Easter egg sales boost can be tricky for egg farmers

California’s the fifth-largest egg producer in the United States. Egg farmers here get a big boost from the Easter holiday. But that the jump in sales can be tricky to manage.

Third-generation egg farmer Ryan Armstrong says Easter’s almost always a profitable season.

"Demand about doubles, everybody kind of builds up for it," he says.

But then comes the week after Easter when, "Everybody’s full," says Armstrong.

After people decorate their hard-boiled eggs, dozens remain in the fridge. Armstrong says that makes Easter tougher to plan for than other big food holidays.

"Thanksgiving and Christmas are like mountains where we build up to them and slowly go down," he says. "But Easter’s like a cliff afterwards."

Or ... a fallen souffle.

The Armstrong Egg Farm has been around since the 1940s. The family’s learned to navigate the post-Easter plunge in demand by switching the feed of about half its flock.

That’ll get 25,000 chickens to molt and take a post-holiday break from laying eggs.