Need info on selling eggs

[Hotwings]

Thanks everyone for the helpful info. I had no idea about the egg cartons. Right now Freebie is getting nada on eggs cause everyone that is old enough to lay is either hatched a chick and is rearing that or sitting on eggs. Only a few bantams and her barred rock Lucky is laying now. She bought 10 extra pullet chicks back in March so they should be laying late summer or early fall. Right now we are kicking around ideas and I will have her check into those farmer markets on regulations. Once again Thank you from me and Freebie, who by the way I don't know if she is even aware I posted this thread.

 

[Freebie]

Great thread, Hotwings, thanks alot. I could not get onto the byc last night after work. It kept saying that is was unavailable. Don't know what was going on. Anyway, I have not talked to you in awhile. Did I tell you about the chickens my brother George just gave me? 2 of each breed. I am going to guess what breeds as it was dark when he brought them over. They are in the shed right now. I know there are 2 buff orphington, 2 black australorps,
2 of the easter eggers, and the other 4 I am not sure about. But I think they are RIR or Isa browns. and then 2 white ones

Some guy died that had like 400 chickens. The Amish guy heard about him, or else he lives near him or something. And all the chickens were free. I did not go as I was not sure if I wanted any and I told my brother this. The Amish kid said they were going to pick up a bunch and I could just come over there and pick some out. They are all about a year old, and I did not get any roosters. But he had some of those too.

I am not ready for more full grown chickens. So I guess I will be building another coop this weekend maybe. I don't know. I am afraid when I go out in the morning, that they will all get out. It is going to be quite a sight. I will get pictures soon since you are not coming out for sometime.

 

[Freebie]

Oh yeah, and I guess we better find out about the regulations here on selling eggs. I guess it will be before the end of August now before I have some eggs to sell.

 

[Hotwings]

Denise you are completely additicted now! How many birds does that make total. I will be eagerly awaiting to get to know some new breeds. You will be knee deep in eggs now! Ya know I think my dream about your birds is coming true!

 

[usbr]

State and local law are one thing to keep in mind but I believe the USDA has an exemption for small farmers and using the term "organic". You obvously have to follow the organic practices but can skip the cetrification part if you are small.

HTH
Rich

 

[George in NH]

I visited the USDA extension office prior to selling eggs. I was told that it is illegal to sell eggs in egg carton's marked with a store name, another farm name and the USDA seal on the carton unless you are the owner of the store or farm and your eggs are inspected and approved by the USDA. If you do recycle egg cartons with any markings other than your own you could be sued for false advertising. They told me that the USDA will especially be bothered by using egg cartons marked with the USDA seal if you are not USDA approved. Another thing they mentioned is egg size. They said the recyled cartons may state large, med etc but that you may have mixed eggs in the carton and that you should make that clear on the outside of the carton.

Also, I was told to never recycle egg cartons because of bacteria and if you want the USDA to stop you from selling eggs and you want to be sued then have someone get sick and blame point the finger at you for using recycled egg cartons.

I find that using new egg cartons on every sale gives me piece of mind. I also like using new cartons because I can put my farm name on the carton.

As far as organic goes, you can not say your eggs are organic unless your eggs are certified organic by the USDA. You can say they are organically feed but better to stick to natural as not to confuse people with believing you are certified organic.

Free range dosn't mean your hens wander a huge field, it simply means that your chickens are allowed access to the outside of the coop.

Quite honestly I thought for sure the USDA was going to be discouraging when it came to me selling eggs but they told me that's part of rural America and they realize that most of us will never even break even (how right they are). Pretty much keep your hens healthy, your eggs clean and fresh, use new cartons on every sale and don't mislead the buyer in any way.

 

[Freebie]

Thanks George in NH. That is some good information. I may have to make a trip to our extension office and check things out. Shoot, my husband and daughter just went there last night for some 4-H thing.

 

[usbr]

Quote:
George, how many eggs do you sell in a year? As I understand things, small farmers are exempt from the certification process.

Rich

 

[George in NH]

Hi Rich, I never kept count of eggs sold in a year; I give away a lot more than I sell. Most of my buyers are older ladies who are on fixed incomes and use the eggs for baking so I give them more eggs than I sell to them and they bring me homemade snacks

When I went to the USDA they specifically told me that I could not feed my chickens organic foods and then claim the eggs are organic unless the USDA had been out to inspect and certified my eggs as organic. I believe they said the chickens would have to be fed organic food for three months to be considered organic; I may be wrong on this, it could be longer or less time. They said they'd come out, set up and do testing for a day and if all was fine they'd certify my eggs and poultry as organic. Organic food here cost twice as much as regular food so I never did go organic. The USDA was aware of the fact that I only raised a small backyard flock when they gave me the information about being certified

 

[usbr]

George, you may want to look into it again because you seem to have been told incorrect info (unless you sell alot of eggs, thats why I asked how many you sold in a year). Small farmers are exempt from the certification process but still have to comply with the rest of the NOP. I got a few links below for more info if anybody is interested.

This link explains things a little better than the USDA site but it is a site for MN. For some reason, MN is explaining the USDA program better than the USDA does, at least in one east to find webpage.
http://www.mda.state.mn.us/food/organic/exemptions.htm

Here is the USDA site covering the NOP. http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/indexIE.htm

Click on the "Questions & Answers". http://www.ams.usda.gov/nop/Q&A.html

George, it sounds like you dont want to be organic because the feed is double the cost of regular but many people feed it for other reasons and for those people, they can sell the eggs they have as organic. Maybe I have been mislead (we are talking a goverment program here) and if so, Im sure somebody will post links showing where I am wrong. Basically I have found the state rules to be more restrictive than the NOP.

HTH,
Rich