I have sold 11 dozen eggs in four days

[tvtaber]

I see pullets who are older than those (6 to 12 months) for $10 around here. I think $100 for all tweleve is a good deal for both of you.

DH says eggs are over $5 a dozen in the store here (south of San Francisco, our food is really high), and that is for supermarket eggs!

 

[ascott1978]

Goes to show that price is really just driven by location. And what you feel is free for the given area you live in.

 

[ascott1978]

Quote:
meant to say fair...

 

[Flyman39]

I have sold eggs for many years. I have always tried to keep just a few good customers that I supply on a weekly basis. That way I can always assure them of good quality and exactly what they want when they want it. People who get hooked on fresh eggs find it hard to go back to the "store bought" acid washed battery hen eggs. If anyone here wants to sell a few eggs to supplement the feed bill there are some really good Ideas posted already. Please don't buy chickens for the express pupose of making extra money or thinking they will pay their own way. There are many things that can affect your production. Plan on always footing the feed bill yourself and if you sell a few eggs that's great. Find you some good regular customers. Most of mine are elderly people and I deliver them to their door. They will pay a little more for good quality eggs. Don't over-extend your flocks ability to keep up with demand and you will always have the best of eggs to sell and always have happy customers. I do what texachickmamma does. I keep a daily log of my hens egg production and feed rate. I have done this for years and I can go back and see trends due to time of the year and temperatures. I use this to project how many customers I can supply adequately. Don't ever take on more than you can supply. If you just sell at random then you will make some money but in my experience most people will want a steady supply. When they call for more and you don't have them because someone else happened by and bought all you had, they will go elsewhere leaving you with a refrigerator full of eggs the next week. I just thought I would share my experience at this. I ain't trying to tell anyone they are wrong or anything. This is just the way I do it and it won't be for everyone and other ways can work just as good if not better. I don't raise chickens to make money. I just love them and would keep them if they did'nt help pay for themselves. They are the only animal that I was ever good at raising. Selling eggs, for me, just adds a little more to the whole fun of it.

 

[CathyB]

Thats a lot of eggs! I would like to be able to sell eggs once I get my babies but do not know if I will have enough. I guess so. I have 3 EE's, 3 barred rocks, and 4 RIr's comming. I am also in the works of getting 2 or 3 buff orps. My family maybe goes through a dozen a week. So I gueess I figure:

9 eggs weekly from the EE
9 from BR's
16 from RIR's
6 or 9 from the orps

That gives me 40 possible eggs per week, minus my 12 gives me 28 or two dozen.

The only problem is my sister and in laws live right next to me. When the heard I was getting chickens they all went :"Yippee....free eggs for us"! Now, it is family but I am paying to feed these girls. Anyone have a comment about whether family should get "free" eggs????

 

[Ericasl]

I never even thought about selling them at first, but as my flock grew and people found out we had hens things just fell into place, I have just started keeping track of eggs layed and sold to see what my out put is. My ladies are very happy and it is nice they do there part to earn there keep. Now if the sheep and goats could pull there weight that would be great:yiipchick.

 

[lilcountry]

If they help with the chickens or with feed or give you something in exchange...maybe some free..it is family but like it was said the cost of everything is going up! They will understand! My neighbor and I "swop" stuff but it all ends up equal either vegetables, soon to be eggs, garden work for some sewing work.

Makes people better friends when sharing.

 

[ascott1978]

I charge my family as well. Not mean sprited or anything, I just explained that the money I get from eggs pays for the feed. If I give away the eggs I will have to foot the feed bill more. They should understand.

If not just tell them there welcome to got to the store to compare prices.

 

[FarmerMack]

Lazy J Don't fall into the trap of [i :

"it covers my feed costs"[/i] because it ruins the market for those of us that choose to approach these specialty food production venues as a business.

Jim

Excellent point and well put


Farmer MacK

 

[LazyGirl]

I totally agree. Local is better, and people out there are more than willing to pay for it. You do have to figure in the total cost of raising layers. Before we started raising our own, we were paying $3.25/dozen and I would have paid more. You get what you pay for!
Farmers need to get paid for their time and energy in hopes of saving the American Small Family Farm.