A few months ago, I had a conversation with a fellow backyard chicken raiser about the price of farm fresh eggs. They demanded that everyone in our area sold for $4 a dozen, because that’s what they were selling for. I was selling mine for $3. Basically, I just wanted to sell enough eggs to pay for the cost of my feed. I currently have 22 hens, 7 of which haven’t started laying yet. I gather around 9-12 eggs a day.
So how do you price your eggs for selling?
- Where do you live? Check your local area BST sites or talk with other farm fresh producers in your area. This gives you a good starting point. Note that urban areas where cost of living is higher may support a higher selling point for your eggs.
- How much does it cost you to feed your chickens every month? For me, it costs about $70 a month, and that includes scratch grains. High quality/name brand feed is going to cost more than feed at the co-op.
- Are you feeding your chickens supplementals? Vitamins, extra protein, extra herbs and veggies? All of this needs to be factored into your feed costs. My chickens wait patiently (and sometimes not so patiently) in front of the garage when we have the Blackstone out. We do weekly meal prep, so they wait for scraps of sausage or bacon (extra protein). Calcium, like oyster shells, should also be factored in. We do not use oyster shells, but instead feed back eggs shells to the chickens.
- Are you eggs good quality? The yolks should be bright yellow/orange and the shells should be hard. If you notice your yolks are a dull yellow, they are probably missing some nutrients.
- Are you re-using store-bought egg cartons or are you buying egg cartons? The cost of new, unmarked egg cartons can range from $0.78-$1.50 per carton. We have family members who drop off egg cartons, so we have a surplus of store-bought egg cartons, which helps keep pricing down.
- Who are you selling to? We primarily sell to neighbors and family and don’t mind giving a discount or even giving eggs away on occasion.
- Do you have a surplus? Think supply and demand. When we have an overabundance of eggs, we sell cheaper. When we are shorter on eggs, the price may go up a little. We try to stay between $3-$4 per dozen.
I tend to look at the local grocery store as well. Currently, organic farm-fresh eggs are selling for anywhere from $5.99 to $6.99 per dozen. I would be able to sell mine for $5.00 a dozen pretty easily. A regular carton of eggs from Walmart is about $2.75.
Another thing to take into consideration is this: are your eggs pretty dirty? If you’ve never bought farm-fresh eggs before, you’ll know that sometimes they come with a little chicken poo on them. All part of the process, I assure you, but it can be a turn-off for some who are new to purchasing chicken eggs directly from the farmer. Once eggs are washed, they need to be refrigerated.
All that aside, price your eggs according to what is right for you. If your goal is to make money, you’ll probably need to price on the higher side. If your goal is to pay for your feed, you can get away with pricing lower. For us, there’s months when we pay for feed with our egg sales and there’s months when we give eggs away. At the end of the day, the chickens still need to be fed and happy.
PHOTO: Woman with eggs in hands. (Photo: iStock – Jacob Wackerhausen)
