I am beginning to believe all the talk about free range, farm fresh & other terms used for eggs is a myth!
We had trouble selling all our eggs last year. Now the new hens are staring. So I put an ad on CL. No calls!
Stores are selling eggs for 99¢ a dozen & I think people are only concerned about price & not where they come from. These cheap eggs are produced in egg factories. Hens are in cages & fed only to lay eggs. But people really don't care!
Bernie
Egg myth.
We have virtually the same market here.. cheap sells... Healthy needs to go to a Farmer's Market or the Bay Area.. and that is too expensive to bother with. As far as marketing is concerned..in these hard times, people are more money conscious. If you personally want to know the difference.. boil one store bought and free range fresh egg.. and compare taste. Maby offer that challenge on your ad? Just a thought. :)
It is sad, Bernie, but I think you really have to go for a niche market and that tends to be urban. Free-range/farm fresh/organic and other buzz words go over very well in Berkeley...not so well in Lodi. Some people who remember what eggs are supposed to taste like, will also go for farm eggs...but they may not be able to afford the higher price.
You might do better taking your eggs to the closest farmer's market in a college town...or maybe find a co-op that will take you on.
We are a collage town, in fact one very large collage & some smaller ones. Town 10 miles away also has a large, expensive collage.
We sold lots of eggs last year at the FM, but with 2 or 3 thousand people going through on a Saturday, you would think we should sell more than 30 dozen.
Bernie
I think there is a lot of truth to what Bernie said, that is exacty why I have always kept my egg prices down. I sell my eggs for $2.50 per doz, I have had the same egg customers for the past three years. Those few that will pay the higher prices are as Bernie has suggested, few in number. I do believe the economy has moved many to quanity rather than quality. What I don't understand though is if that is true, why are people still buying so many non essential items? Thanks Bernie for the interesting comment. I think it is mind boggling why so many will make an issue over the price of an egg while buying a plasma fifty inch T.V. Haystack
On the other hand it is very, very boring staring at an egg yolk, however fresh and golden, hour after hour....there aren't even commercial interruptions.
Screamin funny Catsy!
I love TV....just no gett'in around it.
But on the egg-topic....I think the other factor is the presence of a "Foodie" culture...which may not always be present, especially at an undergraduate college.
Excellen Point Catsy: Darling what ever would we do without you?...LOL. Catsy have you ever used a Hovabator? If so what do or did you think about them?
Well my wife is in your corner on the t.v. thing, and yes she has her large flat screen. What a waste of good money. No t.v. here. It's a waste of my time...LOL.
I'm with you Haystack, no TV for me either. My brain's rotting fast enough on its own.
This message was edited Mar 29, 2010 3:28 PM
Good Heavens. What are you people watching?
:0)
Daves garden, what else Catsy?
Catsy you did not answer my question?
I have a very quiet floating price gauge. :) As long as they aren't someone who knows someone else & they can only pay $1 for the doz... that's what I do. IF its someone I can get $3 out of for a doz... guess what I charge! I've got one older couple on a fixed income that I sell to for .75 cents & deliver them. Am i making money... no. Do i need too... yes. But when i see their faces light up at that egg carton containing their weeks eggs... well its worth it. So i keep looking. Found another 2 people to sell to today. 4 doz eggs out the door at $3 a doz. Obviously the lower priced eggs never get to take more than a dozen a week unless I'm overloaded with eggs but I'd rather drop the price & sell them verses having them sitting on the counter. If i can get enough eggs to sell 30 doz a week. I could go to the farmers market & sell them for $5 a doz. I just do not have enough hens yet to do that. MOST won't give much more than store prices for them. Most i have found out will. A lady that i quoted $1.50 a doz to today gave me an extra dollar just bc she said i was too low on my prices. :)
The Hoverbator, Haystack?
I have only used ZZ's Hoverbator as a hatcher. I can see the advantage of having lined humidity troughs...the Little Giants don't. But I am used to the Little Giant and feel comfortable regulating it, while ZZ's Hoverbator's control lever seemed more temperamental.
Reviews seem to give a slight edge to the Hoverbator...mostly for the lined trays.
Thanks Catsy, I liked the wing nut that locks the dial in place once you get the temp set. I am on my fourth day and it has never left a hundred on the thermometer. I never got that kind of consistiency with the little giant. Hay.
LOL I was reading with interest about egg prices, never had much to worry about with only a few hens laying and Billy eating them as fast as they can lay... Except when I give my sister eggs, then she buys us a bag of feed... Well imagine my surprise (I have 6 girls of laying age) Yesterday to get 4 eggs and today to get 6... I am thinking they know Easter is coming and we need to have the eggs ready for the Easter Bunny... I dont dye them, they are a lovely shade of green, I just boil them and hand Billy markers and let him draw.
We have always kept our prices low. I think we're still charging $2/dozen. We supply our son and our daughter, of course, for free. Most of the people we sell to would buy at a higher price, but we'd rather be sure we can sell them. When we have a lot of eggs I give them away to my DILs mother and their family, or have my son give some to their pastor's family. Our production is so uneven that it's hard to keep customers steadily but most will contact me to see if I have any before buying them at the store. Right now it's going up after an all-time low of 4 to 6 eggs a day after the mink got twelve of our laying hens. We have about 20 or 21 left so I can't expect a whole lot out of them. And after the spring flush the production will probably drop again. We have never come out even on our chickens, let alone making a profit, but they supply us with fresh eggs and tasty meat, and also help allow us to have a farmland assessment on our land.
I sell mine for 2.00 a dozen,that gives me enough to buy feed and other supplies,do I make anything for myself,a big no
Price may be a factor but I think with the leaner economy you are now seeing more people with organic and free range leanings raising their own poultry/eggs in their backyard. It is now trendy... and where else but a 'college town' for trends.
This message was edited Mar 30, 2010 7:08 AM
I saw "good" eggs in Wally World for about double the price of their "bad" eggs. Don't know how many they sell. I am not selling eggs yet but I hope to. I do give away a dozen a week at church. I told God as a TY for my hens laying so well all winter I would give a dozen away every week. I ask Him who needs them most and He lets me know. Each time the recipient was out of eggs at home and were so glad to get eggs they remembered from childhood. I think if I keep doing good, God will keep blessing my girls. When I do get enough to sell I think I will sell for $2 a dozen. The "bad" eggs cost that much or more here.
Haystack you didn't answer my question.. Does it have a fan? Wondering cause you have it set at 100? I thought still air was 102 and forced air was 99.5
They make plastic liners for LG's too.. The part about the Hovabator I like is the water wells are bigger, or have more surface area, which provides more rh.. The plastic liner is fantastic when you hatch in it. So much easier to clean.
I too prefer the control lever on the Hova.. much more forgiving. :)
What eggs I do sell, I sell at $2 dz. This is to the people who insist on paying, and fortunately I have several of them. It covers the cost of feeding and supplies, at least so far. It lets me enjoy them, and not feel I'm being indulgent, but self-sustaining! Good rationalization, huh?
yes catmad! very good. :) i started teh floating pay scale several years ago bc I had people I really didn't want to charge... like my "adopted grandparents from church" but they insisted & would get mad at me if I refused payment. When i sell 12 doz a month I break even. I use to sell enough to make a bit of money. I'm slowly getting back to that.
Yes ZZ's I did answer your question, but on the wrong thread. Sorry, yes it is forced air. and I don't have tenths on my therm. So it's on a hundred. Hay.
For what it's worth, I use 2 Genesis 1588's, one to incubate in, one to hatch in...they have no controls, a fan, no turner, just plug it in and go...I have had excellent hatches with my seramas, the last hatch 2 weeks ago was 14 out of 15 eggs.
What has hatching eggs got to do with the theme of this thread ?
Original idea of this thread was why do we make such a big deal of free range, farm fresh eggs when the people buying & eating eggs could care less where they come from.
I've posted my eggs on Craigs List twice in the past 10 days have had not had a call!
How many other people are listing eggs? Are there other sources for free-range/organic eggs nearby? Farmers market, natural groceries, roadside stands?
That may be part of the problem.
Just the stores selling eggs for 89¢ & 99¢ a dozen.
I just go around and ask people. I asked at the post office, the bank, the grocery store, the gas station. A guy about 5 miles east of me has a sign in his yard. he has 75 to 100 hens i believe. he's sold out of eggs all the time. he sells for $2.50 doz. They sell good here if you actually get out & let people know you have them. My problem is being so shy... i hate asking people to buy things. That's the only reason my list of people is still so low for buying eggs.
At a small town farmers market I saw Ameracana (easter eggers) eggs selling, fast, at 5 bucks a dozen. The lady told me she sells them at that price as fast as her hens can lay them.
The (few) farmer's market egg stands I've seen that sell out the quickest were either colored or brown eggs.
After supplying my family I'll never have enough to sell, ha, so far I have more neighbors requesting chicken poo compost than eggs!
I have no trouble selling at Farmers Market. It's now when eggs are piling up! FM don't start until May 1. I'll have 200 dozen on hand by then!
My "blue" egg customers won't eat any other eggs since they started eating and baking with them. They insist that they taste better and have yolks more orange than "regular" eggs. My white Amers do free-range so that may help the taste and color? The size of some of these eggs is what gets me - You can't close the lid on a jumbo egg carton when it is full of the Amer eggs. Ironically the Amer hens aren't that big. I sell all they lay at $3/dz, and could probably get more if I tried. I live in the country and just have a sign at the end of my driveway, and that seems to work here.
Sales Pitch - I have tons of Amer chicks hatching if anyone is in the market for some.....or seramas?