TEMPLE, Texas — It seems like there are so many different shortages right now. We've talked about car chips, fire works and now it's chicken.
"It's crazy how people have to have their wings," said Mike Dent, owner of Wings Pizza N Things in Temple.
But in the last couple months it's been hard to get your hands on them, and if you do -- expect to pay more. The wholesale price is up, which means menu prices are up.
"I never in my wildest dreams thought I would see this," Dent added.
$155 for 40 pounds -- that's how much Dent is paying for bone-in wings. Six months ago he said the same 40 pound box was only $80.
Dent orders chicken every single day to keep the wings coming in. If he didn't order everyday, he said he could possibly run out as all orders are being completed or completely fulfilled.
"Really a case where we're producing a lot of chicken, but it's not as much as all consumers would like to get," said David Anderson, a livestock economist at Texas A&M University.
Many would automatically classify this as a chicken shortage but Anderson said it's really the production that can't keep up with the demand.
"We have to expand the flock of layers to get more eggs, to get more chickens to grow out to give us more wings and chicken breast biscuit sandwiches or whatever," he added.
The industry is causing problems and quite the frustration down the line. Wings Pizza N Things stopped its Tuesday bone-in special because of the wings price.
"What do I charge? I mean it's almost jokingly become a market item where you come in 'Ok the price of chicken is this,'" said Dent.
Tight supply isn't the only thing driving prices up: It's high production and transportation costs too.
"This shouldn't be going on still, this shouldn't still be happening," Dent said.
Although business is good and customers are understanding Dent is looking forward to getting things back to his normal.
Anderson expects high chicken prices to stick around for a while as long as the demand is there and the industry is stopped short of growth. He said they will come down eventually, it might just take less people eating wings and/or being patient.