$5 a dozen?? Phx Farmer's Market

[lovemychickies]

WOW. I live in Northern CA and pay nearly $30 for a 50lb bag of organic chicken pellets and commonly see organic eggs sold for $6/dozen. Ah! It is so expensive to live in CA!!!

I often trade my eggs to friends for salad greens, veggies and such. One plus of living in CA. Still greens in the garden. Yes... even in DECEMBER!!

Interesting hearing other perspectives on the cost of raising chickens. Good thing we love our feathered ladies!

Happy Holidays!

 

[RocketDad]

I send my kids out door-to-door peddling "six eggs for a dollar" when we have surplus. The next door neighbor gets first "crack" at them, as she supplies us with the cartons and practically nagged me for eggs before the hens started laying.

I'm not in it for the money. I pay the kids 25% commission on the eggs, and the remaining 75 cents hardly covers what I pay them in "chore chart" stickers for helping take care of the hens. Mostly, I charge the neighbors the dollar so that they don't feel like they get to exploit me. And I'm teaching the kids about fractions and percentages!

 

[LizFM]

Wow. Thanks for all the replies!

Yeah it was the downtown Phoenix market. I went there pretty regularly a couple of years ago. My memory is not the greatest thing in the world but the prices seem a LOT higher for a lot of things. Mostly because I don't remember thinking there was no way we could afford to shop there back then and I might as well not go back, like I did yesterday.

And I do realize, that if you're trying to do small-scale agriculture, that to make an actual *profit* sufficient to live on once you figure in land, chickens, feed, and all other costs (like booth and transportation) that $5 a dozen might be about what it would take. I don't fault them for charging whatever they can get but we just can't afford that.

DH and I farmed with his family back in the midwest (commercial agriculture) the first 10 years we were married, so I know all too well that making an actual living as a farmer can be impossible. I had Buff Orps because they were my grandma's favorite chickens (she had chickens since she was 5 years old and was so excited to see me have them). And don't even get me started on whether it is "sustainable" (I am about sick of that word) to live somewhere like Phoenix at all, when water doesn't seem to actually fall from the sky more than once a year

and you can't grow things without irrigation.

I would have chickens already, but I live in a townhouse with no yard and it's not possible. They already fuss that we have several plants (including a 6 foot mutant tomato and some gigantic chard) in pots in the front and back of our townhouse.

Anyway, at least I do know how to go about growing our own healthy food, so once we are able to get a place with some land (yards are so tiny in Phoenix) we can. What I think about are the families that keep hearing how important it is to eat healthy, sustainable and locally...and they don't know much about it so they go to somewhere like this farmer's market, see eggs and $5 a dozen and radishes at 40 cents each, turn around and go straight back to WalMart thinking, "well, we can never do THAT, that's just unreasonable."

My husband is still a commercial farmer at heart..."if you can't raise hundreds of them and make a living doing it you might as well not do it, it's cheaper to buy groceries at the store"...Almost none of the farmers I know back home grow their own food.

Anyway. On that cheery note!

Thanks for the welcome!

 

[hennypennysmom]

This is a great discussion. Our local farmers' market (in New England) has several different farmers selling their eggs which range in price from $4 to $6 a dozen (organic, free-range). We are raising our own chickens and have been giving away our extra eggs (we have 7 hens and are getting about 4 eggs per day)...but my daughter would like to sell them. I'm thinking $4 or $5 a dozen would be the going rate (depending on their size).

As a customer, I would MUCH rather give my money to a local farmer and support them than buy a dozen cheap eggs at Walmart. I just brought my 13yr old to see Fresh (the movie), about small farm/agriculture in the US. The way they "unpack" the baby chicks in an egg facility made me sick to my stomach. This movie has a strong message about how we (as a society) have moved to wanting everything super, super cheap - and that has led to feed lots, industrial farming and corn/soy bean crops overtaking farmland where there used to be varied agriculture. Very eye opening and made me so glad that we have our own chickens ... I've also made an effort to get away from buying products with high fructose corn syrup. It convinced me that I need to do more vegetable gardening next year (I type this as there is a blizzard outside!)....it's not a preachy movie - but more about the positive things that some small-scale farmers are doing in the way they treat their animals. The mass-scale egg industry is awful...and maybe this is something I'm sensitive to because we now have our own chickens....but to see the pics of 27,000 chickens in one facility, all jammed together, eggs rolling down ramps, etc - that's where your cheap eggs come from.

Like many families in America, we are struggling, but before I got chickens I figured I'd rather support the local egg farmers and in a small way do our own part. Trying to teach my kids where food comes from....!

Lots of stuff in this movie about the convenience that Americans have come to expect in their food - and the unwillingness to pay much for the food they eat.

So we're doing our part - our neighbors are crazy about the eggs we give them - they can't believe what color the yolks have, and how they hold together when broken - and are not watery like store eggs.

So, yeah, maybe $6 IS more than we are used to paying for eggs. But many people pay the same for a pack of cigarettes, or a box of cookies, or spend that in 2 days on coffee (ok, coffee is one of the food groups, I know!), potato chips, etc.....

Not meaning to be preachy - just my .02 - especially thinking about this a lot because of this movie...check out the trailer - it's a great movie!

Kara

 

[fancbrd4me02]

$5 is a common price for cage free or organic eggs out here in California. If the farmers can sell the eggs at that price, more power to them. Thats capitalism! I think some people pay that much because they prefer a certain quality of egg. When my hens are not laying, I buy the $3.99-5.00 eggs. I'm not wealthy, I just budget that in and use coupns & sales for other stuff I am not so picky about. I'm also pleased to support my local farmers with my purchase. When I have extra eggs, I don't sell them, but I trade them for goods like vegetables for my chickens, etc.

 

[kimboolah]

We get $3 a dozen and people don't even hesitate to pay that. We can't keep enough eggs in our house to satisfy the demand! My son takes 6 dozen downtown every week and goes shop to shop--he has regular customers and some spur of the moment customers--and he is always sold out. His regular customers go on and on about how great the eggs taste and what a difference there is between his and store bought. So, they are happy and he is happy making a little pocket money.

 

[felidaet]

I am easily selling my extra eggs for $3.00 a dozen. I always have a much greater demand than supply. Several people said they would be willing to pay $4.00 but I am leaving my price at $3.00. I see prices in the local area at $2.50 - $4.00. Since I have such a demand, we plan to more than double the size of our flock this spring.

I don't spend the extra money for Organic feed. I am feeding Layena. I pay $12 a bag and sometimes get it on sale for $10.50.

Right now I am breaking even on the cost of eggs. I am pleased that I can break even. I did not go into the to make a profit. Our intent was to raise eggs for our family and it is a hobby we are enjoying. I suspect that this spring when the egg laying kicks in strong that we will be making a small profit. I suspect it will more more than pay for the additions to our flock. We are getting about 10 - 12 eggs per day from our 17 pullets. They were only laying 6 - 8 eggs per day at the beginning of December. The laying has increased in the last week. I did not expect this until late Feb. I am not sure the reason for the recent increase. We are NOT providing artificial light.

I have no idea how how much they go for at the local farmers market. I will have to check this spring when it re-opens. It is a seasonal farmers market.