lystn

You have a coop full of chickens and you're wondering if it's time to set out on the adventure of selling farm fresh eggs. Let's take a look at some of the pros and cons that come along with the decision to sell chicken eggs from your homestead. (Don't want to read all the words? This blog post is also a podcast—just press the triangle play button on the little black bar at the top of this post!) Reasons to sell chicken eggs Free eggs/Extra income If you work things correctly, deciding to sell chicken eggs from your homestead can help cover the cost of your own eggs—essentially creating a situation where the eggs you personally use are free. In some locations, selling chicken eggs may bring you extra money above and beyond your cost. Responsibility Kids learn that money can be earned from work, and they see the process of caring for the chickens, collecting the eggs, and selling those to earn a little money. These real life skills can be honed early when you let your kids help sell chicken eggs. If your kids are old enough, you can even "put them in charge" of your homestead's egg business. Build a customer base When you decide to sell chicken eggs, it's an easy way to draw customers in for other items you might eventually sell from your homestead. Just like chickens seem to be the gateway animal, eggs can be the gateway product. Things to consider if you decide to sell chicken eggs... There are rules to follow There is a big difference between selling a couple dozen chicken eggs from your coop to your friends, and selling several dozen a week at local farmers' markets. Be aware of the rules about selling eggs where you live and do business. Finding customers can be tough In order to successfully sell chicken eggs, you need customers. The best set up is having lots of customers with little competition—which can be hard to come by in the country where everyone and their neighbor has extra eggs to sell. If you live in an area where people will pay $6 a dozen, or you're willing to drive to those people—and you don't have 13 other small farms trying to sell to those same customers—then you've got an advantage to this whole egg thing. But many people I've come across have a rough time finding enough regular, reliable customers to do more than cover the cost of their own eggs, let alone make extra money doing it. It's an ever-changing game of numbers When deciding to sell chicken eggs from your farm, there are some numbers you need to consider. How many chickens do you have, how many eggs do they lay a week, and how much does it cost to feed those chickens?  Next, how many eggs do you need to sell per week to a) break even b) cover the cost of your own eggs, or c) make a profit? Now, what do you think about those numbers? Are you considering selling more eggs? Does that require getting more hens? How much will it cost to feed more hens? If your hens free range, they will cost less to feed. But free range hens don't always lay their eggs in the coop, which means egg hunts—and potentially less eggs found. When our chickens were free ranged and we sold eggs, if we found a random nest out in the woods or in the hayloft, we'd keep those eggs for ourselves, but not sell them to customers. I had no way of knowing how old those eggs were, and without candling them, I wouldn't know if someone had been sitting on them at one point. It's one thing if I break open a bad egg or half developed chick. But if my customers do, that's no good at all. More questions to consider: What do you do when chickens flat out stop laying consistently? Do you get more chickens or do you cut your amount of customers? What do you do when you buy more chickens and suddenly have more eggs than customers? How much do you need to charge per dozen to make your egg business worth running? And, more importantly, will customers in your area pay those prices? Dealing with customers can be tricky