Hmm... now if I could only convince the rest of this valley that brown eggs, organic or not are really worth more than $2.00 a dozen.

We have some folks that sell their brown eggs for as little as $1.25 doz.

I'm figuring on having one of our family take them to St. George and offer them at $2.50 doz this winter.

Shari

Here is a link that might be useful: Shari's Gone Country

Depends on supply and demand. When I did a farmers market last year, I sold mine for $3.00 a dozen. 5 bucks seems a lot for organic eggs, especially if it's from a large producer, but the cost of feed has gone up by a LOT this year (along with everything ELSE, but I won't rant). I am not doing the market this year, one of the reasons is because I didn't make one cent last year.

I just give mine to family and friends, or eat them myself. Much better than store bought. BUT, if you want to feel better ("lll help you rationalize it), it's cheaper for you to pay 4.00 or even 5.25 a dozen for eggs rather than what I do:

Buy some chicks in the spring (I got 25 chicks via mail order-I don't trust the people or auctions here, too many diseases), the order total for the chicks plus postage was about 80 bucks. Then you have to feed them for about 5 months before they start laying. They go through about a 50 lb bag of feed a week, so that's about 8 dollars for a bag of adult XLA, or $10 for starter (XLA's more now days, about 10 dollars). Just to make it easy, pretend that the costs to raise them to laying age is 8 bucks a week for feed. So, that's about $24 X 5 months which is 125 bucks for feed to get them to laying age. Now, add chick grit (if you buy it, they need it when they are babies), which was about 10 bucks for a bag, plus $250 for building a chicken coop, $30 bucks for feeders, waterers and other incidentals, then you need some oyster for their eggs, which is about $15 bucks a bag.

So, all this comes to a grand total of...hmmm... about $510 just to get the pullets to laying age. Now, I'm going by my own expenses as I'm not an egg business or farm. BUT, it does show how expensive it is to raise chickens and eggs. I let mine range out in the yard which helps with feed costs of course. But, raising chickens isn't an easy job, especially in the winter when the water freezes and you have to go out and keep them fed and watered at least 2 times a day.

Hope it makes you feel better about paying a lot for eggs, ha ha!

Thanks for the stats Mersiepoo. They are sobering!
We sell 3 dozen a week to a gourmet restaurant for $1.50 a dozen. They love the eggs--the rest we give away to friends. There's no way we will ever make money on the chickens.

I've got to agree with you about the expenses of raising chickens and eggs. There are a lot of expenses you have to figure in, especially at the start, but the equipment and facilities you built will last several years. You've got to amortize that out over ten or more years before you get an actual reflection of the costs. As to the feed costs what you forget is that the commercial growers buy feed in bulk, by the ton. As someone who has feed cattle out before, I can tell you that the same feed delivered to the farm and put into bulk storage bins or feeders is a lot cheaper than the 50 pound bags. (I know, I've had to buy bagged feed at the same time I've bought bulk. Some of my cattle were either in areas I couldn't feed them out of bulk feeders or I had too few a number at a given place to warrant buying bulk feed for them.)

The biggest problem I see for egg producers, especially the small producer doing Farm Market or direct sales, is the cheap commercial eggs available in the markets. Many folks do not realize that while I can buy a dozen for under a dollar from the super box store my neighbor might actually be losing money selling me some for twice the price! The organic or free range eggs, IMHO, should always bring more just because of the quality and flavor. They taste like eggs, while those cheap commercial ones are poor immitations!
Kevin

You are right Kevin about the commercial egg production vs a small production or private venture. Plus commercial farms don't keep layers and breeders the whole year either, at least the big egg producers usually don't.

It's a shame how the huge commercial farms and their farm subsidies (aka welfare) put most small farms out of business. It also created inferior food products for the most part. Hopefully people will be raising more of their own food and livestock in the future, there is no comparison to a chicken you buy at the store, versus a chicken you raised yourself, at least as far as flavor and quality is concerned. I don't give any of my birds antibiotics or any artificial stuff, or growth hormones, yeech!

BTW, the reason that store bought eggs taste so bad is, according to my father in law who as his first job worked on a big farm, they soak the eggs in a bleach solution to clean them. YUCKIE! No wonder they taste bad....

It's gotta be a labor of love to raise your own birds and eggs, I tell ya that!

My eggs aren't technically organic -- the hens eat a commercial chicken feed. But they also range outside and don't sit in cages all day. And they have names, which my customers find very charming! I sell a dozen mixed-color eggs for $3 and can't meet the demand in my area, where many Chicago people spend their weekends. My hens definitely cover their ongoing costs and I get a little additional for a fancy coffee now and again.

A little local grocery store has certified organic eggs at $2.75 for a HALF dozen! That's only going to help my business, if only I had enough hens to meet the demand!

--Johanna

Johanna,

Good for you! I am glad to hear you are in an area where market demand exists for you to produce a quality product and meet or exceed your costs. I just wish more folks were able to do that.

My next door neighbor has an antiques/flea market and she has another one of our neighbors who sells breads/rolls/fruit pies through the store on weekends. Sandy, the baker, only prepares product for Friday/Saturday sale and because of the traffic through the store she usually always sells out, plus she takes orders for pick up on Friday, so her products are always in demand. Sandy, the flea market owner, also has fresh eggs and produce in season but the prices they bring is close to what the big box stores get. It goes to show how demand for the product depends upon the customer base you have. If there is a demand for what you are producing they will pay you what it is worth, and if they do not percieve any difference between what you have and they can buy somewhere else then they will not purchase your (usually superior) product.

Kevin