The well-known saying, “Don’t count your chickens before they’ve hatched” is more of a reality for chicken farmers than for the general public. Egg prices look set to skyrocket as a result of new legislation requiring farmers in California to house hens in cages with enough space to move around and stretch their wings.

As reported by Fox News today, the new law has drawn criticism nationwide because farmers in Iowa, Ohio, and other states who sell eggs in California have to abide by the same requirements.

In order to comply with the drastic new law, farmers now have to put fewer hens into each cage, or invest in revamped henhouses, passing along the expense to consumers. California is the nation’s largest consumer of eggs and imports about one-third of its supply.

According to the Fox News report, Jim Dean, president and CEO of Centrum Valley Farms in Iowa and Ohio, said one of his buildings that holds 1.5 million hens is now about half full to meet California’s standards, and another building may have to be completely overhauled at great expense to him.

On top of that, farmers like Dean, who live in cold climates, will be required to install heaters to replace warmth formerly generated by the chickens being stuffed in cages close together. For Dean, that’s not something the people in California considered.

“You’re talking about millions upon millions of dollars. It’s not anything that’s cheap or that can be modified easily, not in the Midwest.”

In anticipation of the new legislation, egg prices have already risen, according to Dave Heylen of the California Grocers Association. And Daniel Sumner, an agricultural economist at the University of California, said prices initially could rise dramatically this year, but should settle anywhere from 10 and 40 percent higher in California.

Nevertheless, as per a CNBC report recently, Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said that, in his opinion, the egg price increase to consumers will be minimal and worth it for the welfare of chickens, which provide enough eggs for each person to consume 250 a year on average.

According to Pacelle, for decades farmers have crammed six to eight chickens in small cages without room to move.

“This is the last bastion of cage confinement in industrial age,” he said.