How do I get started on selling eggs?

[Sylviaanne]

I wanted to test dry incubation in my incubator so I set eggs, had 100% hatch and sold everyone of them within 3 hours of listing, had a lady contact me and she has ordered as many as I can hatch, so the Bator is going to be filled next week.. Don't know why I hadn't thought of this sooner... She put half the money down so I know she is serious

When you did your dry incubation, did you add water for lockdown?
What did your humidity run for your dry hatch?
What temp did you keep or try to keep for your dry hatch?
Did your incubator have a fan? Auto egg turner?
I do dry hatches and just wondered how you did yours.
Thanks.

 

[AmericanMom]

When you did your dry incubation, did you add water for lockdown?
What did your humidity run for your dry hatch?
What temp did you keep or try to keep for your dry hatch?
Did your incubator have a fan? Auto egg turner?
I do dry hatches and just wondered how you did yours.
Thanks.

1) I cut a sponge in half, dipped that is warm water and added it.. That was all the moisture I chose to do and I only did it the one time. my theory was that the hatching chicks would keep the humidity where it needed to be for the remaining hatchlings ... where I live our humidity is + - 50%
2) I never kept track of humidity within the incubator, instead I kept track of the air cells, measuring their development at 10/14 and 18 days.
3) I have a still air so my temps ran between 101-102.. I had a couple spikes of 103 and once it got down to 100 but it wasn't for more than a few hours and not more than a couple times. all chicks were hatched and in the brooder on the morning of the 21st day
4) as stated above my Hova Bator is still air and although I have an egg turner, I chose not to use it, I didn't feel it was running right when I ran my incubator empty for 24 hours.

Of course, as with anything, please understand what works best for me in my climate may not work for everyone. I followed the instructions for my incubator with my very first hatch last year and got great results, but the next 4 hatches were horrible with one hatch resulting in 1 chick that survived.. I had gotten ahold of some turkey eggs and after losing the first batch for what I believed was to much humidity I chose to run the second batch dry...The only difference between that batch and this one was that I had a borrowed forced air... after 4 months I decided I wanted to try it the same way with my still air and see if I got the same results, which I actually got better results this time.. I want to try once more while the weather is warm enough outside (to keep ambient room temps up) so I don't have to run a space heater in the incubator room.
I know some folks freak out about the humidity in the incubator, but a wise person told me with the turkey eggs that it didn't matter, the air cell and weight loss is what mattered and she was dead on target, when I quit flipping out over humidity I got better results.
Hope that helps

 

[bigpey123]

How do I make a hen sit and hatch on eggs?

 

[WVDoug]

How do I make a hen sit and hatch on eggs?

Haha....you don't.

They have to want to. You'll know when they spend almost all their time on the nest and growl at you when you get close.

 

[WVDoug]

Oh, and

!

 

[Sylvester017]

Most states will allow you to sell while you are on your own property... Like a yard stand. Word of mouth like the others sugested too.

I researched this for California about two years ago. In order to sell at Farmers Markets you have to have a Shell Egg permit or license. Its pretty regulated if you go over three hundred eggs per week. But under three hundred its doable.

You can buy new cartons online... include that with the price. discount that price if they bring their own. Online price I have found some at http://www.eggcartonsonline.com/ who were around 33 cents a piece. They do have bulk pricing but the quantity will approach a lifetime buy before you can bring the price down Like say 4200 cartons brings the price down to 23 cents.

One of the issues with using used cartons is they come already labled. If that package says Grade A jumbo there better be Grade A jumbo Eggs in there. So you have to grade your own eggs according to the standard required by your permit. You have to candle them too looking for spots rings and other different objectionable things.


As far as pricing them.... What the others said. It depends on what your market will stand how you advertise them and what your costs are.

For what its worth you cant just switch to organic feed and call the eggs organic. There are very specific rules for that....

So bottom line. Unless you find someone from your state that knows the Regs... You need to do research that applies to you. Most states will allow you to sell on your own property and do casual sales like for a donation in the office. You need to verify that with your local agency.

Oh and there are washes out there that dont disturb the bloom too much. But its best if you can build some roll out nests to keep the eggs as clean as possible
I gave up on it all. for other reasons.

Good luck.
deb

Laws and regulations set aside, I never considered egg sales from my hens. Laying cycles vary so much from breed to breed from summer to winter and egg sizes vary, etc. so that I could never keep an even supply going for the clientele I had interested in my eggs. I watched my friend with a large flock only get 2 or 3 eggs in a day or two and then a whole bunch on another and then slim for another couple days so it was hard to fill her orders which were growing from one dozen to two to three to four dozen per customer. My pet store owner acquaintance has over 40 RIRs but complains to me he sometimes only gets 3 eggs/per day in the winter. Just isn't worth the hassle to me and it's frustrating having to put off customers for one or two weeks until you can fill their order. I suggested my friend raise her prices but after establishing a customer base feels funny to raise them even though it would be justified seeing the prices in the supermarkets and farmers markets. Since I have my own chickens for eggs I can't even help her out with empty cartons to fill her orders.

 

[cowhlb]

Thanks for replying guys!

This is what I'm going to do:

Buy cartons from TSC
Sell them at the local country store that is owned by my family. (It's literally like a 2 minute walk from my house.)
Sell a dozen for 2.50
Half a dozen for 1.25

 

[LeslieDJoyce]

Thanks for replying guys!

This is what I'm going to do:

Buy cartons from TSC
Sell them at the local country store that is owned by my family. (It's literally like a 2 minute walk from my house.)
Sell a dozen for 2.50
Half a dozen for 1.25

You might want to check your local regulations to see if selling them at a store is legal.

 

[Sylvester017]

Thanks for replying guys!

This is what I'm going to do:

Buy cartons from TSC
Sell them at the local country store that is owned by my family. (It's literally like a 2 minute walk from my house.)
Sell a dozen for 2.50
Half a dozen for 1.25

Provided you aren't breaking any regulatory laws in-store, those prices are too cheap. I wouldn't sell less than $3.50/doz.

 

[Sylviaanne]

1) I cut a sponge in half, dipped that is warm water and added it.. That was all the moisture I chose to do and I only did it the one time. my theory was that the hatching chicks would keep the humidity where it needed to be for the remaining hatchlings ... where I live our humidity is + - 50%
2) I never kept track of humidity within the incubator, instead I kept track of the air cells, measuring their development at 10/14 and 18 days.
3) I have a still air so my temps ran between 101-102.. I had a couple spikes of 103 and once it got down to 100 but it wasn't for more than a few hours and not more than a couple times. all chicks were hatched and in the brooder on the morning of the 21st day
4) as stated above my Hova Bator is still air and although I have an egg turner, I chose not to use it, I didn't feel it was running right when I ran my incubator empty for 24 hours.

Of course, as with anything, please understand what works best for me in my climate may not work for everyone. I followed the instructions for my incubator with my very first hatch last year and got great results, but the next 4 hatches were horrible with one hatch resulting in 1 chick that survived.. I had gotten ahold of some turkey eggs and after losing the first batch for what I believed was to much humidity I chose to run the second batch dry...The only difference between that batch and this one was that I had a borrowed forced air... after 4 months I decided I wanted to try it the same way with my still air and see if I got the same results, which I actually got better results this time.. I want to try once more while the weather is warm enough outside (to keep ambient room temps up) so I don't have to run a space heater in the incubator room.
I know some folks freak out about the humidity in the incubator, but a wise person told me with the turkey eggs that it didn't matter, the air cell and weight loss is what mattered and she was dead on target, when I quit flipping out over humidity I got better results.
Hope that helps

It does help. Any and all information I get is either new to me or something that I have tried or rejected due to the climate in my area. My dry hatches humidity this last hatch, still hatching, has run from 25% to 39%. If it was low, I would add a wet sponge. Otherwise I left it until they started pipping, then I did my best to raise it to 65/65% with the sponge and paper towels. Even then it kept going down but when I caught it I would wet the sponge and paper towels again. This hatch I pretty much let the heat go where it wanted as long as it wasn't below 95. I don't know why it kept fluctuating but it would go up to 102 and a couple of days later it would go down below 100. It finally decided to settle at about 98 and I figured it would only mean they would take longer to hatch so I left it alone. I had one chick hatch at day 19 which was the 19th and one or two a day until today and several have hatched with more pipped and some that are not ready to hatch at all. When I first put eggs on in the incubator I found that other hens were laying on my broody Salmon Favorolle or waiting until she took a break and laying their eggs in with hers. I think I took a total of 14 eggs from her and I know there were at least 2 broken ones. I left her with 6 eggs and she hatched one but there are only 3 eggs left under her. There is no way the eggs could get knocked out of the nest as it is one of those deep milk crates.