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

[CrazyTalk]

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.

Selling eggs is kind of a funny thing - you may have trouble getting $4 a dozen in Upstate NY, because when people have land, they tend to have chickens if they want eggs (which is probably why you don't see many people selling them). It's really easy to get much more than that if you're selling in an area with smaller lots.

It's very market dependent - in urban areas you can get $10 a dozen (and more during hatching season) - you get rural enough, and you can't even give the things away.

 

[sarahandbray]

Yeah, I think I might just be urban enough. We are about 8 miles south of Albany and in one of the few "Right to Farm" areas around here. I think I would describe our area as thoroughly suburban. We border Albany, Glenmont, Delmar, Feura Bush, etc. and I have a lot of friends on Facebook who are DYING to find a weekly supplier of fresh eggs. I know three people out of my friends that raise chickens, but they only have 8-12 hens. Most of my friends live in neighborhoods with quarter acre lots and all sorts of neighborhood regs--numbers of cars in driveways, no boats, no ATVs, etc.

I guess it can't hurt to try, right? What's the worst people can say? No?

It does seem, however, that most people selling eggs locally on Craigslist are getting $3/dozen. I may have to come down, but I think it's better to come down in price than go up.

I guess I'll see how this goes and check prices of the "fancier" eggs at my local grocery store.

Thanks for all of the input and advice--truly appreciated!! Funny how each egg we pick up, four days into this, is still really exciting! I wonder when collecting eggs will turn into a chore instead of fun...

--Sarah

 

[37 Caddy]

I dont think i could sell mine for 4.00 a dozen,i am giving them "organic laying mash",i paid 37.00 for a 50 lb bag?,they also get to forage out in the yard too,i told my wife if we could train the chickens to go out at night and steal their own feed,it would take 57 years to break even at the egg game!,we call it chicken television when we sit and watch them.Harvey

 

[sarahandbray]

My kids and I spent some quality time in the egg aisle at Price Chopper to see what the comparable prices were. Basically, the Price Chopper white or brown eggs are around $2, Egglands Best basic eggs are $3ish and then it jumps up from $4.50-6 for the cage-free, pasture-raised or Organic eggs.

So I think $4 is where I'll start. If we just can't get rid of them, I'll drop it down. Thanks!!

 

[AQHAchick22]

My kids and I spent some quality time in the egg aisle at Price Chopper to see what the comparable prices were. Basically, the Price Chopper white or brown eggs are around $2, Egglands Best basic eggs are $3ish and then it jumps up from $4.50-6 for the cage-free, pasture-raised or Organic eggs.

So I think $4 is where I'll start. If we just can't get rid of them, I'll drop it down. Thanks!!

Ugh it always annoys me to see how much people will pay for "cage free" eggs. If they only knew what "cage free" actually meant...

 

[matt44644]

Ugh it always annoys me to see how much people will pay for "cage free" eggs. If they only knew what "cage free" actually meant...

Could you explain please?Thanks

 

[AQHAchick22]

Could you explain please?Thanks

Cage-free hens still have better lives than those who live in cages (they can spread their wings, move around etc.) it doesn't mean what most people think it means. From talking to people I get the impression they think it means they live good lives outside, with plenty of room. However, these hens are still forced to live in cramped, dirty spaces.

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/cage-free_vs_battery-cage.html

 

[LakeMomNY]

I think you can start at $4.

I live out in Greenwich where 50% of my kids' classmates live on farms and where the response to my chicks showing up at the post office was "We got ours last week. Yours are noisy -- good sign. Had some quiet ones arrive a few days ago."

Farm stand eggs out here go for upwards of $4. I'm familiar with the general area you are talking about. I used to live off Whitehall Rd. I think you'll do fine at $4, and I agree that it is better to drop the price than raise it.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

Cage-free hens still have better lives than those who live in cages (they can spread their wings, move around etc.) it doesn't mean what most people think it means. From talking to people I get the impression they think it means they live good lives outside, with plenty of room. However, these hens are still forced to live in cramped, dirty spaces.

http://www.humanesociety.org/issues/confinement_farm/facts/cage-free_vs_battery-cage.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/20...the-rise-of-cage-free-eggs-means-for-chickens - another interesting read on the issue. I would love to see the results of the study mentioned being done in Michigan and am curious as to the cause(s) determined for the increased mortality in cage free settings.
I do think it's funny (not funny ha-ha, more funny sad) when people see "cage free" and think of hens frolicking in big grassy meadows - great marketing trick on the part of the industry because I can't imagine they didn't think that would be the impression given by the choice of terminology when the initial outrage over battery hens had erupted. Cage free is decidedly the lesser of two evils, but still not the optimal situation (imo) - but the optimal situation would result in prices that people are not going to want to pay for that carton of eggs. Of course, in a perfect world everyone would have their own little coop with 2-3 hens in the backyard - chickens for everyone, lol!

 

[CrazyTalk]

Of course, in a perfect world everyone would have their own little coop with 2-3 hens in the backyard - chickens for everyone, lol!

I'm partially just arguing to argue, and partially because I like to wax philosophical, but I don't see this as a perfect world at all.

The green revolution (the advent of large scale farming) had some very positive effects - one of them being that a significantly smaller portion of the population needed to be farmers/grow their own food. It allowed people who didn't want to be farmers to do what they actually wanted to do - whether it be art, or music, or architecture, or whatever. A society where everyone is growing most of their own food is a society where people don't have a lot of time to do anything else. Specialization is a good thing - it leads to much more skilled laborers/artisans/etc.

Now, I like to grow food, and I like to keep livestock, and I like to build things and fix things and make things - so I'm doing that with as much of my life as I can (still gotta pay the bills, ya know?). People who don't like those things shouldn't have to do those things. There's nothing wrong with having someone else grow your food so you can spend time writing code, or writing novels, or designing buildings or whatever is you want to do. There's nothing wrong with wanting a hamburger and not slaughtering the cow yourself. In my perfect world, people would spend their time doing what they love - I'm sure you'd have chickens.



On topic - you're not gonna make money selling eggs (without thousands of birds) - but that doesn't mean you shouldn't keep chickens and sell the eggs. They're great insectivores (keep the ticks and flies and everything else down), they're good fertilizer spreaders, you can eat them when they stop laying, and they're funny as heck wandering around the yard. Those things all have value (monetary or otherwise).