I am curious about how you all sell your extra eggs. Here in OK, I read that it costs a few hundred dollars to have your coop inspected and lots of rules and regs about how they must be labeled, packaged, etc. As we are not really raising them for egg sales, this would be an added expense I'm not willing to have. So. What is the likelihood I would get busted for selling free-range eggs if I posted ads on Craigslist or on signs hung in my local feed or grocery stores? I plan to do everything I can to ensure the safety and cleanliness of my eggs, and I'd like to get a few extra bucks to help pay for feed, but if I'm looking at possible fines out the wazoo, I'd rather just give them to neighbors. Thoughts?
(P.S. Sorry I'm flooding the board with questions, but I am a serious noob!)
Eileen
Farmstand Eggs and Inspection
In CA it is not necessary to be licensed or inspected if you are selling a small number of fresh eggs from your home. I was surprised when I looked it up and saw that if you were selling less than say 2000 cartons (each carton 200 eggs) per year you could just go ahead and do it...so long as it was from the farm (sign on the road sort of thing).
I give my eggs to my neighbors and don't ask for money but if they offer I tell them they can pick me up a bag of feed every now and then. I usually get more than enough feed and they get eggs :)
If you were looking to actually make cash money I would make a friend of your local feed store. Ive paid $4 for a dozen from our feed store (before I had chickens) with a home made sign and a pic of a kid holding the chicken lol! It was too darn cute to pass up.
Do they keep the eggs refrigerated at the feed store? We've been in there a LOT and have been making friends with the employees. They do take produce for selling, so maybe they'll take eggs too. I'm estimating we're going to have 50-80 eggs per week, and there's no way we can eat that many.
My feed store doesn't have refrigeration they just keep them up at the counter.
But fresh eggs will keep a long time at room temperature.