How to sell small farm eggs

[waddling4fun]

I am new to this forum and hope that you all will be able to help me.

I live in South Carolina, a small podunk town, and have a small farm.

My chickens have run of our six acres and they share it with a horse, mini donkey, and two goats. I love them. I have 4 chickens that are red and produce brown eggs (I believe we were told they are sextons) and 10 white leghorns. My leghorns have started laying and now have about a dozen a day. I have my chickens for pleasure and love them running around. My husband made me a beautiful sign to sell the eggs. Again, for pleasure I am only selling them for a dollar a dozen and they are not selling. I would like to take them to the farmer market to get rid of them. I was told that I needed to get them graded and inspected by the USDA??

Does anyone sell their eggs and can help me through the process?

I would be so thankful for any help.

 

[gbeauvin]

Do you have any feed stores near you? I know our feed mill sells fresh eggs from local farmers at $2 a dozen. I also noticed a sign just last week about a mile from our house, "Eggs : $1.50", so I stopped in to get 2 dozen straight from the source

. Need to cook up a quiche tonight!

-GB (who hasn't moved to where he can have his own chickens yet, so he'll settle for fresh eggs from a neighbor)

 

[drifter]

Maybe because you are selling them at a farmers market is the key requiring you to have them inspected. Around me people just out their eggs in ang a sign ($3.00 a dozen) and they go.

I would continue to just keep them out with your sign ... its just a matter of time before people see it and start stopping for fresh eggs at a great price.

 

[BarefootMom]

It takes awhile for people to stop- I have noticed.

Do you live in a heavily traffic area? if Not maybe you need more signs. Also I have a flyer posted at our gas station (we only have one in "town") and I posted a flyer at the feed store and the sale barn in the next town over-with my phone number and directions.

And once you do get people to stop make sure they have your information. I use address labels with my name and phone number and put them on my cartons. That way they can call you if they somehow forget where they got the eggs- or to make sure you are home.

When I started selling again this spring it took about a month before anyone stopped. Do you have a facebook account? I advertised to all my friends that I had eggs for sale and also I posted it on CL.

Are there lots of chicken people in your neighborhood? That could be part of it- lots of people nowadays have a few chickens all their own and have enough eggs for their family.

Good Luck and hope it gets better!