The price of eggs

[A Life Less Simple]

Ok, I have just started selling my eggs through my local country market, but don't know how much I should be selling them for.

I have 24 ex-egg farm girls and I had been selling them for £1 per half dozen to a very few people before starting the markets. There is a lady at the market who was already selling her dozen extra eggs at £1.60 per half dozen which just seems far to high to me but I have been told that £1 is far to cheap.

What do others sell/buy eggs for? I don't want to be making a huge profit but I do want the girls to be paying for themselves

[Suechooks]

£1 for half a dozen is about average on here I think. It was discussed at length a few months ago. Some charge less and some more. I have only 11 layers and the excess eggs more than pay for their food.

[CaroltheCarrot]

Crikey a £1 is well cheap £1.75 in our local butchers,glad I dont have to buy them

[Glutton4...]

I sell at £1 for 6. I did put it up to £1.20 but dropped it off again when they went into overdrive!

A neighbour sells hers at the gate at 80p for 6 or £1.40 for 12, but they're not free range like mine are. Half an hour from me, where property is dearer, 6 eggs go for £1.40.

My MIL says look at the supermarket price, then take into account you are providing a superior product! I do have a couple of customers who won't buy anywhere else, which I take as a huuuuge compliment!

[sheena]

I sell mine for £1.20 per 6, and give a 10p discount for returned boxes.
Saves me having to buy more boxes and gives them a a little incentive to return them to me.

The local farm shop sells a tray for £5 (but I'm sure i only count 25), but works out well on my short weeks when my girl's can't keep up with the demands.

[lindyloo]

someone up the road was selling at 6 for 1.50. they were huge ( but not very nice- pale yolk and with changes occurring in the white) i bought them when i forgot to bring my bantam eggs home, and had a cake to bake. conversely, i can't give my bantam eggs away! ( and they are lovely) no one wants them as they are a smaller size. but that's fine by me.

[RichmondHens]

I have the same problem Lindyloo - I end up using the bantam eggs myself. I only have two customers who buy bantam eggs from me. Everyone else wants the big eggs.

I sell my large eggs at £1.50 a dozen (mixed colour boxes) and bantam eggs for 90p a dozen. I know that's pretty cheap but I have plenty of customers and at this time of year the sales pay for the feed so everyone is happy.

[Suechooks]

Couldn't you call the bantam eggs "salad eggs" - just the right size to go in your salad!

[lindyloo]

salad eggs- good idea! they are a great size for pickled eggs too. to be honest, as my ladies are getting older, they only lay 3 a day now so i can use them myself, and i do swap some with my nieghbor, for walking my dog through her garden- saves going down and up a steep hill to access the woods. but when they used to lay 2 bucket fulls a week, i just used to end up throwing them away.

[jessmorris]

A pal sells her huge legbar and warren eggs at work for £1/half dozen. I give my excess banty eggs to a neighbour for her wee boys in return for looking after the girls when I'm away. The family prefer smaller (child sized - well you know what I mean!) eggs esp. for egg sarnies (higher yolk to white ratio.)
My dogs enjoy scrambled or raw eggs and the hens like hard boiled eggs occasionally....I'm going to try beating and freezing any excess from now on...though with 5/9 broody that's not likely for a while

[lindyloo]

jess morris- how do you mean beating and freezing them? i have been wondering whether it is possible to freeze eggs for later use, so please could you tell me? what can they be used for later?

back to the thread; another thing i used to do is give a few eggs to the fox- we have a bargain about leaving my chicks alone. but i think the local hunt has killed all of the fox population around me, as i havent seen any for several years. i used to have one living under a truck, and one under a shed, but it may have been the same fox on different years. the one under the truck used to peer out as the hunt went past on the road!

[rdmstff]

I sell them at the gate for £2 dozen, ducks £2.40, I stick a label on the boxes please return, most do.
They are obviously free rangers as they meet the customers.
I have when I had surplus whisked them and put in ice trays. Years ago used water glass moved 200 eggs in removal van from Somerset to Oxford, none broke!

[A Life Less Simple]

[QUOTE=lindyloo;706220]jess morris- how do you mean beating and freezing them? i have been wondering whether it is possible to freeze eggs for later use, so please could you tell me? what can they be used for later? QUOTE]

You have to break the yoke to freeze eggs and they can be used for anything that doesn't need whole eggs. Scambled eggs, baking, omelette

[A Life Less Simple]

Thanks for all the replies, I have agreed with the lady who already sells eggs that we will try £1.40 but if they stop selling so well I will be lowering the price again. My girls have stopped laying so well in the heat any way so a slow down in custom won't matter so much for a week or so.

My family have had chickens since I was about seven and I couldn't believe how much they cost when I looked in the supermarket the other day!

[Snadger]

I sell mine for 80p a half dozen or £1.50 a dozen.