NORTH AUGUSTA, S.C. (WJBF)- With the crisis of egg prices rising, local farmers are making sure people have access to cheaper eggs that are locally grown.

Walking past the produce section at the grocery store is a bit more difficult with the increase in egg prices and that’s why local farmers are doing their best to sell eggs at a lower cost. 

“So, I’m gonna be perfectly honest with you, I have no idea what the egg prices are in the store because, obviously, we don’t have to go. I think the last time I heard; they were around seven dollars,” CEO of Hope for Hooves Michelle Derrick said.

Hope for Hooves staff tells me it’s not always easy to produce eggs every day.

“We do have an increase in sales, but unfortunately we had a decrease in chickens and so we can’t keep up with the demand anymore,” Derrick said. 

That’s because of health problems experienced by the animals. Despite the decrease in birds the demand for eggs is high. 

“Just last week I gave away, I think, like seven dozen– maybe eight dozen– duck eggs,” Derrick said.

Staff at Hope for Hooves tell us while they are able to produce eggs every day, it’s not always easy. 

“I know for us, we raised them, literally, in the bathtub so that the predators didn’t get to them and so, ‘lot of cleaning up behind ‘em. And then again nutrition, you can’t just throw ‘em any kind of feed – we actually hand-make our own scratch here,” Derrick said.

But if you want a greater quantity, Derrick tells me people should consider duck eggs. 

“Everybody’s into the chickens right now, but honestly, if you want a lot of eggs at one time, the ducks are the way to go,” Derrick said.

And to top it off, the nutritional value speaks for itself. 

“As far as the protein and the fat and the nutritional value than the chicken eggs, you double it with the duck eggs. So, they’re actually better for you, you’re gonna use less of e’em,” Derrick said.