How much do you charge per dozen? And location

[DuckDuckSook]

$5 a dozen in Southeastern PA!

 

[Franklinridgefarms]

I understand where you're coming from, and I respect that. You should do what works for you.

But I have a concern. My problem is, when people sell eggs for a low price (a price that does not reflect the work and supplies and food purchased to keep the chickens healthy and produce the eggs, and especially when they post super low prices on public forums like Craigslist), those of us who are relying on egg sales to support our chickens (pay for feed and other supplies, not to mention the work to clean the eggs and prepare them for market) can't get a decent price for our eggs and can't afford to continue to participate in our hobby because those who are doing it for fun are undercutting the market.

Consumers have an incorrect idea of what eggs should actually cost because grocery store eggs are (were) generally so cheap - the hens are raised and lay in circumstances that would make many of us shudder, but the consumers only see the dollar amount and don't think too much about the care of the animals involved. Farmers markets have helped to combat this somewhat - around here they charge double the grocery store price for farm fresh eggs from well managed healthy chickens, giving consumers the idea that farm eggs are more of a specialty item (consumers don't see the high prices farmers pay to participate in the farmers markets).

But then you have people who post "farm fresh eggs" on Craigslist for under the grocery store price. Are they trying to drive the rest of us out of owning chickens? Are they too lazy to set up a proper distribution system, and just want to unload lots of month old eggs on the market all at once? I question the health and management of the chickens that are producing those low priced eggs, because where are they getting the money to feed them if not from egg sales? Sure, you can just have them forage, or mainly forage, but unless that's carefully managed, their health may degrade over time from lack of the proper nourishment, and they'll die sooner than they would have if given proper nourishment. I don't want my chickens to live that way, but when folks undercut the market, they are making it much harder for me to give my chickens their best life and for the rest of us to be able to afford to do what we love.

I understand your point, and to a point I see part of the rationale for selling them cheaper especially at certain times.
A few years ago we were part of the local farmers market. It was kind of a cliquish, political thing to which we were outsiders coming in. They had a so called gentleman’s agreement to not under sell things because they didn’t/couldn’t have a set price per their bylaws.
As new comers we had to pay our dues so to speak and build our reputation with a very limited customer base.
We had white Leghorn chickens at the time, because that’s the only kind my mother wanted around. Great egglayers, healthy good doing hens. At the farmers market folks just turned up their nose and walked on when they saw those white eggs,
The other vendors had brown eggs and or the Easter egg types and one was an organic outfit. We were not moving hardly any eggs at the same price as those. We decided that since white eggs are less expensive in the grocery that we needed to drop our price a 50 cents a dozen at least and discount a dollar on the purchase of 2 dozen just to move some eggs. The powers that be caught wind of it and gave us a lecture. Once we explained why we discounted, it simmered down and we were able to sell out of eggs most times and so did everybody else.
The next year I got Barred Rocks and Australorps and priced our eggs the same as everybody else from the start of that market season.
We’re a farm close by a smaller midsize city so we don’t really have the population numbers to get the prices for eggs that folks in the bigger cities can. It’s pretty much within a dollar or two of what the store prices are e en for farmers markets.
We no longer sell at farmers market and try to just recoup some of our feed costs by selling to friends and neighbors to justify having our own eggs. We love having our fresh eggs.
It’s been kind of hard to navigate as during the winter they slack off laying and during the summer when they are laying good people are often traveling and thus not always steady to get eggs.
We are currently selling ours for a little above grocery store prices.

 

[Gwhite3678]

$4.00 organic fed
NH - I just put them in a cooler at the end of the driveway when I have extra to sell usually a couple dozen a week,

 

[FunClucks]

I understand your point, and to a point I see part of the rationale for selling them cheaper especially at certain times.
A few years ago we were part of the local farmers market. It was kind of a cliquish, political thing to which we were outsiders coming in. They had a so called gentleman’s agreement to not under sell things because they didn’t/couldn’t have a set price per their bylaws.
As new comers we had to pay our dues so to speak and build our reputation with a very limited customer base.
We had white Leghorn chickens at the time, because that’s the only kind my mother wanted around. Great egglayers, healthy good doing hens. At the farmers market folks just turned up their nose and walked on when they saw those white eggs,
The other vendors had brown eggs and or the Easter egg types and one was an organic outfit. We were not moving hardly any eggs at the same price as those. We decided that since white eggs are less expensive in the grocery that we needed to drop our price a 50 cents a dozen at least and discount a dollar on the purchase of 2 dozen just to move some eggs. The powers that be caught wind of it and gave us a lecture. Once we explained why we discounted, it simmered down and we were able to sell out of eggs most times and so did everybody else.
The next year I got Barred Rocks and Australorps and priced our eggs the same as everybody else from the start of that market season.
We’re a farm close by a smaller midsize city so we don’t really have the population numbers to get the prices for eggs that folks in the bigger cities can. It’s pretty much within a dollar or two of what the store prices are e en for farmers markets.
We no longer sell at farmers market and try to just recoup some of our feed costs by selling to friends and neighbors to justify having our own eggs. We love having our fresh eggs.
It’s been kind of hard to navigate as during the winter they slack off laying and during the summer when they are laying good people are often traveling and thus not always steady to get eggs.
We are currently selling ours for a little above grocery store prices.

I totally feel for you guys! In that situation at the farmer's market I'd probably have done the same thing. I've avoided getting white egg layers myself so far for this exact reason - they look just like supermarket eggs and don't have the exotic appeal of colored eggs (although I might get just one soon to help my blue eggs color show better by contrast in the egg carton). Nothing beats the white leghorn in egg size or egg production, but I can't point to those white eggs and say "look at my specialty niche product that you should pay a specialty price for".

The ISA browns' eggs are prolific and sell well, but I'm still looking for blue and green layers that have the egg size and lay rate of the white leghorns. Hoover's hatchery starlight green eggers and prairie bluebell eggers are close, but not quite all I'm looking for.

It's hard to support production of a quality product when your customer base doesn't understand or support your pricing.

 

[3KillerBs]

but I'm still looking for blue and green layers that have the egg size and lay rate of the white leghorns. Hoover's hatchery starlight green eggers and prairie bluebell eggers are close, but not quite all I'm looking for.

I'm told that the Whiting True Blues fill that niche. I'm hoping to get some this year.

 

[azygous]

@birdbrain5 how about telling us your location? Location is a factor in some places, charging more than the market will bear can be unrealistic.

However, I've seen that backyard chicken people drastically underestimate the value of their product, even in my own neighborhood (south-eastern rural Colorado). Recently, TSC feed has gone up 50%. So, with the encouragement of one of my egg customers, I raised my egg price to $7/dozen from the $5 I'd been charging for the past seven years.

Yikes! You're thinking, how does she think she can get away with that? Last year, I visited the Santa Fe, NM outdoor farmer's market, about three hours south of me. I talked to one of the egg vendors there. His operation was commercial but no different than mine except for scale. How much was he selling his large eggs for? Eight dollars a dozen. With the increase in feed prices, I have no doubt he's also increased his price to reflect this.

I was in advertising a long time ago. The principle of pricing is pretty simple. If you value your product, set your price to reflect it, because a ridiculously low price will cause people to believe they are getting an inferior product. The reverse is also true - when people pay more for a product, they believe they are getting a superior product and actually feel more satisfied than the customer paying less than the market will bear.

 

[Franklinridgefarms]

@FunClucks @3KillerBs from what I can see Murray McMurray has both Whiting True Blue, and Whiting True Green chickens, but it looks like their availability at this point is pretty slim for the season.

 

[Sally PB]

The principle of pricing is pretty simple. If you value your product, set your price to reflect it, because a ridiculously low price will cause people to believe they are getting an inferior product. The reverse is also true - when people pay more for a product, they believe they are getting a superior product and actually feel more satisfied than the customer paying less than the market will bear.

This is so true! I've seen it with custom and hand made items as well. The people who looked at my one-of-a-kind, hand dyed, handspun yarn and said, "Well, I can get yarn like that at Walmart for $5 a skein!" were not my targeted customer.

 

[NorthwoodsChick]

I understand where you're coming from, and I respect that. You should do what works for you.

But I have a concern. My problem is, when people sell eggs for a low price (a price that does not reflect the work and supplies and food purchased to keep the chickens healthy and produce the eggs, and especially when they post super low prices on public forums like Craigslist), those of us who are relying on egg sales to support our chickens (pay for feed and other supplies, not to mention the work to clean the eggs and prepare them for market) can't get a decent price for our eggs and can't afford to continue to participate in our hobby because those who are doing it for fun are undercutting the market.

Consumers have an incorrect idea of what eggs should actually cost because grocery store eggs are (were) generally so cheap - the hens are raised and lay in circumstances that would make many of us shudder, but the consumers only see the dollar amount and don't think too much about the care of the animals involved. Farmers markets have helped to combat this somewhat - around here they charge double the grocery store price for farm fresh eggs from well managed healthy chickens, giving consumers the idea that farm eggs are more of a specialty item (consumers don't see the high prices farmers pay to participate in the farmers markets).

But then you have people who post "farm fresh eggs" on Craigslist for under the grocery store price. Are they trying to drive the rest of us out of owning chickens? Are they too lazy to set up a proper distribution system, and just want to unload lots of month old eggs on the market all at once? I question the health and management of the chickens that are producing those low priced eggs, because where are they getting the money to feed them if not from egg sales? Sure, you can just have them forage, or mainly forage, but unless that's carefully managed, their health may degrade over time from lack of the proper nourishment, and they'll die sooner than they would have if given proper nourishment. I don't want my chickens to live that way, but when folks undercut the market, they are making it much harder for me to give my chickens their best life and for the rest of us to be able to afford to do what we love.

I can understand that argument you are making on the prices coming under store prices, but the rest of your post about ‘ to allow us to continue to love what we do’, lack of proper nutrition by only foraging, and assuming malnutrition because a person isn’t charging a premium in order to pay for feed, and implying neglect in care makes an assumption toward all hobbyists who adore their flocks and care for them just as much as the folks who sell commercially on a small scale.
I charge $3/dz and often give eggs away to family and friends; I assure you my small flock is treated better than some people treat their children. Why do I sell cheap or give eggs for free? Because it makes people happy to be able to even get eggs when store shelves are bare and all staples are double in price. If I sell enough to pay for one bag of feed then I am satisfied, but if not I don’t mind..it’s a hobby not a career.
Sorry to come down on you— it’s not personal, and I respect your opinion, but I disagree with the blanket assumptions implying inferiority toward those whom you see as competition.

 

[Auntiejessi3]

Central Texas, $4 per dozen covers all the chickens needs.