How do egg producers meet Easter demands?

I’m in the grocery store today, watching the stocker replenish the egg case for what was surely the umpteenth time. Made me wonder how egg suppliers met the demand for Easter egg consumption. I mean, I know they can’t exactly squeeze the hens to make them double their output for that month or so before Easter. So what DO they do?
A few creative theories:

Same amount of eggs are produced as always, but they merely shift supply to retail while other egg consumers (I dunno, the people who make frozen breakfasts; vaccine producers, what have you) use less during that period.

OR

They plan for this by a planned increase in the egg-laying hen population. They time it so these hens mature to their egg-laying max right around Easter. After Easter, said hens become dog food.

What’s the real story?

Hens? Hens? I thought the Easter Bunny laid the eggs!

Or does he just lay the candy ones?

Eggs will keep in cold storage a long time. Eggs that have been in storage for longer than 30 days are called “storage eggs” and must be labeled as such. There’s nothing wrong with them–the government just thinks consumers have a right to know when they’re not getting “farm fresh eggs”.

http://www.aeb.org/eggcyclopedia/storage-eggs.html
http://www.rilin.state.ri.us/Statutes/TITLE21/21-17/S00012.HTM

The USDA says you can store eggs at home in the fridge for 3 to 5 weeks.

http://www.fsis.usda.gov/OA/pubs/storage.htm

So if the eggs you bought were already a month old, that means that they can be a couple of months old by the time you use them to make Easter eggs. But, again, there’s nothing dangerous or unhealthy about 2-month old eggs, they just lose some quality as they age. My WAG is that the egg producers don’t change anything on the production end. The egg wholesalers probably just earmark a bigger percentage of current fresh-egg production for the Kroger dairy case, and bring more old eggs out of cold storage to send to their customers like restaurants and dried-egg processors. McDonalds doesn’t care whether your Egg McMuffin is made with “farm fresh eggs”.

Just a slightly off topic factoid:

Laying hens that fall off their rate of lay don’t become dog food. They’re used in chicken soups and stews.

Cranky?? I love ya. For a slightly sarcastic take on your question, peruse My Post In The Pit that addresses your O.P.

And, Happy Springtime all around.

Cartooniverse

The hens lay the eggs it is the Easter Bunny that DELIVERS them.

I saw it on a cartoon so it must be true