The owner of a New Hampshire egg farm says thousands of hens have died in a barn fire on the property.
Jesse LaFlamme of Pete and Gerry's Organic Egg Farm in Monroe says the fire started at 2 a.m. Wednesday and was contained to the barn, which had two large flocks of hens totaling about 36,000 birds.
No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire wasn't immediately known.
LaFlamme said the family-run farm has insurance. The farm partners with other family farms to supply eggs. He said the fire makes it "definitely a challenge for keeping eggs on the shelf, but not catastrophic."
LaFlamme said he didn't have an estimate on the damage yet.
In 2011, a fire destroyed a processing plant under construction at the farm.
Copyright The Associated Press
