pricing eggs

[aart]

I started my prices at 3.50/doz, similar to what a couple other locals were selling for(and much more than others) and kept them there for 2 years now.
Only selling to a few friends who were interested in non factory eggs and supporting my small flock endeavor.
One customer was buying 'cage-free' eggs at the grocery and when I explained what FDA 'cage-free' meant,
she was very happy to buy from me at much the same price as the grocery.

I keep close track of my feed expenses vs egg sales in a spreadsheet and the 3.50/doz covers the feed (and my egg consumption) even during low production times.
When it more than covers feed cost, I figure it partially covers bedding and other supplies.
I've never expected it to cover the startup cost of coop/run building, equipment or raising chicks to point of lay, my goal was to cover feed costs and my egg consumption.

Right now I have a slowdown of eggs due to culling too soon and pullets just coming into lay.
I have had to limit and rotate sales to and between my first 3 regular and most loyal supporters/customers, they understand and appreciate it.
When I have a glut of pullet eggs I weigh the cartons out at approx. 26-27 oz (XL),
sometimes it takes up to 18 eggs to make weight but I keep the price the same to avoid accounting nightmares.

 

[microchick]

Around us the Amish are all selling eggs. The local Amish General Store's most recent price is 1.95 per dozen large to extra large brown eggs. Farmers are selling them for similar prices. In the local HyVee, I noticed that eggs were going for almost 3 dollars per dozen. My hens are just starting to lay so things are pretty slow right now. We are getting about a dozen a week from three or 4 hens but by next spring, we will have 13 hens laying so there will be eggs available to sell. Problem is, I'll have to price them to compete with the Amish around me. Keep in mind, they feed cheap and I've noticed that their eggs have very thin shells. Either old hens or no layer feed/oyster shell being offered to the girls. It's going to be hard to price below what they are asking and make a profit. The way I'm looking at it is any money I can make on extra eggs will go towards defraying food costs. Granted, I feed layer mix from the local MFA that runs 10 dollars per 50 pounds. It is 20% protein compared to the feed from Orschelns or Tractor Supply which is only 18%. The hens seem to prefer the crumbles and if I throw in a little cracked corn they are thrilled.

If we get enough of a surplus of eggs that we can sell, I will but the main reason we started our own flock was to provide eggs for our own consumption that we were 100% sure of their freshness and content. Anything else is just icing for the cake.

 

[donrae]

microchick--in your case, I would emphasize words such as cage free, pastured, backyard, natural, etc---whatever applies in your situation. Most folks see "Amish" and think of happy animals ranging on a green pasture--my understanding is they're not always good to their animals, often little better than Big Ag. So, to compete with them I would use buzzwords that emphasize the difference.

Also, the best market is word of mouth. I have advertised on CL only a few times. The majority of my customers over the years have come from work and church. Give the first dozen free and you've got them hooked

 

[aart]

Using the word 'Amish' as a marketing term can be as misleading as 'cage free', 'pastured', 'natural', etc.
Amish have run some of the biggest puppy mills busted and they don't always take good care of their animals as one would 'think'.
Just like any 'population', there are good folks and bad folks...sheesh, sorry for rant, got me going.

My brother had the same problem with 'organic' with his truck farming, finally gave up the certification 'game' and did fine because his customers knew how he grew.

 

[numzldr]

ChickChick I"m not sure where in the USofA ur at to find eggs for $1.60 but in the stores around here (40mins N of Baltimore) "cage free" brown eggs were $4.29/doz. I've been sellin mine at 2.50 but started telling folks I was going to raise prices soon.

 

[1ChicChick]

I'm labeling this best way to price eggs (out of this post).

How long does it take you to go through a 50 pound bag of feed, and how much does that bag of feed cost? Then don't forget the bedding for your coop. Presumably you are buying pine shavings or straw or something like that. Then there are little incidentals. If you have a hurt chicken, it costs money to buy bandages and other supplies. If they need to be wormed, that costs money too.

For an example, here's an approximate monthly breakdown for my flock of 8 chickens, 5 of which are currently laying.

Feed: 67 pounds of feed = $21.44
Bedding: One bag of pine shavings = $6 (I would use a lot more than this, but I also have some pine straw that I've collected for free and bagged up myself)
Incidental expenses in the past month = $11 (In this category I'll include anything from new feeders and waterers, to worming medication, or whatever other small purchases they might need)
Total monthly expenses = 38.44

Eggs laid: 98 eggs, or ~8 dozen

If we divide $38.44 by 8 dozen, then my eggs have cost me about $4.80 per dozen. That doesn't factor in what has been spent on their coop and run, and it definitely doesn't factor in labor. And as we go into winter, my eggs are going to cost more than that, since my birds will molt.

Now, there would certainly be ways to get these numbers better... maybe you can get a better deal on feed. Maybe you have all super-star layers like golden comets, and cull them when they reach their second molt. My flock is pretty young, and I have good but not super-star layers (Marans and Easter Eggers). One of my 8 is a rooster, so not having a rooster could help with your feed conversion some.

Or maybe you can get all the bedding materials you need from your own property. And maybe you spend less than I have this summer on incidental stuff.

Feel free to take my numbers and play with them until you feel it more accurately reflects your own hens.


Anyway, point is, I think most people feel guilty about charging "too much" if they are over grocery store prices. But you shouldn't feel bad about that. You should compare yourself to the highest-end eggs from Whole Foods, not to battery hen eggs that are on sale... Definitely charge at least enough to break even. If no one wants to buy them at that price, then freeze them and keep them for yourself and your family, for when your hens are molting this winter.

Here are instructions for the best way to freeze eggs:
http://www.incredibleegg.org/eggcyclopedia/f/freezing-eggs/

 

[Blueeyedbetty2]

One more thing. Even if you're keeping your chickens in a coop and run, it's like commercial free range. To be classified as free range commercially, they can have a huge chicken house with thousands of chickens, and a door at one end leading to a small outdoor run. As long as the chickens have "access" to the outdoors, that's considered commercial free range. Most of the hens may never see the outdoors because they would have to get past thousands of others to do so... And legally, this still counts.

Plus, those hens still have to be debeaked to deal with severe overcrowding. So you are probably doing way better than even commercial free range.

How do you freeze the eggs