Arizona Chickens

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ejcrist said:
Yes, the state sent me a letter with my Nest Run Producer number on it which I keep in a file. Even if you only anticipate a few sales now and again I think it's a good idea to register so you're operating within the guidelines. There's no other requirements other than registering as long as you are a small producer which it sounds like you would be. The state claims they'll notify you in case any egg born illnesses crop up, and by being registered they can trace where the eggs came from which is a good thing.

As far as word of mouth, you'll get that as more people eat your eggs. Assuming they like them they'll more than likely tell their friends and that's how you can drum up a lot of business. So it doesn't matter if you don't get out much to talk to people, they'll come to you as long as you have a product they want. I also seriously underestimated the degree to which people desire quality food. Personally I've always been more pragmatic about shopping for food since money was always tight and the highest priority until I got older, and I assumed most people were like me. However I think people today have a different outlook and also have more of their basic needs met than I did, so they lean more toward wanting quality food they believe to be safe. I think there's a lot of mistrust toward big producers, and whenever people find local mom and pop producers with more personalized products they tend to gravitate toward them. And, if they find the food taste better they're very likely to come back for more. That's just what I've seen from my recent experience. And it isn't just with eggs either. My wife and I have been amateur farmers all our lives and we carried that out here to AZ when we moved from PA, so we grow quite a bit of vegetables here as well. Last year we had an over-abundance of a lot of vegetables so we did the same thing in giving some out with our label. We grew about 300 lbs of hardneck garlic and it was all gone inside a week. I've always known hardneck garlic was a whole lot better than the softneck stuff at the big box stores but I couldn't believe the demand for it was so high. So I just finished planting about 200 lbs of my favorite hardneck cloves back in November for a bigger harvest next spring and we'll see how it goes. Anyway my point is that your product will sell itself as long as you produce a good product, which it sounds like you're doing.

As far as packaging, I've always stuck with cartons because that's what people are used to seeing eggs in. Even though you'd be serving the homegrown egg niche market you don't want to make it appear too homegrown. I'm not saying wrapping in paper wouldn't work but if I were buying eggs I don't want to have to go though a lot of work to see their condition or how many I have. I think cartons work better because you can easily check what you're getting. People like to open the carton and see what home-grown eggs look like and also seem to prefer seeing different sizes - that way they know they are definitely not from the store. I had one lady ask me one time if I put any"filler" eggs (store-bought) in the carton. I said no and then she said I must have because some of the eggs were white. I explained that they were from Leghorn chickens but I don't think she believed me so I took her out to the nest boxes where I hadn't collected eggs for the day yet and showed her. After that she was ok and is a regular now. I also have an untold number of people that think brown eggs are "organic," and I'm not talking about dummies either but extremely successful people that are a lot smarter than me. I know it's funny but the majority of people don't know anything about eggs so I like to make it as easy as possible for them, and I'm pretty sure using cartons is the better way to go. If you don't do cartons you could always ask people to save their cartons for you. Or you could get a few to start and ask the customers to return them and you'll take $0.40 off their next purchase or something to that effect.

Anyway, all of this is just my opinion based on my experiences so your mileage might vary. I think you could easily generate income with egg sales even if you just have a small amount of eggs to sell. I think after you sell your first couple of dozen people will see how delicious fresh eggs are and they'll be back for more. Good luck.  
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Thanks. Hadn't thought about that aspect of the cartons. It's funny what people think sometimes.
 
Saw these and thought of you guys.

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400
 
Hello everyone ,does anyone have any rooster for sale ? I'm looking for a maran,olive egger ,blue or splash easter egger ,isbar,legbar ,or any big blue or splash rooster :)

-just let me know if you have a rooster for sale :)
Thank you all in advance
 
BackyardMarana said:
Hello everyone ,does anyone have any rooster for sale ? I'm looking for a maran,olive egger ,blue or splash easter egger ,isbar,legbar ,or any big blue or splash rooster
smile.png


-just let me know if you have a rooster for sale
smile.png

Thank you all in advance
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I do, but I don't think he meets your specifications. He's an EE, very tame and affectionate and definitely carries the blue egg gene, but not blue or splash.
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