, they do. If they don’t, they don’t.”