Trading eggs for leftover produce, plus other food recycling ideas!

[SilverPhoenix]

Maybe this is just silly and an obvious idea, but I'm excited because I didn't think of this before and of course I had to share this idea in case other people want to use it.

Personally, I don't like selling eggs. My birds are pets and many are rescues, quite a few are older, and so their laying isn't very consistent. Most of them are bantams, too. If I sold eggs, I'd feel like I have an obligation to my customers to provide them with large eggs on a consistent basis, and considering my flock and my reasons for keeping them, that's not what I want to get involved in. And, let's face it, if I sell bantam eggs cheaply it probably won't help that much with my $120+ a month feed bill.

But of course, feed costs are high and it would be nice to reduce the amount of food costs even a little bit. So I'm thinking of posting ads offering fresh eggs in trade for unwanted/"icky" produce. Of course I'd sort it before feeding to be sure it's not too far gone or anything bad for them, but I figure it'll be win/win for everyone. People can get rid of produce that's unwanted and leftover instead of throwing it out, my chickens get healthy treats, and people get free, humane eggs from happy birds.

I'm thinking it might be an interesting experiment to put up a bin or garbage can with a sign on it for old/unwanted produce for the chickens, too. I live near a fairly popular park and a lot of people drive by my house, so maybe I'd get some free treats for the chickens out of it! Of course I'd have to sort carefully and I imagine people would put gross or weird things in it no matter what I do, but perhaps it's worth a try! If it fails miserably, I can just take it down. I may check with my local grocery stores and farmer's markets about their surplus, too. I know the farmed animal sanctuary where I work gets a bunch of produce a few times a week from one of our grocery stores. And while I don't want nearly as much as we get here (5+ garbage cans full every few days), if I can get just a little from the smaller grocery stores around my house, why wouldn't I?

I can afford chicken feed and all, and of course they'll continue getting it every day as always, but I'm just trying to think creatively and recycle unwanted food that would be discarded. It just seems like a good thing to do!

 

[TigerLilly]

I think it's a great idea, but I'd personally prefer to know who I'm getting my stuff from--dont trust strangers just dropping stuff off in a can, but that's just me.
Say, for instance, you had 4 nice people drop off stuff (legitimately)--all fine and well. 5th person comes by & pours a tad bit of anti-freeze on top & it drizzles down over the good stuff.
Will you be able to tell BEFORE you feed it out or AFTER & they've suffered from being poisoned?
Not trying to be a nay-sayer, and I am not a miserable, always thinking negative-type person, but please be careful!
And I applaud your creative thinking in trying to benefit the community

 

[Oregon Blues]

Before I had my own laying ducks, I would have been happy to trade fruit and garden produce for eggs. Not yucky stuff, either. Good fresh produce. Yucky stuff goes into the compost bin.

I want to see the person face to face. I wouldn't put out a can. Too many mean insane people out there who will do harm just because they think it is funny. Not to mention, the parks here chain the garbage cans. Which suggests to me that your can might get stolen.

It would have to be a trade very close by or the cost of gasoline would be more than the feed value.

Do you have room for a veggie garden? My birds get a lot of food out of my garden, just from the scraps and trimmings. They also get a lot of fruit in the fall. All the windfalls and all the fruit I can't get eaten or preserved. None of it goes to waste.

Also, do you have a day old bakery outlet? My local one sells livestock bread. Out of date stale bread by the shopping cart full. On Tuesdays it is 1/2 price, so I plan my trips into town to fall on a Tuesday.

 

[kuntrygirl]

I would never accept someone's leftovers that I didn't know. I wouldn't trust it. My family, friends and co-workers bring me their leftovers and I get free fruit from our local veggie and fruit truck. The old man drops daily fruit and vegetables over.

Eggs and leftovers have different values, so you would be losing out on the deal.