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

[speckledhen]

I do both. To the neighbors who are good egg customers, I often add a free dozen or two to what they buy, as long as I'm overrun with eggs at the time. They protest, but I tell them that they are doing me a favor, giving me more room in my fridge. Heck, I get almost 3 dozen per day right now, so it adds up fast.

 

[A2SciTeach]

We give away to family and barter to others. I have friends who pet sit for eggs, make mosaic tiles for eggs, make picture frames for eggs, give me potted plants, herbs and homemade jellies etc for eggs. It's fun and everyone gets something they want.

 

[RW19290]

I can't. Cause of my neighbors. Long time ago, when I had 3 leghorn hens, I offered them some eggs. A week later, they said the eggs were nasty and one had blood in it. The neighbors complained to the city. We are not able to sell them, unless we get a USDA permit or something like that. They also said their family got food poisoning from eating them. Yeah Right. I have been eating Betty, Rebeka, and Sallie's eggs for such a long time; nothing has happened to me. Our neighbors do not like our chickens at all, but they cannot find a law that is against keeping chickens in our city. They call the chickens, dirty smelly livestock, even though I keep their living-space as clean as my house. They even threatened to poison the chickens if one were ever to go in their yard. They are so mean! Thank God they are moving away.

 

[dixiedoodle09]

We get about 3 dozen eggs a day, we sell them for 2.00 a dozen. It helps pay for the feed, and free up our fridge.

 

[onecent]

i dont give or sell.........they are my "bribery" tools

i have 4 roo,s!!bribes....i mean , eggs

come in real handy

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

When we had more than we could eat I gave them away free to neighbors and friends / family. I even took some to work for free giveaways (half dozen).

Problem was everyone liked them so much that demand went WAAAY past supply and then people at work started offering up to $4 to $5 a dozen!

 

[Ms~Silkie~Girl]

Quote:
That is good they are moving away!!! Thay are just stupid. HAHA. They don't know anything about chickens, and what's wrong with smelly livestock....It doesn't even really smell bad!!!

 

[ZooMummzy]

I had plans to sell my eggs but found that I enjoy sharing them with my friends and neighbors more than I would the few bucks they would bring me. It's very rewarding to see the look on their faces when they open the lid and see the nice eggs.

 

[Iceblink]

When I was paying $25 for a 50lb bag of organic feed I had to stop and consider if I wanted to give them away or charge. I was in the same boat as you Vermontgal, I only had 3 girls, and not enough eggs to sell on a regular basis.

I have given away quite a lot, mostly as thank-you gifts. Some people were wierded out, some were really appreciative.

I think my friends and family have actually been the worst about demanding free eggs. None of them are the type who care if their eggs come from factory farms, and if they only have to pay $1 at the big-box store, it can't be that much out of my pocket for me to supply them with eggs, right?

I get angry when people undervalue farmers/food producers of any kind. Aside from the feed cost, my time is just as important as theirs, and I wouldn't ask them to work for maybe 3 hours a week and give me the proceeds for free. Just because I love my chickens doesn't mean it isn't work. I wouldn't ask my friends who knit to give me free knitted items even though they enjoy knitting. I wouldn't go to the Dr. and expect to be treated for free just because they enjoy being a doctor.

What I ended up doing was cooking and feeding quite a lot of them to my dog. I cook for her anyway, so I just figured out the nutritional swap. And I still gave them to people who realized the value of nice fresh organic eggs from happy chickens.

Now that I may have a better market, I may end up selling to just a couple customers.

I'll get off my soap-box now.

 

[Judy]

Iceblink, I think your head is screwed on perfectly straight.