On January 12, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released the Consumer Price Index for the month of December. The data showed that inflation had ticked down 0.1 percent to an annual rate of 6.5 percent. At the same time, the food index rose 0.3 percent bringing the year over year total to 10.4 percent.

The single biggest contributor to the increase in the food index was the soaring cost of eggs. According to the BLS data, egg prices rose 11.1 percent from the previous month and a whopping 59.9 percent year over year.

Anyone who has shopped in a supermarket lately knows the price of eggs has soared.

Data from the St. Louis Federal Reserve showed that the average price of a dozen large, Grade A eggs in the U.S. cost $4.25 in December, up from 1.79 a year earlier.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture attributes the current egg shortage to a historic breakout of the "highly pathogenic Avian influenza," which has killed millions of chickens.

According to a rash of posts making the rounds on social media, something more sinister might be to blame for the lack of supply. Last week, a young man, possibly a farmer, claimed in a Facebook post:  "Ok so something really weird is going on, I have called multiple farms that sell chickens and they are all telling me that their chickens have stopped laying eggs and therefore they do not have any for sale. I looked into it a little further and apparently they are putting something in the feed to stop them from being able to lay eggs! If you have chickens and are having the same thing happen try to start feeding them a rice and pinto bean mix because it seems anything made as feed is being tainted with something that is causing this!"

In the Twitter post below, a woman who has raised chickens for over 30 years said she has never gone without eggs. But from Halloween until a week ago, her chickens produced just a single egg. After switching from chicken feed to goat feed, they began to lay eggs again.

Let’s hope this isn’t true. But anything is possible these days. pic.twitter.com/T1pxiW5rw8

— KeriA (@KeriA1776again) January 22, 2023

Another Twitter user said her chickens stopped laying eggs between last summer and last fall. She purchased higher quality feed from a local supplier and they began producing eggs again.

Chicken feed. pic.twitter.com/o9mZU2no3e

— Bane of Existence (@WhySoSerious06) January 15, 2023

In the tweet below, a woman writes: "Manufactured #eggshortage! Feed suppliers have added something to prevent hens from laying eggs. The consensus is Dumor or Producer's Pride are the culprits. These bastards put s*** in the chicken feed to create an egg shortage!"

WARNING: The following tweet contains language that the reader may find offensive

Manufactured #eggshortage!
Feed suppliers have added something to prevent hens from laying eggs.

The consensus is Dumor or Producer's Pride are the culprits.

These bastards put shit in the chicken feed to create an egg shortage! 😡 pic.twitter.com/INuLfOflsu

— Lisa (@LisasSovereign) January 12, 2023

In a TikTok video, a young woman said her hens had stopped laying eggs. One day, because they had a lot of leftovers, they served their chickens table scraps. The next day, they began laying eggs. She blamed it on the commercial feed.

The young man in the clip below echoes the same problem. He asks, "Do you think it's intentional?" And he invites others to share their opinions in the comment section.

Chickens feed contaminated???? pic.twitter.com/lgr1nojTp5

— 🇬🇧Conspiracy Prophet (@Natasha38585763) January 20, 2023

Finally, one woman hits back against what she considers to be a "conspiracy theory." She captions her post, "let's talk about the chicken feed conspiracy."

She tells viewers: "This chicken feed conspiracy has gotten so far out of hand. ... It's completely normal for chicken egg production to drop as they get older. It's also completely normal for chickens to stop laying or lay very little in the winter. It's all natural.

"Was this a particularly lean year for people? Yes. Do I think that the government's putting something in the feed to stop chickens from laying eggs? No.

"Do I think that the people that make the chicken feed might be cutting a few extra corners that results in the chickens not getting the same nutrients that they used to? Yeah, that's probably a pretty good bet.

"But, we haven't changed a single thing about our chickens' diet, have changed nothing else about their lifestyle, and they started laying at the first of the year just like we expected. We're not averaging like three to five eggs a day. ...

"So everyone just needs to cool their jets. Give your chickens extra protein in the winter. Understand this is a normal process and take everything you see on TikTok with just a grain of salt.

let's talk about the chicken feed conspiracy 🐔 #chickenfeed #raisingchickens #chickenfeedconspiracy #conspiracytheory #backyardflock #chickentips pic.twitter.com/tKHxPzxOrz

— Lonely Pines Farm (@LonelyPinesFarm) January 23, 2023

Whether this is a conspiracy theory or reality, it's getting people talking.

And getting people to talk about it may very well be the first step into figuring out what is actually happening to the chickens in this country.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.