Looks like I'm in the egg business.

[ruth]

Well it looks like I'm officially in the egg business. Right now I'm only selling eggs for eating but today I got my new Sportsman incubator and 6 dozen fancy breed hatching eggs along with egg cartons and labels I've made up for selling my eggs and by Spring I hope to be selling chicks and hatching eggs. I currently have over 60 chickens of various breeds, including a dozen roosters, so all of my eggs are extremely fertile so I've been hatching a lot of them but not keeping the breeds separate so I'm getting a lot of "surprise" chicks. By Spring I'll build separate pens and separate the breeds.

I got my first customer and after her first two dozen eggs she came back for more and said that her husband told her "Don't buy eggs from anyone else. Those were the best eggs I've ever eaten." Of course here in Woodville (country) many people have their own chickens but everyone keeps them locked up because of the woods and predators. Mine are truly free range thanks to my pack of dogs who keep predators at bay.

Here's my first cartons I just finished making up after designing my new label.

Unfortunately since so many people around here have chickens they are selling the eggs for only $1-$2 per carton but in Baton Rouge and Covington, where most of our friends and family live, and where I'm back and forth, they will sell for $4-$5. I had never been so thrilled as when I made my first sale for $4.00. I ran home and started an egg money stash.

 

[kstaven]

Congratulations!

 

[LoneCowboy]

Way to go! with eggs it's important to have a good location. I'm really lucky to live in a little island of county in the middle of the city. Boulder is really close and everybody here is crazy for fresh or organic local food. I get $3.75 for a doz and I can't even come close to meeting the demand, and I have over 50 chickens. I'm going to get the neighbor to add his eggs to my box to see if we can meet the demand with both of us suppling eggs.

See if you family won't put out a egg fridge for you. I have a ice box I put out for self serve eggs. People get their eggs and put their money in the bottle. Haven't had any trouble yet.

 

[steffpeck]

Congratulations!! Your packaging looks wonderful!!

 

[ninjapoodles]

Really, really sharp packaging, and I love how you're mixing up the colors. Great job!

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Thank you - I ordered the square plastic egg cartons and blank labels from eggcartons.com - one of our BYC sponsors. They are wonderful to deal with. Every time I called I spoke with Barbara and she was very helpful - even faxed my Sportsman order to GQF so it could go out that day and then followed up on it's delivery.

I got the plastic cartons because I know my family and friends and probably local customers will save them for me and they can be washed and reused.

 

[GopherBoyFarms]

WONDERFUL!!!
hopefully we will be in the same situation soon.
DH and DS are going to all the neighbors tomorrow morning to sell eggs. Its our sons business...he needs to sell the eggs to pay for the chicken food....he is 8.5 yrs old and totally into it. I will hve to show him this thread!!!
how did you market the eggs? or did you need to?
Right now we have 4 dozen in the fridge all from the past 6 days....hope we will have return customers!

 

[momma's chickens]

Congratulations ruth, your packaging is beautiful!!

Gopher, my 8 yo dd is also in the egg business. She is doing a wonderful job with the chickens, the marketing and so forth. Good luck to your son!

 

[ruth]

Quote:
Thank you. That was a very quick version of my label which I'll probably fine tune. It has a picture of our home and barn. I have so many different breeds of chickens and they all lay different colored eggs and I've found that everyone I've been giving eggs away to for last year really like the blue and green eggs so I ordered and hatched more EEs, Ameraucanas and Araucanas who have all just started laying but their eggs are still small. Still I think all the shapes, sizes, and colors showing through the carton is pretty neat. They stack nicely too. We have an old Sub Zero in which the freezer side no longer works and is used for 'cool storage' so I can stack the boxes of eggs for sale.

I stacked a couple of boxes for a customer and tied with old-fashioned ribbon/cord and it looked really neat.

All this time I've been giving baskets of eggs away to friends, family, service people, etc. I make up pretty baskets with craft straw and put the colored egg assortment in them. Many people have said they are too pretty to eat and like to leave them out for display so I wanted something that still had that old-fashioned appeal.

 

[chickiebaby]

Lovely!