Is $4/dozen pastured eggs to much? Suburban upstate, NY...

[sarahandbray]

Hi there...I know this price varies WIDELY from area to area, state to state, but is $4 asking too much/dozen at our family farm stand just a few miles south of Albany, NY? We are on a main county road with lots of traffic and have a great customer base with our little front yard farm stand--we sell veggies, cut/arranged flowers, and used golf balls (weird--but my husband and kids love picking them up at my parent's house--they live on a golf course--and they literally get HUNDREDS each time they go out looking.)

As I drive around the area, I've only seen one road side signs for eggs--and the place is SUPER sketchy...you know, the kind of property the county is always trying to make sure they clean up? (all dirt yard, junk cars, cages all over the place of various small animals...super creepy). They are charging $3/dozen.

$3/dozen seems to barely help us break even, taking into consideration cost of the chickens, feed, time, DE, grit, oyster shells, electricity, trips to Tractor Supply, medicines, etc.

Our local grocery store/Stewart's shops sometimes sell eggs for $2-$2.50 for regular old commercial eggs. Our Whole Foods in Albany sells eggs upwards of $6/dozen.

Would $4 be a reasonable price to start out at, considering they are pastured, healthy, backyard chickens and there doesn't seem to be any local competition in this market?

-Sarah

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Really all you can do is start and ask $4 and see if you find enough folks willing to pay that price. Actually turning any sort of profit for small scale egg production is not such an easy thing to accomplish.

 

[sarahandbray]

Yeah, we definitely make out better on the golf balls! Free to get and $5/dozen for most brands and $10/Pro-V1s!!

Oh well--I'm not really trying to make a major profit--just off-set costs, feed my habit, and let my son make this his little "part-time" job. I was thinking that advertising them as cage-free, pasture-raised, and organic-fed would warrant the $4 price tag.

I will try, but I don't want to put-off people from buying or sound greedy!!! Maybe I'll have my kids come up with a fun list of why fresh eggs like this are superior to store-bought--laminate it--and stick it on the big cooler we're going to have out front on the farm stand. I also take pretty decent photos, so maybe some nice pics of the chooks would be fun!!

We are in an interesting location--relatively blue collar neighborhood bordering on several upper-middle class neighborhoods (Delmar, Glenmont, etc.) I'll be curious to see if this price is tolerated!!

Sarah

 

[Mrkngpen]

Hi there, I'm the one posting about the Speckled Sussex that wandered into my yard.

Could you pm me your address? I'd love to come buy your eggs!

 

[sarahandbray]

Great! I absolutely will PM you my address. Right now, we only have 10 laying hens so we don't have a ton yet (about 8 eggs/day) but we have about 20 11-week-old hens that will be laying this late winter/Spring. Will be making a list of regular customers to ask first when we have eggs!! Thanks!

 

[AQHAchick22]

Yeah, we definitely make out better on the golf balls! Free to get and $5/dozen for most brands and $10/Pro-V1s!!

Oh well--I'm not really trying to make a major profit--just off-set costs, feed my habit, and let my son make this his little "part-time" job. I was thinking that advertising them as cage-free, pasture-raised, and organic-fed would warrant the $4 price tag.

I will try, but I don't want to put-off people from buying or sound greedy!!! Maybe I'll have my kids come up with a fun list of why fresh eggs like this are superior to store-bought--laminate it--and stick it on the big cooler we're going to have out front on the farm stand. I also take pretty decent photos, so maybe some nice pics of the chooks would be fun!!

We are in an interesting location--relatively blue collar neighborhood bordering on several upper-middle class neighborhoods (Delmar, Glenmont, etc.) I'll be curious to see if this price is tolerated!!

Sarah

I work in Delmar and have people who buy eggs for $3/dozen, however I have also found people who are willing to pay $5/dozen and tell me they are surprised I only ask $3. It's worth a shot asking for $4

 

[sarahandbray]

Yeah, two sellers in my high school charge $3 and one lady charges $5. They both have a loyal following! I think with good advertising, a big group of local friends on Facebook, local delivery, and the fact that it's my 6-year-old's "job" to feed/water/collect eggs, then maybe that will work. I don't want to start out at $3 and then raise prices later! I always wondered why eggs were so cheap...they are subsidized, aren't they?

 

[37 Caddy]

4.00 is not out of line at all,try it and see what happens,if they are a hard sell then lower the price.I recently built a hen house and got 10 young birds to have eggs,they were a "hobby" for me and my grandson,i figure my first dozen eggs cost me 2,000.00 so 4.00 is pretty reasonable.And the kicker is he is taking orders for the eggs and gets to keep the money?.But he loves the birds and the time we spend together,it makes it all worthwhile,he is 7,. Good Luck harvey

 

[sarahandbray]

Aww, that's sweet!! Each of my three kids has a "job" that they get to keep the money from--they put 1/2 in the bank and make a goal of something to save for with the other half. My daughter (11) helps with the flowers and veggies, my oldest son (9) with the golf balls, and now my youngest (6) is the eggs. He is MILITANT about it, too--everyone wanted to find the first few eggs, but he tried to have the monopoly on that!!

If someone had actually explained to me all of the costs that goes in to a dozen eggs of a backyard farmer, I would have gladly paid $4/dozen--even when you take out the start-up costs, this is not exactly a lucrative business any way you slice it!! It's fine, since this is more of a hobby I'm hoping to break even on, but all of our other enterprises seem to bring in a lot more $$ per time/resources expended!!

I think I'm going to try $4/dozen and see how it goes. Ridiculous that eggs can be $2 at the grocery store!!!

Sarah

 

[matt44644]

I read that on average it takes 4 pounds of feed to make a dozen eggs.I don't remember the link,if i do i'll post it