🥚 Stat of the Day: The US egg supply is similar to a headbanging heavy metal fan – down with the sickness. Bird flu killed 17.2 million hens in November and December alone, a deficit that experts say will take six to nine months to replace.

In the meantime, this supply shortage is causing prices to rise like a sleepy dog mom who just heard vomiting noises. A dozen eggs cost an average of $4.33 at the end of December, up ~25% from early November, according to Nielsen IQ data. That’s on top of the 37.5% year-over-year rise in egg prices in November.

• The wholesale price for a carton of large eggs in New York sat at $6.06/ dozen for the week ending January 10, while the Midwest saw prices of ~$5.75 and California as high as $8.97. In many cases, eggs are missing from grocery shelves altogether.

🤔 Did You Know? The 1982 horror flick Poltergeist used real human skeletons as props in its climactic scene because it was cheaper than making fake skeletons out of rubber.

📰 Worth a Read: When everything in the universe changed → (Knowable Magazine)