Bird flu really isn't messing around this year.

The whole country has had it's share of bird flu, that's why eggs are going up in price. In Iowa, the state's first human case of bird flu was diagnosed in December 2024, and multiple flocks in the state have been impacted.

In a sad story playing out in Illinois, the Kakadoodle Farm in Matteson was hit really hard by the bird flu. So much so that it took out their flock of nearly 3,000 hens.

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It started last week, when owners MariKate and Marty Thomas found 30 of their hens dead without symptoms. They thought it was the cold temperatures until the next day, when the number of deaths tripled.

They told NBC Chicago that they then talked to their veterinarian who called in the USDA, who confirmed that the flock was dying from bird flu. The officials think that bird flu was spread by wild birds getting into the chicken feed.

At that point, only about 500 hens were left. Marty said he was aware of the uptick in bird flu cases but didn't think it would hit their farm:

Our birds are pasture raised, so they live out in the environment, and this is a natural consequence of that. People usually don’t lose everything, but when they’re out in the natural world, it’s kind of the environmental tax that you pay.

Kakadoodle Farm is an online farmer's market that's been in operation since 2020. It delivers organic, chemical-free produce to houses in the area. Their flock produced about 2,000 eggs a week for the online market.

Kakadoodle is now under a 150-day quarantine and they can start selling again in June.

Marty said that instead of asking "why me?", they're choosing to ask "what's next?"

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