Egg Sellers--How's Your Business?

[chicksgalore]

I found a clipart chicken standing on a fence and it looks like she's talking (her head's in the air and her beak's open). So I made it look like she's saying "Egg-stra! Egg-stra!" And then I list my specs for the girls which is pretty simple.

Hand Gathered
FRESH Brown Eggs
For Sale
(Large/Jumbo)

From Happy, Healthy Free Range Hens

I may change/add or whatever. That's just the first one. I haven't gotten any of them up yet but I did get a hit on craigslist (for $2) so I'm going to keep regularly posted on there.

 

[crtrlovr]

The eggs from my BO , BA, and RIR girls are nice big brown eggs, and I sell them for $2.25 doz if the purchaser doesn't provide a carton, $2.00 if they do. Those darn cartons are .29 each last time I checked at TSC, and I'm about out of the clear plastic ones I bought from a fellow BYCer. I think someone mentioned they put theirs in the brown paper lunch bags; I may start trying that. For now I have a couple of friends who save cartons for me (one's husband "only likes white eggs" ...

) so she buys them from Aldi's and I get the cartons.

 

[briteday]

Some suggestions for cartons...check with local restaurants, the small mom & pop type as they may buy eggs where ever they are cheapest. I have one lady that, as long as I agree to pick them up every Monday morning, I can have all the cartons she's emptied for the week. And it never hurts to take a few dozen eggs as a small token of appreciation.

On that same note, if you want to sell eggs, try some of the local eateries. We live in the suburbs but very near to the ranches. My daughter works for the local ranch vet and has lunch at the cafe a few doors down. They would take up to 6 dozen eggs each week if we had them. Ranchers know what they are eating and appreciate having nice farm fresh eggs in the morning. The cafe owner has even passed along some of the nice comments from customers about how orange our yolks are, that they haven't seen eggs that big in a long time, and how good our eggs taste.

Also, mention your hens in conversation the next time you are sitting in the dentist's or doctor's waiting room and see if any of the staff seems interested. Our dentist's office buys 4 dozen per month and pays us $1 extra (we normally charge $2/doz) because we deliver the eggs on our way to work / school (phone call the day before to be sure they have the money collected and a space in the fridge) and I've explained what we feed them and how the hens get to be out in the pasture all day eating organic greens, getting fresh air and sunshine. They would like to get eggs twice per month so my daughter has invested in some additional chicks that should be producing by Aug / Sept.

Both my husband and I work at schools and teachers / staff often want farm fresh eggs. If you have a rooster find out if any of the teachers hatch out eggs as a class project. But a lot of our egg sales during the school year go to our colleagues at school...easy delivery, just take them to work. When school is out for the summer I see the neighbors outside more so often they will ask to buy eggs. And I also use that time when egg sales are slow to give away some to the food pantry at the local church, thank you gifts to those who help us (secretary who saves paper shreds for our bedding, rural mail carrier, neighbor who helps us with little projects or lends a tool to us, ...), or sometimes just a family that is down on their luck and needs a hand up once in a while.

My daughter and I always carry some of our egg payment envelopes in our purses. The envelope has a little picture of chickens at the top, some fun nutritional facts about eggs, and a place for the buyer's name and cost at the bottom. So we can "sign up" new customers whenever someone asks about our chickens. The first dozen is always free, if you return the payment envelope it is understood that they want to buy eggs from us and they are put into the rotation.

For neighbors and co-workers they know to look for the envelope in their egg carton and return it to us (with payment) in our work cubby or, for the neighbors...a basket hanging by our front door. They don't get back in the egg waiting rotation until we receive payment for the previous dozen. We keep a magnetic clip on the fridge and when a payment envelope is received we log the money into raizin's Excel spreadsheet (find it here on the forum), money goes nto the "chicken feed" jar, envelope goes to the back of the pack on the fridge clip.

(It also helped that a Whole Foods Market moved in to a town nearby and they charge $2.50-5 per dozen for "cage free" and all organic eggs...acquaintances realize they can have ours for $2/doz...AND make friends with the guy in the produce dept there and he gives me all the castoffs I can handle for my flock...organic!...and since I can't show my appreciation for the young man that helps us in the produce dept by taking him eggs...not allowed since the store sells similar product......I'm always sure to take him some homemade baked goods when I pick up each week)


Honestly, I let my daughter buy some silkies. I understand that they don't lay normal sized eggs and that they aren't prolific egg layers. But I figure that's the only way I'M ever going to eat eggs again!
Egglayers ad silkies coming next week....YEA!!!!!!!!!

 

[Bettacreek]

Psshh. I couldn't find eggs for less than about $3 a dozen, plus the drive to pick them up, so I now have 8 chicks of my own, lol.

 

[phoenix rooster]

Business has been so good that I had to get 7 more RIR hens, to keep up with demand. I had to turn away 2 previous customers today, because I won't have eggs available until next weekend. I have 40 laying hens and it's amazing. The secret is good advertising and providing an excellent product. They keep coming back no matter what. I hope to have 200+ chickens by next year to keep up with demand. I charge $3 dozen or $2.50 if they recycle old cartons. I've noticed that by not washing eggs it really makes the eggs taste fresher and by free ranging the chickens, the yolk and taste improve dramatically. My new problem is that some of them are laying in the shrubs outside while free ranging! All my customers are now regulars. Plus they give good word of mouth too their friends and family. Time to go easter egg hunting! Good luck!

 

[sarahs31]

We too have added to our flock. It was getting to the point where I wasn't counting my chickens before they were hatched but CERTAINLY "counting eggs before they were layed." Piano teacher can have Monday's eggs, ladies at work Tuesday's, Bible study group Wednesday's, you get the picture.

I love the idea of Egg $ envelopes. I need to work on that.

 

[chicksgalore]

I would LOVE to get my hands on produce waste from a grcocery store. It really bothers me how much food gets wasted anywhere but I've heard that stores won't let you use the waste unless you "know" someone on the inside. Is this true or would it be worth checking around?

 

[briteday]

I think you have to ask around a lot before you'll find someone willing to give you scraps. Even restaurants will not part with wasted food, their liability that someone might get sick from eating it is enormous. I only found one grocery out of about 6 near me that would give me the greens. However, I hear all the time about people who find stuff in dumpsters...good enough for human consumption. But I'm thinking they must be in cities where they can dumpster dive behind unknowing small groceries (the type of stores that don't have big locked dumpsters) or restaurants.

And since I worked for one...you might try the dumpsters behind schools. There is a ton of food thrown away at school every day. Our high school threw away 2-10 whole pizzas daily, and tons of other food.

 

[robot rooster]

I don't believe in Discounting. Discounting is going out of business on a payment plan. You have a product, that is better than what they sell in the store. You believe it. Now, you must find a way to capture that person to get them to buy from you, it is much more "conveniant" for them to go into a store and pick up a dozen "eggs" so what will need to be done to get them into your place to buy the eggs you sell?


I'd push the organic end of it. Many people around here will not even look at them if they are not. I found organic feed, that is important to me.


Think about this. You would not go into a Cadillac dealership expecting to pay for a new CTS for the same price as a AVEO.

 

[Evernf]

If you get to many eggs cook them and feed them to the chickens let it be a treat