The Price Of Eggs, Whats A Fair Price

[ButchGood]

This question has been asked on this forum before, but I couldn't find a recent thread for 2012. My girls are really starting to come on now. I have 14 birds, 13 laying right now. I'm getting about 9 good eggs a day. I have a surplus now and would like to start selling to co-workers and neighbors. Id like to make enough to pay for my feed. That means I get free eggs

. If things go well I'm planning on expanding my flock to 20 or 30 birds and sell at a little farmers market close to my home. I'll be selling eggs and a variety of homegrown foods and crafts.
That brings me to the question, What is a good asking price for free range eggs? I would say they are organic, but I can't guarantee that. I try to feed organic...but you know how it is. Farm fresh all natural free range eggs. Whats the price?

 

[sumi]

I'm not in the US, so I can't make a price, but what I did was look at the price of eggs in the local shops and price mine according to those. I knew the people round her wouldn't pay free range egg price. (I must add that free range eggs here cost exactly twice as much as battery eggs.) I priced mine the same as the battery eggs, made 100% profit and I sold as many eggs as my girls produced. If you buy your chicken food in bulk you should save a lot and make a bit of a profit along with your free eggs.

 

[Daisy8s]

I'm sure location is a factor for price. Up here in Michigan I'm seeing established people sell for $4.50 a dozen. I just sold my first dozen for $4.00 and the customer offered more. My eggs are also free range but their feed is not organic.

I have a question for others who are selling eggs. What do you do about liability issues--can someone sue you if they get sick from your eggs? Is there any kind of insurance I should buy if I'm selling eggs? I know it's pretty easy to set up an LLC--do people do this to protect themselves if there's a lawsuit?

Don't mean to hijack the thread but I'm curious if others who are selling eggs have some advice.

 

[mtnviewfarms]

I answered this question on another forum I visit and use so I pasted my
rather long reply below - probably more than you wanted to know - but the
person who posted the question on the other forum was saying how people didn't want to give more than $1.50 or two dollars per dozen and she was
'losing money' selling the eggs so asked what she could do about it ~

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting $$ for the eggs produced by your hens requires 'marketing savvy' and lots of 'educating the public' and promoting 'REAL' Free Range / Cage Free / Farm Fresh Eggs VS commercially produced 'erroniously labeled eggs'.

Should we have to do all this just so we can 'supplement' our increasingly costly poultry feed costs due to the shortages and high cost of grains and corn?

Of course not!

Unfortunately the 'big agri-business machine' to which commercial egg producers belong are able to hoodwink the seemingly ever-gullible public into believing that their eggs advertised and marketed as having been laid by 'cage free - free range birds' ACTUALLY ARE WHEN IN MOST CASES THEY ARE DEFINITELY NOT.

Since the USDA and majority of State Department of Agriculture are 'beholding' and dependent on the commercial interests ( due to the amount of campaign support they give as well as the revenues from the sales of their prouducts ) they 'fold' and sign off on and allow to pass, the empty non-specific regulations regarding how these 'terms' are defined, interpreted and implemented by growers which often results in less than humane conditions for the animals as well as not providing the 'public' with what they believe they are actually getting.

Cage Free on a commercial basis is usually thousands of hens crowded wing to wing on the floor of a huge chicken house where all they have room to do is eat and lay eggs - not move around much if at all. According to the USDA guidelines this can and IS called, labeled and sold as 'cage free' eggs in retail stores. I know this for fact as I live in north GA which is the 'chicken/egg' capital of the South and several of our neighbors and acquaintances run and own these commercial chicken houses.

Same goes for USDA guidelines for the term 'free range' - to USDA it only means that they 'have access to' the outdoors - this can be a tiny little door out to a yard that is only able to support several birds when indeed thousands reside in the commercial house. Current USDA guidelines also give the grower full discretion as to when, during what conditions and how the birds will have 'access to the outdoors'. Often this ends up being 'NEVER'.

I raise heritage breeds of poultry and sell my REAL FARM FRESH FREE RANGE CAGE FREE LARGE BROWN GRADE A EGGS both directly from my small homestead/farm and also at two local farmers markets in my area that operate from the first of April through October every year.

In my State, Georgia, An individual who wishes to sell their eggs publicly at a farmers mkt is required to obtain a Candling License/Certificate which is earned after attending a 1/2 day long class and passing tests - all of which is provided free of charge by the GA Dept. of Agriculture. I do have this license so can 'legally' sell my eggs at mkts as well as directly to the public from my farm. I offer my eggs at $4 per dozen and sell out early at every market
I attend.

I go to great lengths and spend a lot of time to publicize and educate the public about the quality and superior health benefits to be gained by the consumer from chossing and eating my farm produced eggs VS commercial eggs - I place FREE ads on Craigslist, GA free.com, ebay local and a site that my local TV station also offers at no cost. I am also registered on, annually contritube to, and have pages on both Local Harvest.Org and Real Time Farms.com - both sites have a primary objective and purpose of increasing awareness of the public of the benefits – both to our health as well as the boost it gives to local economies - when local foods, produce, meat and eggs as well as Artisan Farm Produced Products are purchased and in pointing the way to where these resources can be accessed locally in their area.

 

[Rhoise]

Our local farmers market(Boise, ID) was selling them for $4 a dozen for the past two years and they often sell out...Last weekend 3-4 of the sellers out of 5 or 6 upped the price to $5.50 a doz, said because of feed costs(as did the beef lamb folks). These are not organic eggs, just farm eggs from non-battery hens, that are allowed some access to the outdoors. I just sold my first dozen to a coworker for $4, i don't feed organic, just expensive 50# bags from local feed store, and treats yogurt oyster shells meal worms etc etc....(i only have 5 pullets laying). My coworkers usually pay $4 so they (because of the increase at local markets) felt it was a very fair price??? hope this helps, I think it's high but for sure doesn't pay for what I spend either, just helps defer some of the cost,mine are very expensive pets so far LOL!!!!

 

[Quahog]

I haven't sold any yet but I was thinking on just $3 bucks a dozen I'm not doing it to make a profit and I only have 9 chickens they are new layers but I've been getting between 5 and 8 a day if you go low that is approx 15 dozen per month if I sell 10 dozen that is $30 a month. They go through a $16 50# bag of pellets a month a 25# bag of scratch last as much as 3 months a bag of DE also last for months and I use wood shavings at $11bag per month. so I figure that pretty much covers everything !

 

[coffeenutdesign]

I wish I could sell for more, but unfortunately I am being undersold by other egg sellers and Walmart. Egg prices seem to be down right now. I sell for $2.50/doz or $3.50 for an 18 pack. So many people here get "free" eggs from the store because they have food stamps, probably 80% of the local populations (not an exaggeration) and unfortunately healthy eating is not promoted as much as it should be. We have a serious obesity problem here. I don't have many hens, so I can sell my extras to the handful of people who truly want free range eggs, but if I overprice they just go to the store because those cartons say free range also! grrr. I do just give some to my boss for free, but then he pads my check for way more than I sell eggs for, so that helps.

I also find myself unintentionally bartering with eggs a lot. I "give" some to my friends, but then they turn around and give me stuff that they make or grow. A man came selling melons and watermelons out of his truck, but he wanted some eggs when he found out I had chickens, so we struck a deal to our mutual advantage. Had another friend that I delivered eggs I was giving her and I took my daughter along, who happened to be doing a band fundraiser selling cookie dough for $17

. Hard to not buy when someone just gave you a dozen eggs, lol. I may not make as much cash for my eggs as I would like, but I do get some good deals in the process.

 

[OldGuy43]

When OldGal and I got into the chicken business we figured "Free eggs if we sell the surplus to pay for the feed." That's worked quite well for us. We've expanded into ducks and, according to OldGal the 'egg fund' now stands at $100+ and we have plenty of feed at the moment. We also paid for the ducklings and the necessary accoutrements (including a small refrigerator to store the eggs) for both the hens and the ducks from the income.

Anyway, here's our price list:

• Chicken, $2.75/dozen. We refund 25¢ if you bring your own egg carton, since that's what the cartons cost us.
• Duck, $1 each, $5/½ dozen, $7.50/dozen.

We only sell from home since you have to jump through a bunch of legal hoops to sell at a farmers market here.

Our advertising consists of:

1. A sign out front of the ranch reading, "FRESH EGGS DUCK AND CHICKEN" That's been the most effective.
2. Business cards that I printed myself and we put out there whenever we get the opportunity.
3. Word of mouth. Probably the second most effective.

Our feed costs have only went up a few cents/50# bag.

 

[angelbabyamy]

Quote: Lucky you, I just paid $17.50 for a 50 pound bag of layer pellets. I am selling my eggs for $2.00 a dozen but really need to charge more, I can't pay for the feed with just egg money. I'm not getting as many eggs as I should, I think they are laying somewhere else. I have 30 + chickens of laying eggs and am getting 8-12 a day.
I would like to charge $3.00 a dozen, but there are a lot of people that sell eggs around here. This spring I was getting 2 dozen a day and put an ad on craigslist with a picture of my eggs in a basket and my chickens were free ranging in the background and NOT ONE call about it. I mostly sell to my co-workers and my husband's. I now have more people that want them than I have eggs.

 

[cackleberryhead]

Putting my 2 cents here in SE NC. We have been selling our eggs for $4.25 this year at the local Farmer's Market. Up from $4 last year, which we bought almost all the feed from farm stores in 50# bags...Made No Profit! I give a quarter off if you return your carton. That is an expense! This year we are trying to grow most of the food from surplus garden products...we sell also. We are trying this as a home school project and love it. But it does have to pay for itself or hubby says he will not subsidize!

Wise he is. I always sell out and wish I had more layers, but that is a LOT of work to grow their food and mine.

Most of the ppl I sell to live in the city and/or are vacationing and don't seem to mind the price. Here in the country where I live, folks laugh

in my face when I tell them what I need from a dozen...oh well... to market we go

. Life is good with chickens.