How much do you pay for your egg boxes?

[janeyo]

I have started putting a small label on my boxes with 'please return to + address, thanks' and am finding that more are coming back to me now.

[binley100]

Could you charge a refundable deposit on the boxes ?

[Snadger]

Still going to give my box mould a try........I'll let you know how I get on!

[HayleyB]

Gawd, I can't keep up with my boxes... I bought a load from Ascott a year last November and I still have more than I started with

I have a notice on my Polystyrene box that says "Be Green Please Return Empty Eggboxes"

What I didn't bank on was all family friends donating boxes AND...

All my customers saving boxes when they had to go elsewhere when they've missed out by me selling out, putting them in my poly box next time they come for eggs.

I always cover any adverts or rip off the supermarket sleeve thingy and always write on the box "Box Kindly Donated By A Very Nice Customer. Thank You :-)" on the box, and sometimes I get lovely little written messages back!!!

[Glutton4...]

I get the odd message back on my boxes too - some more polite than others! One fella wrote in black felt-tip 'Give the f*****g boxes back!' A little harsh, I feel.

[HayleyB]

Nooooooooooo I got one that said

"Happy Hens gave lovely eggs that made lovely sandwiches at Grandmas Birthday Party"

And another said

"Keep those Happy Hens a Warm.."

[squibbs]

Yes we are cheap - I think we will go up come spring proper.

We do give quite a few away to our neighbours - its a good idea to keep them happy as we do keep some cockerels.

At the moment I think we are close to break even on feed cost. (we also include in our costings the saving of around £3.00 a week we no longer spend on eggs) When we add in other costs such as housing we are well behind. But then again there are lots of reasons to keep chickens and making a profit is rather low on our list.

[BUFFS]

we only have the 5 birds,but we are able to sell 18 eggs a week to neighbours,we charge £1 for six and we get loads of egg boxes back,we usually have about 6 times the amount of boxes needed as their families collect the extra ones for us,an advantage of living in a village, where everyone seems happy to help each other(one of the reasons we settled here),would never move.

[RichmondHens]

The problem I think I'm going to have this year is that the people I have been selling to are now wanting to get their own hens (maybe I should blame myself for this as I have been inviting them up to see the hens that lay the eggs etc etc), so I'm going to end up with more eggs than I need. Will have to do some hard marketing to find extra outlets.
Also have a cupboard overflowing with boxes as have been receiving "donations" for months!!!

[RedThorn]

Snadger, I can get 6-8 of the clear plastic ones a day if I want from my canteen at work. Before when they got trays, I just cut the trays into 1/2 dozen sizes and put a second one on top for the lid. Huge box of elastic bands from Pound land and they kept the 2 halves together nicely

[Snadger]

Snadger, I can get 6-8 of the clear plastic ones a day if I want from my canteen at work. Before when they got trays, I just cut the trays into 1/2 dozen sizes and put a second one on top for the lid. Huge box of elastic bands from Pound land and they kept the 2 halves together nicely

Thanks RedThorn that sounds like a brill idea!