Finally selling some eggs....

[bearcreekfarm]

Selling eggs has always been a hit or miss proposition for us. We live too far out in the country, where a lot of other people keep chickens and have their own eggs. Then, there is not enough traffic for a stand or on-farm sales. But this year, with my daughter in pre-school, I have access to buyers in the bigger town in which her school is located. I have been selling a dozen or so eggs a week to the music teacher lately, but I finally decided to post an ad on craigslist for that town. Did not have any responses for a couple of days, but then got an email from a lady who wanted 5 dozen. I actually only get around 10-12 eggs a day, and like to sell them when they are really fresh, so I put together 3 dozen of my eggs and got a couple of dozen from a friend who has 16 hens at her place.

Neither of us is trying to make $$$ from our chickens, but we would both love to at least sell enough eggs to pay for their feed. I am right at that point now, mainly because I supplement my hens' diet with the school lunchroom scraps. I am about to lose that source because the environmental studies teacher is setting up composting bins this weekend, and beginning Monday the kids will be composting all of the leftovers. I am glad to see that they are finally going to do this, but I'll miss the scraps

[bergere]

Nothing wrong with making some money, everyone needs it to pay bills and eat.

My DS is selling eggs at College, $3.00 a dozen right now. That way he has lunch and dinner money. He does keep the Hen house clean and does chores, so I don't mind him selling them.
At $3.00 a dozen, it won't cover the Hens feed bill. I would have to get near $5.00 to come close.

So called Organic eggs in this area, sold at the grocery stores, are running from $5.00 to $7.00 a dozen, so the folks at the college are getting a good deal.

Your chickens were doing the composting for the school.. But sorry to hear the loss of the scraps.

[bearcreekfarm]

Bergere, what are you feeding your chickens? We are selling our eggs for $2/dozen. I feel like we are practically giving them away at that price, but demand is low around here Of course, they are not organic, but they are free-ranged on pasture so a lot of what they are consuming is organic

I cannot imagine paying $5-7 a dozen for eggs, though I wouldn't mind selling them at that price.

[bergere]

I get a Non GMO, Organic chicken feed, at the feed store over in Ashland, VA. Is up to $19.00 and change for 50lbs. Thank goodness this store decided to carry it. Really hard to
find non GMO Organic anything over here.

They free range around the house and two pastures during the day.

Back in Oregon, I bought some wonderful Organic chicken feed, from Azure Standard, for $15.00 for 50lbs.
If you are on the West Coast, you can get really good organic feed from Azure.

The eggs DS sells are all large to xtra large. We keep the smaller ones for the family. Also have Welsummer and Blue Copper Marans eggs, which people seem to love.
Hopefully, by next year, will be adding a nice blue egg layer.


agritrue.com/sources-non-gmo-animal-feeds/

[Skandi]

We sell 10 eggs a week at below supermarket price for CAGED eggs. (we sell at $2 for 10) that's just over a quarter of the eggs we get (about 38 a week) and that covers 3/4 of the feedbill, I'm hoping once they can get some garden scraps it will more than cover the feedbil. (any form of kitchen scrap or meat is illegal) I don't understand why more people here do not have hens, everyone out here has space, and chicken feed is so cheap.

converted prices
it's $10 for 30lb of feed (non gmo gmo feed is cheaper)
and $3.33 for 15 eggs (caged) about $5 for 15 freerange eggs

30lb of feed right now is turning into 152 eggs

[amylou]

My husband has been selling a few dozen here and there to the guys he works with. Last night he came home and said he needed ten dozen for this morning. This will help pay the feed bill.

[bretf]

I don't know how you can find them, but in a lot of areas there are groups / co-ops that think like us; they want to eat healthy, real food.  My wife used to give away my eggs when one of the recipients told her about such a group at her church. 

They have been buying all my eggs now for a number of years.  I do minimal cleaning so I don't mess with the natural protection on them.  One member comes to my home once a month to get al my eggs, then takes them to the monthly get together.  The way she describes it, different people  get different items for the get togethers.  (Sad face here, I never could get her interested in my raw goat milk).

A number of times the ladies have asked about feed.  I can't say I'm organic, but as otherwise noted, they are free range, and I feed wheat only, and have cut out the GMO corn.

They cover all my feed costs as well as the goat feed. 

[bearcreekfarm]

Bret, there are a lot of groups like the one you described here in Minnesota, but non anywhere near us.

[bearcreekfarm]

I did find a place to sell all of the eggs I have available. I stopped at the community college up in Brainerd one day last week and, on a whim, stopped at the secretaries' desk and asked if anyone would be interested. I did not have any with me, but the head secretary was very interested and said she wanted some. When I told her I would have 2 dozen the next day she immediately said that she would take them both.

I went back the next day to deliver the eggs and when she saw them, she told me to bring all of my extra eggs in and they would be sold

At this point, I made enough $$$ last week to pay for a bag of feed, which would have lasted me several weeks if I had not lost my source of free food scraps, which I had been supplementing them with all year to date. My daughter's school finally started composting their food waste on site. Great for them, not so great for me, lol. But, I have found a new source starting next Monday, so the feed bill should go back down dramatically.

[bergere]

Way cool BearCreek! Those college are a great place to sell farm fresh eggs!

[Deleted]

I sell my brown or light green eggs to colleagues for $3.50 a dozen but with several hens going broody I'm lucky to have enough for my own use right now. This fall I should have 15 Buckeye layers & 5 mixed breeds. People love them - they can't believe the firm almost orange yolks, non-GMO feed, and free-range. I am not going to add up if I break even on costs because I enjoy the chickens & the healthy eggs & meat. Bonus is being able to give & sell them to others.

[bretf]

Apr 26, 2015 2:03:20 GMT bearcreekfarm said:

I did find a place to sell all of the eggs I have available. I stopped at the community college up in Brainerd one day last week and, on a whim, stopped at the secretaries' desk and asked if anyone would be interested. I did not have any with me, but the head secretary was very interested and said she wanted some. When I told her I would have 2 dozen the next day she immediately said that she would take them both.

I went back the next day to deliver the eggs and when she saw them, she told me to bring all of my extra eggs in and they would be sold

At this point, I made enough $$$ last week to pay for a bag of feed, which would have lasted me several weeks if I had not lost my source of free food scraps, which I had been supplementing them with all year to date. My daughter's school finally started composting their food waste on site. Great for them, not so great for me, lol. But, I have found a new source starting next Monday, so the feed bill should go back down dramatically.

That reminds me of a man that used to live fairly close. He worked in the kitchen at the college and took all the scraps home and fed pigs. He claimed he never bought feed for them, it was all free.

[bearcreekfarm]

Well, my new source for free chicken feed may not work out so well. I have picked up 3 buckets of scraps from a fast food place, and so far it has been mostly french fries and buns. The buns are nice, whole wheat with sesame seeds, and the chickens are eating those. There is a bit of meat, not much, but a little chicken and some roast beef so far. The girls seem to like that. But the bulk of what I have gotten so far is the fries, and my chickens are not really eating them. Which is odd since they do eat cooked potatoes. Oh, and there were some fried onion rings today which they also did not go crazy for.

My luck, I have health-conscious chickens who won't eat the junk food I am trying to feed them, lol.

[Deleted]

Congrats on the egg sales. It helps make your own eggs that much cheaper even if you aren't turning a profit overall. We supply 3 households with eggs and sell the extras. DBIL has a regular poker game, and his poker buddies buy the eggs for $2/dozen. And everyone is so good about saving cartons I have a stack on the back porch from the counter to the ceiling! By the time the days get short and laying slows down, we'll have over $200 in the egg fund. I stash all the egg money in an envelope until the "season" ends and then decide what to do with it. Last year it went towards hay. Thought about raising the price to $2.50 this year but nobody wanted to mess with the change. I think next year I will jump to $3 since these guys not only love the eggs, they love the convenience of getting them delivered. That's still cheaper than brown "cage free" eggs from the store, anyway.

[Awnry Abe]

Spinning thread into gold....

I have always had very good luck selling eggs at the office in years past. 15-20 dozen per week, when we had them, easily. The thing is, they had been scarce and people sort of clawed over them like this year's hot toy at Christmas. This year, we are getting around 30 dozen a week and I could not even give them away. It was very discouraging. So we bought a feeder pig to eat the excess and I told folks that eggs were going to be scarce because I have a pig to feed. Now they are clawing over them again. Fickle.

[Deleted]

I can't sell eggs where I am very well, we are rural and a kind of a poor area, most people griped about $2/dozen. NOW, I send them up to my stepmother in Dallas/Fort Worth and 15 dozen will go in a matter of minutes with people still looking for them. I wasn't really trying to make money doing it just wanted to pay for feed and water and any equipment I needed to purchase to maintain their stay. Kind of hard to make a 180 mile round trip for that kind of money when the gas will eat it up, but if we are going there anyway or they are coming here it works out nice. Oh well...