I've never had to give eggs away, people always offer to pay for them. But I only started out with 6 hens and didn't have many extras at the time. This year we increased to 15 hens and word of mouth still leaves us with people on a waiting list all the time. We are raising up 22 this year and we are raising our price from $2 to $3 for new customers.
Almost all of our customers are people we (me, daughter, husband) work with. So they basically get free delivery. I take in the first dozen for them with an envelope labeled with their name. I actually printed up a little clipart chicken and leave room for a name, address, phone number line on the envelope. I tell them that if they want to be on the egg list all they have to do is put money for the dozen they just received into the envelope and return it to me. When I get the envelope I put it to the back of the pile on the refrigerator clip. When they get to the front of the pile of envelopes they get another dozen. Our regular egg customers almost always have cash ready when I drop the eggs "so I can get right back on the list for next week, pleeeeeaasee?" I've found that even if they don't have correct change for me they will drop by our house within a day and drop their envelope in a basket that we hung next to our front door (pretty secure since we have a huge front porch that we can see from almost anywhere in the house, basket is not visible fromt he street). We have also left eggs in a cooler on the porch for the "less than regular" customers.
I'm lucky to have found someone who runs a cafe in a little nearby resort town. They save all of their egg cartons for us. So I have a regular supply of once-used cartons. I have not found egg customers to be particularly reliable in returning cartons, some do and some don't.
And lastly, we consider it our moral/civic responsibility to pay things forward since we have been so fortunate in our lives. So we make it our goal to give away at least 1 dozen eggs per month right now. We've decided in the Fall to raise that to 2 dozen minimum per month. It is generally someone we know who is down on their luck (just lost their job, unexpected bills), wouldn't normally have availability to farmer's market/incredibly fresh stuff (elderly), done something special for us (co-worker who picked me up when I took the car to the shop), the retired neighbors who are home all day and have to listen to my rooster, the local food bank, ...
Almost all of our customers are people we (me, daughter, husband) work with. So they basically get free delivery. I take in the first dozen for them with an envelope labeled with their name. I actually printed up a little clipart chicken and leave room for a name, address, phone number line on the envelope. I tell them that if they want to be on the egg list all they have to do is put money for the dozen they just received into the envelope and return it to me. When I get the envelope I put it to the back of the pile on the refrigerator clip. When they get to the front of the pile of envelopes they get another dozen. Our regular egg customers almost always have cash ready when I drop the eggs "so I can get right back on the list for next week, pleeeeeaasee?" I've found that even if they don't have correct change for me they will drop by our house within a day and drop their envelope in a basket that we hung next to our front door (pretty secure since we have a huge front porch that we can see from almost anywhere in the house, basket is not visible fromt he street). We have also left eggs in a cooler on the porch for the "less than regular" customers.
I'm lucky to have found someone who runs a cafe in a little nearby resort town. They save all of their egg cartons for us. So I have a regular supply of once-used cartons. I have not found egg customers to be particularly reliable in returning cartons, some do and some don't.
And lastly, we consider it our moral/civic responsibility to pay things forward since we have been so fortunate in our lives. So we make it our goal to give away at least 1 dozen eggs per month right now. We've decided in the Fall to raise that to 2 dozen minimum per month. It is generally someone we know who is down on their luck (just lost their job, unexpected bills), wouldn't normally have availability to farmer's market/incredibly fresh stuff (elderly), done something special for us (co-worker who picked me up when I took the car to the shop), the retired neighbors who are home all day and have to listen to my rooster, the local food bank, ...
