Do you sell eggs to your friends & neighbors - or give away?

[ScoobyRoo]

I have a handful of wonderful neighbors I give to. In return I get fresh produce, the good tomato cages, electrical work done, honey, etc. Any body else will have to pay $2.00 I have not sold any yet but then again I'm not looking to sell. I told DD that if anyone wants to buy tell them $2 a dozen. Of course, they are given to family. It is fun!

 

[henjoy]

We have both bantams and LF. We sell the LF eggs for $2.00/doz. Friends and family get the banty eggs for free. Everybody's happy!!

 

[chickenlips1954]

I sell my eggs to neighbors and to a store for $2.50 a dozen and everyone feels like they're getting a great deal...plus they love that I mix colors of dk. brown, light brown and green in every carton. I do give some away to friends or family when we get together. Selling my eggs pays for the feed and is allowing me to expand my "chicken" business for my growing customer list. I never seem to have enough eggs to go around!

 

[patandchickens]

I give them away... I just sort of feel like the virtue of generosity is more important than the virtue of thrift/pennypinching. Mind you, if some of the better-off people we give them to (DH's coworkers) offered to pay, we would accept... but of course THEY aren't the ones who offer to pay, it's the people who can't really afford it in the first place

If we had like five dozen chickens, though, I would probably make a more concerted effort to find well-off people already paying for eggs and sell them mine to recoup some feed costs.

Pat

 

[mtnhomechick]

Well....what can I say. I would LOVE to give them away but I have 85 chickens to support.

I give the profit back to them......they do the work. They have a good life. Makes me feel good about it.

So, it's $2.00 a dozen.......I can't keep up with the orders.

If I DID have any left over.......I would cook 'em up and give 'em back to my girls.

 

[Chic Chick]

Quote:
That's how I feel also, I give away about 6 dozen a week, to relatives, neighbours, friends etc. It is costing me $17.00 a month for feed which I think is nothing compared to the feeling of the happiness of giving.
I only have 14 hens and 1 roo so I'm thinking I'll make some chicken feed money by selling chicks.....

 

[Katy]

My kids get eggs for free. Everyone else pays for theirs. Unfortunately my hens don't eat for free and they'd be paying at the store if not buying from me. They're happy for the fresh eggs and the money helps defer a tiny bit of the feed bill.

 

[HorseFeathers]

We give eggs away when we have a surplus (not very often), not a lot, just 6-4 eggs, to neighbors since we just moved into the neighborhood. People have been really nice and one neighbor gave us chocolate chip cookies back... Mmmm!

 

[fasbendera]

We do both. Actually my husband gives away eggs sometimes faster than the girls can lay them. When someone asks I tell them how much. I know I am cheaper than some people but if I can pay for part of the feed it works for me.

 

[TeaLady]

We treat it as a business, mostly. We are not in a position to give eggs away all the time.

I gave eggs away here and there when the girls first started laying. When I had a steady 3 dz+ a week I advertised on Craigslist. I still give away eggs here and there. They make great hostess gifts. The guy who sawed our trees into lumber really appreciated them. Etc. But mostly I sell them.

We sell the eggs for $4/dz. My S.O. thinks we may be losing money even so. I need to go through my feed receipts and make sure I'm at least breaking even -- the organic feed is about double the cost of non-organic. I need to look at the costs for feed, bedding, DE, grit, and oyster shell over the life of the bird vs. the income from the eggs. I'm not even going to worry about the cost of the coop and run.

We have some more earth-moving to do in the yard, and then I'll be putting in a garden. The chickens will get a lot of fresh food from there. Like, I eat the peas, they get the vines and leaves. I might put in a few rows of something just for them. That should cut down on the food costs.

I did try to get trim from a local natural food store. It turns out they have a contract with a composting company, so they can't give the scrap to me. I'll keep looking though. It would be good to have a year-round source of fresh veggies for them.