I need ideas/ info on getting started on selling eggs!!!

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outlaw chicks

outlaw chicks

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Hello, I've been a member for a little while but haven't posted before, I've been lurking and learning;} but now I need some help. I have 18 hens and 1 rooster. The hens are producing great!! I am getting about a dozen eggs a day now, they are about 8 months old, the hens, not the eggs, lol and I have way more eggs than I know what to do with. I have been trying to get started on selling them, building a customer base, but am having trouble getting started. I need ideas on what I can do to move my eggs before they go bad. I have Black Australorp and Austra White so I have brown and off-white eggs. I have managed to sell a couple dozen here and there, my biggest sell so far was 4 dozen at one time. I have posted a couple signs and put ads on craigslist.com but I'm not doing well right now with selling my eggs and need some ideas. I live in Oklahoma. Thank you so much in advance.
 
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I've sold eggs myself, so I can tell you what worked for me. First of all: make sure your price is right. People will often pay more for fresh, free range eggs, but in the current economy you will need to be close to shop egg prices if you want to sell. No matter how good the quality is, the price will be a factor for lots of people.
For marketing what I found worked is to give eggs away to potential customers. I took 6 eggs to a nearby B&B, told the owner I'm selling, that's my price and here's my phone number if she's interested. She became one of my best customers. Let people see what they are getting for their money. The eggs ended up selling themselves!
Once you got someone interested tell them you would like a fixed order, say they'll take a doz a week, every week on a certain day. Then work on getting orders for every day of the week, so you don't have to store eggs, you can sell them freshly laid and you have guaranteed sales. If one of your customers cannot take their weekly eggs for some reason ask them to let you know beforehand. My customers were happy with that arrangement.
Keep a record of how many eggs you get per day and work out an average. Say you get 15 eggs per day. Get orders for only 12 of those, in case your hens slow down a bit and for some reason only lay 6 eggs one day. It happens. Keep a doz eggs in the fridge for back-up and switch it with a fresh doz every day or two.
Too keep expenses down ask people to keep their egg cartons clean and intact and store give them to you. Also ask your egg customers to return the cartons. I sold 100's of dozens of eggs and I cannot tell you how much an egg carton cost. I've never needed to buy one.

Hope this helps. Good luck!
 
Sumi, thank you so much! You gave me an idea that I am going to try because of what you said.
Thanks everyone!
 
We sell quite a few eggs and my #1 bit of advice is to check applicable local, state, and federal laws, especially if you're selling to strangers. For example, I can't re-use cartons from the grocery store unless I were to mark out every bit of writing on it, which would be pretty ugly. Also, my eggs must be marked ungraded and mixed size. We must include a packing date on the carton, as well as our farm name and address. Finally, eggs must be stored at or below 45 degrees, and I must have a commercial thermometer in my egg fridge to prove that. I must keep a record of the number of eggs I've packed. There are certain things I can and cannot say on my packaging. None of it is actually too onerous, but it does preclude my selling at farmers markets. Not sure what state you're in, but here's a look at Ohio's laws: http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/search/shell+eggs

My #2 bit of advice is to make up some cheap business cards with a cute logo on them and start handing them out to everyone you know. People on CL sell eggs for incredibly cheap prices--there's no way anyone around me is even covering feed costs at $1.50/dozen, but I see them advertised around her for that price all the time. But people don't want to buy eggs from a random stranger, they want a relationship if they're gonna pay a premium price. We sell eggs for $3.50 no problem, and one woman buys our eggs and resells them (home delivery) for $4.50--but people want to know who they come from. Word of mouth is key. CL is free, so keep posting there, but don't expect it to yield much.

#3--make your cartons cute. Make a logo. Look professional. People will trust you more, and be more willing to buy from you than the person who's just stuck an address label on an Egglands Best carton

#4--definitely donate any eggs that are older than two weeks to the food pantry. Customers are paying a premium price to you for a premium product. Yes, eggs can last really long in storage, but that's not what your customers are paying for and you won't get repeat business. Also, your customers will like the fact that you donate excess eggs and it will help build that all-important relationship.

Good luck!
 
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And another use for those excess eggs is to feed them back to your flock as a high protein treat. I just learned about baking them and it's been a godsend for ME as I don't have many egg customers, either.

I break all my older eggs (and the not so pretty ones) into a 13X9 baking dish and then bake them at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how many eggs are in the pan. A whole lot of eggs can fit into the pan only half way deep!

It cuts easily into sections so you can parcel it out.

No standing there over the range, scrambling eggs. The flat "loaf" pieces of baked egg treat make portioning easy and far less messy than scrambled eggs.

My eggs won't stack up anywhere near as much, now. I won't always have to choose the most fresh eggs to sell "from the bottom of the stack" of cartoned eggs any more.

I charge $3 per dozen and $4.40 for 18 count. Currently I'm using older cations with a label slapped on them, but I intend to buy blank cartons some day. Don't sell enough at this time to justify the expense.
 
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I get about $2.00 a dozen and $3.00 for a eighteen count. Suni is right about staying close to the market price. Although "organic" eggs sell for $3.50 a dozen in the store, I have a hard time getting that. Put out the word out about selling eggs. I sell most of mine through or to co-workers and a few neighbors. Funny thing about the cartons. I have a neighbor who doesn't buy our eggs but she saves her cartons for us. Averaging you egg production for future sales is also a good idea that I didn't think of using. Our family eats a lot of eggs at breakfast, brunch and in baked goods so extras are far and between. In Oklahoma, as long as your selling eggs in small amounts and not in stores, we don't have to worry about any legal or income issues. Several of my friends also linked my e-mail to their facebook accounts in case anyone wants fresh eggs in the area we can make a phone contact. I don't want my phone number floating around and can pick and choose who I contact. There is also the www.localhens.com site you can utilize for free to list your egg business. I'm sure I'm missing other avenues so I'll keep checking for updates and new ideas I can use too. Remember to ask for the cartons back for the next dozen. Let them know the cartons help keep your prices down and saves them about 25 cents a dozen. It works.
 
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I really like all these idea's. Luckily for me I work in a small office with a bunch of people who are very environmentally friendly and love organic food etc. (we even have community gardens outside my office). My coworkers are constantly bringing me egg cartons and I charge $3 a dozen, however people will often give me $5. They really like knowing where they can get eggs when they need them and knowing that the chickens are well taken care of. It's great having a nice loyal customer base. I think the best thing to do is make connections, let people know you have eggs and word can travel fast.

I have a nice older man as a customer who lives in a retirement community. He is always bringing in stacks of egg cartons that he tells his neighbors to save "for the nice girl with the chickens." Needless to say he gets his eggs for free
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We sell for $3 in town and what ever is left over on Sunday we take to church for $2.
 

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