The price of eggs is rising once again as the ongoing bird flu epidemic coincides with the holiday baking season.

While prices are climbing, they’re still far from the peak they reached nearly two years ago. Meanwhile, the American Egg Board says egg shortages at grocery stores have been isolated and temporary, thus far.

However, a tour of eight Turlock grocery stores Friday afternoon showed that egg stocks are, indeed, running low.

“You’re going to be seeing some empty shelves,” said Marco Van Oostende, assistant manager at Village Fresh Market on Canal Street. “It’s kind of crazy.”

Village Fresh Market rolled back its prices in an effort to help the consumer. 

“We’re pretty much selling them at cost,” said Van Oostende, who has nearly 30 years in the grocery business. “We’ve cut into our margins to keep the cost somewhat reasonable. We’re barely making any money on eggs.”

Of the eight grocery stores surveyed by the Turlock Journal — Village Fresh Market, Cost Less, Costco, Food Maxx, Raley’s, Safeway, Save Mart, Walmart — only Costco was totally out of eggs Friday afternoon, while Food Maxx seemed to have the most in stock. All other stores had eggs, but their selections were thin, with some varieties sold out. 

Three stores — Costco, Raley’s and Save Mart — had signs posted that alerted customers that the store reserves the right to limit the amount sold to a particular customer. In other words: no egg hoarding.

“I do have some eggs out there, but right now we’re only getting about half our usual shipment,” said Cost Less store manager Oscar Avila, who plans to retire next week after 48 years in the business. “But we do have some eggs out on the shelves right now.”

Anisa Crivelli, a kindergarten teacher at Sacred Heart School in Turlock, said she’s noticed the one-per-customer signs while shopping, but hasn’t paid too much attention to the prices.

“Is it terrible that I don’t really check the prices when I guy eggs?” Crivelli said. “We don’t go through eggs all that fast, and we kind of bake in spurts. But I have heard others talking about the price of eggs, and that it’s really jumped in the last couple of weeks.”

Amanda Shelton, the office manager at SHS, has six back-yard chickens at her home now far from downtown.

“My chickens aren’t laying as often,” said Shelton. “Three of them should lay an egg each day. The other three are a special breed and only lay just a few per week. However, I’ve only been getting one or two eggs a week between all six chickens. We were thinking — hoping, really — that it was the feed. But no matter what we’re feeding them, that’s the average right now.”

On Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in response to the bird flu epidemic.

The declaration comes as bird flu — Avian influenza A (H5N1) — has been detected in dairy cattle on farms in California. The virus has spread throughout 16 states among dairy cows, following its first confirmed detection in Texas and Kansas in March.

“This proclamation is a targeted action to ensure government agencies have the resources and flexibility they need to respond quickly to this outbreak,” Newsom said in a prepared statement. “Building on California’s testing and monitoring system — the largest in the nation — we are committed to further protecting public health, supporting our agriculture industry, and ensuring that Californians have access to accurate, up-to-date information.”

Two months ago, neighboring Merced County reported its first human H5N1 avian flu case, which involved a person who had direct exposure to sick cattle on a dairy farm.

Newsom stressed that the risk to the public remains low.