100,000 egg-laying hens die in massive farm fire in Connecticut, officials say

About 100,000 egg-laying hens were killed in a large poultry farm fire in Connecticut, officials say.

A chicken house at Hillandale Farms in Bozrah, a rural southeastern town, caught fire on Saturday, Jan. 28, according to a statement from Hillandale Farms.

Fire crews from surrounding towns descended on the farm and worked to control the blaze, according to the Lebanon Fire Department.

The chicken house was a “massive” structure roughly the size of a football field, the department said.

The structure was eventually destroyed in the fire, though no other buildings were damaged and no employees were injured, the farm said.

State officials “will be working with Hillandale Farms to confirm the extent of damage, which we understand to be approximately 100,000 egg-laying hens,” a spokesperson for the Connecticut Department of Agriculture told McClatchy News.

“There are more than 373 million egg-laying hens in the United States,” the spokesperson added. “The anticipated potential impact on egg prices due to this incident is minimal to none at this time.”

The incident remains under investigation and farm employees are working with both local and state officials to determine what caused the fire, Hillandale Farms said.

Hillandale Farms raises more than 20 million chickens and is among the top egg producers in the nation, according to its website.

A poultry farm fire killed 250,000 chickens in Pennsylvania in December, according to WGAL, and another estimated 200,000 died in a Minnesota farm fire in May, according to KDUZ.

But far more deadly than fires is the avian flu, which killed more than 47 million chickens and turkeys in 2022, according to Reuters.

This story was originally published February 1, 2023 at 1:13 PM with the headline "100,000 egg-laying hens die in massive farm fire in Connecticut, officials say."