Interested in selling eggs

[brown egg 25]

Im a first time flock owner and was looking on info good or bad on selling eggs, chicks. So i would love to hear from anyone who is selling eggs to friends and family or to a grocery store etc... just looking for positives and negatives prices and if its even worth it. Thanks for your input ahead of time. Also if you are selling successfully how did you get started?

 

[Percheron chick]

It is impossible to sell eggs on a small scale and make money. Most of us just sell our extra eggs to family and friends hoping to cover feed costs plus some extra. You will never be able to recoop the cost of the coop plus raising the pullets than factor in the down time $4-5 at a time.

If you want to sell to a grocery store or even CSA, you will need to investigate your state and local regs. That will involve being licenced, candleing and washing eggs, new cartons, labeling...

 

[aart]

I have had a small flock of ~15 for 2 years now.
Have been able to cover the ongoing feed and bedding costs, and all the eggs I can eat, with egg sales....
.....but not the cost of building coop and runs.

By hatching new pullets every year(eating/trading/selling the cockerels), and and eating/trading/selling older birds, I should be able to continue that. I only sell to 3-6 friends/acquaintances locally.

Selling larger quantities is not possible because I can't afford to build more housing,
and I don't want the work and bureaucracy of permits and certifications those sales would entail.

A lot depends on your local market, who wants to buy what for how much around your area.
You'll need to do a lot of local research.

Try the BYC advanced search, there's been a lot of discussion of selling eggs,
I'll get you started.
Advanced search>titles only> egg selling

 

[DianaMallory]

It is impossible to sell eggs on a small scale and make money. Most of us just sell our extra eggs to family and friends hoping to cover feed costs plus some extra. You will never be able to recoop the cost of the coop plus raising the pullets than factor in the down time $4-5 at a time.

If you want to sell to a grocery store or even CSA, you will need to investigate your state and local regs. That will involve being licenced, candleing and washing eggs, new cartons, labeling...

It is not impossible. I don't sell my eggs for a living. But I do sell enough to cover the feed cost. I have a large family so many of my eggs go out the door to them. When I had a larger flock and I had more eggs than I knew what to do with I donated them to a local soup kitchen. My problem now is I don't have enough hens to keep up with demand. Which is going to change in the near future. My advise is to you, to make your life easier have more than one coop, were you can add new egg layers, to keep production up. Introducing new hens to old ones has proven to be to much work for me. I prefer to keep them separated. And if you are raising hens for eggs make sure you do your research and buy the number one egg layers. I mixed my flock the last time and I will not do that again. I am sticking to my comets, red sex links, red star, and what ever the hatchery chooses to call them. From experience I found they are the best for large brown eggs and lots of them.

 

[aart]

Quote: But did you recover the costs of building your coops/runs?
....bedding and everything else you bought to care for birds?
........and make money above all those costs?

 

[brown egg 25]

Has anyone sold chicks?

 

[aart]

Has anyone sold chicks?

Advanced search>titles only>selling chicks

 

[brown egg 25]

Dont understand aart. Why did you quote me?

 

[Percheron chick]

I don't sell chicks but I do sell started pullets. I raise them 15-20 weeks. No mistake on gender by that age. $20 each and I can sell 100-150 without trying. Clear about $7 each.

 

[donrae]

I've done small scale selling chicks, not enough to really make any profit. Mostly just to support my hatching addiction

.

This is where your local market needs to be taken into account. I have several feed stores in my local area that sell chicks basically from Feb-June, and again Sept-Nov. They order sexed pullets from the large hatcheries and sell them for between $2-5 each depending on the breed. They offer a decent variety of breeds, including some not-so-common birds. That's hard for me to compete with. I can't accurately vent sex chicks, so I'd have to sell straight run or breed sex links. I worked on a blue egg laying blue sex link for two years before throwing in the towel. To compete with the local feed stores, I'll need to offer something unique, preferably in a sex link so I can guarantee pullets. Most folks around here don't want straight run. The other option is to grow them out to 6ish weeks when they can be sexed fairly accurately and offer a pullet guarantee. That does leave me with a bunch of cockerels to either sell off or raise up and butcher. You also need more space than if you're selling chicks as day-olds.

Some areas don't have so much competition from the feed stores, that would be a bonus for you.

Some areas folks might not mind buying straight run. I've had a few folks not mind, but most want pullets.

You also need to take into account the cost of your incubator, and your hatch rates. Incubating has a definite learning curve. Even finding a used styrobator on CL with a turner (I've seen them here for around $60), you'd have to hatch and sell several chicks just to cover the cost of the incubator. Then you have the brooder, electricity for the light or heating pad, starter feed, etc.

added--I was typing when the above response came in. I also sell point of lay pullets and they are probably the best money makers. Thing is, you have to have housing for them up til 5ish months of age.