How did you find your egg customers?

[Mac in Wisco]

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No, we don't have those issues, but we generally only package up uniform, Jumbo, brown eggs for sale. We do get the occasional person that says that they don't like them. Some are accustomed to store bought eggs and don't like the flavor of the pastured eggs.

You need to talk up those eggs and educate them. You need to convince them that your eggs are the best eggs in the world, because your hens are kept humanely, you have a diversity of birds that lay different colored eggs, they are pastured to give those bright orange yolks that are healthier for them, etc. Tell them that they will find the occasional meat spot, but that is part of using farm fresh eggs and that they need to crack them into a bowl to check first just like their great-grandmother did.

Tell them that your eggs are easily worth $5 a dozen at the farmers' market...

 

[greenSearcher]

I live in an area where eggs are fairly easy to get, so my customer base is slow growing. I have a nice sign by the gate, also a web page. If I get lots of eggs in the chicken fridge, then I will spend the morning at the flea market. Last but not least I will feed the eggs back to the girls if I get too many. Right now I am down to a dozen a day, heat has reduced laying to 66+% productivity, and I have 15 laying hens right now. Seven more should start laying in about a month or so, and then I will be back every 2 weeks at the flea market. The farmer's market has too many requirements for me to sell there, but they also refer egg purchases to flea market.
I make enough money in egg sales to pay for about half the feed. I actually make more money selling chickens. Last week I sold a small flock of Delawares to a regular customer who lost three of his hens to the heat. I had got Delaware to try crossing them with my Naked Necks. The cross is interesting, but I don't miss the Dellies mischievous personalities.

 

[1MrsMagoo]

Let me start by saying that it probably depends on where you live. I live about an hour north of New Orleans and have no trouble selling my eggs; my trouble is keeping up with orders right now. Funny thing is that a lot of people around here sell eggs, but their is a high demand for natural, organic, and locally produced food in this area. One of my customers told me that their is a challenge going on called "Eat Local New Orleans" that people are signing up to participate in. They try to only buy and eat things grown, caught, or produced within two hundred miles on New Orleans for at least a month: Some people choose to continue after the month saying they feel better and the food tastes better too.

Right now, I only have about 20 hens laying and barely even get to keep any of the medium eggs for us or the elderly neighbors we give eggs to. My husband and I are contractors (remodel and tile/stone/ceramic mostly) and the other tradesmen we work with always ask if we have any eggs available. To bridge the gap when we don't work around the guys who usually buy our eggs, I post an ad for farm fresh free range eggs on Craigslist every month. Each month, I have picked up one or two new customers: Two of which want between 6-8 dozen every week (one guy drives 60 miles to meet me and get his eggs every Friday...he's a baker...I don't get that one, but hey I'll take his money

).

I charge $2.50 a dozen in my cartons, or $2.25 a dozen if they bring cartons. I mix sizes and colors: Make sure their are 4 jumbo, 6 large to extra large, and 2 medium-to-large eggs per dozen with various shades of brown, white, and at least one blue or green egg included. So far I've had no complaints, but then again I include a photo of 3 dozen eggs so they know exactly what they will be getting. I clean my nesting boxes every morning and my eggs are really clean, which also helps. Oh, I also sell hatching eggs: mixed breed /barnyard mix $5.00 per dozen and pure breeds $2.00 an egg. I usually sell at least a dozen of those a month as well. When my ducks start laying, I plan on selling those eggs as well and the baker has already said he wants to be first on the list at 3.50-4.00 per dozen.

The parish (county) allows me to have a sign and sell them at our gate, but one of our only neighbors is a creep that causes too many issues so we decided against it. Also, all the local feed stores carry farm eggs at $3.00 a dozen and can't keep them in stock: Several people have signs out for $3.00 a dozen as well (one lady makes you do an egg hunt to find your eggs in her yard and they are dirty???). If I ever get too many eggs (have another 38 hens that will be laying by fall) we have a local farmers market on Saturday that charges $10 to set up, but that would be a last resort. Right now after costs, the chickens pay for their feed and our eggs plus a dozen or two for our elderly neighbors are free and we have enough left over for a bag of oats for the goats. I'm not really into this to make money, but if I can have all the chickens I want and they don't cost me much of anything to keep...heck yah I'm all for it

. Now if construction would just pick back up I could get more form boards and cast-off materials to build more coops.....

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