GET READY
I've wanted to do this article for a long time. Homesteaders and farmers barely if ever break even when it comes to selling eggs. The local farmers market has vendors that sell home grown eggs and road side signs all around are easy to find offering eggs for sale. Where we live, eggs are everywhere and almost everyone has chickens.
I learned a few years ago when we started raising chickens, just how much money we paid for feed. It's a lot and that is mainly the reason why its hard to make any profit selling eggs. The only way you make money is to have a HUGE operation where thousands of eggs are laid by your flock daily.
But why?
What ticked me off was the REASON that a simple farmer or homesteader can't make a small profit on their eggs. Store eggs are priced cheap. Why should I pay $3.00 or $4.00 for your eggs when they are so much cheaper at the store? Well, this is literally like comparing apples to oranges. Sure you can buy cheap white shelled eggs for almost nothing. But you're paying for nothing and that is what your getting. Nothing! No taste and no nutrition.
The egg business is full of a bunch of liars. Cage free is not cage free. It just simply mean by regulatory definitions, they have a 1 square foot cage as opposed to a 1/2 sq. foot cage. Organic Free Range only means they have them outside for a certain period of time and only during certain times of the year. The biggest difference is the freshness of the eggs you buy. Many eggs you buy won't include "born on" dates showing you how old the eggs are.
Everyone wants fresh tasty eggs. But very few are willing to pay for them. Walmart is a discount shopping experience but even Whole Foods is misleading to you about the living conditions of their chickens and the age of their eggs and the time it takes to bring them from farm to table. Take your most expensive Whole Foods egg and crack it open to lay next to a yesterday laid farmer's egg. See the difference?
Take a look at this package of the most expensive Walmart Organic (supposedly) Cage Free dozen. The cost is going to be well over $4 once you take into account tax. The average schmuck is going to think just looking at the price and labeling that, "heck, these eggs are the best eggs you can buy". The schmuck wants fresh tasty eggs, but he drove past the farmers market on the way to their local grocer. He could have had eggs laid literally yesterday at probably a cheaper price.
How Old Are These Eggs?
Now here is the kicker. Take a look at the "Best By" date on the package. The carton didn't give a born on date. This photo was taken on December 18th, 2017. The eggs are considered "Best" until a whole month later! The eggs were not laid on the day I took the picture on the 18th. How long did it take the eggs to get through the farm, travel to packaging and sit in a truck before being put on the shelf. 1 week? 2 weeks?
Again, people will pass over roadside signs at farms "because their eggs are too expensive" and drive to the grocer to pay for older, less nutritious and MORE EXPENSIVE eggs than the farmers around them!
This time of year, the egg laying season is ramping up for local area farmers! Find a farmer with chickens and buy their eggs. They will be healthier than anything you will find in the store, they will taste better and be cheaper than the most expensive "Organic" eggs your grocer will carry. Enjoy!
Happy Chickens Produce Happy Eggs!
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Our girls are on a slow-down at the moment, so we're putting $4 or $5 worth of feed into each dozen we get..... still better than the 49-cent runny things from the store...
Our hens are finishing their molt right now and so we are having to buy grocery store eggs for the moment. We actually know the farm that sells the eggs we buy but there is nothing like having eggs from our own chickens. The deeply rich orange color of the yolk is something to behold (and desired) when you crack open the hard shell.
Thanks for this informative post @mericanhomestead! If folks just compared taste and even the look of the yolks, they would know there is a huge difference between large corporate farms and small independent farms. Thanks for raising awareness with all your posts!!
Totally true! Thanks for the comment!
yes and i agree with this and i also see that the eggs in markets are cheap but these eggs from farms and sure the feed the hens eat in farms is some not proper and infact create the some ills but home hens eggs only eat the natural and good food not the feed of factories and we also everytime preffer home eggs even they are some expessive...and i feel the many difference in home and farm eggs and some months ago i hear a new that china provide the eggs to worlds made from factories not hens
I think most would be disgusted to learn of the living conditions where the majority of eggs come from.
I always look to buy locally as often as I can. Everyone should do that, the taste is better and I enjoy supporting the lively hood of those that care about the quality of what they sell!
I agree. Most don't know that they are passing up a better and even sometimes cheaper product at farmers markets or roadside stands.
There is a major difference in the eggs! Getting hubby onboard has been an uphill battle.
Will pray for your struggle! :)
Picture if you will the "USDA stamped food before I eat it" and you see the challenge!
And even after showing him videos of just how nasty meat packing places are he still believes in them....
A few years ago, I was watching a film about how quickly farms can fatten up a turkey...and I started to think 'what am I eating'
I hate chickens! But man do i love fresh eggs, there is nothing like food that you produce yourself.
Last time I looked eggs were on special for under a dollar here. BUT.. as you said they are commercialized. But the eggs I'm referring to are NOT listed as organic, etc- just a basic store brand dozen of eggs.
I get our eggs from a local farmer and pay $1.50 a dozen for RI Reds. I prefer the brown eggs; while some people say they cannot noticed a difference... I just am used to the brown eggs and that's what I want.
That is a GREAT price for farm eggs.
Shhhh.. don't let them hear you- they may raise the price!!
I have seen other roadside stands with a dozen for $2 all the way up to $4... So I like my little $1.50 place
Another difference I've heard is having a rooster and getting fertilized eggs. People say those taste better still. Not a chance the store bought eggs are fertilized. I did see Trader Joe's had organic fertilized eggs, but again, like you said, no telling how old.
I strongly feel that eggs we buy these are are purely priced on the brands rather than the quality. The city i live, i feel everything is processed with hormones. So you never know how much to pay for what. So LOL, I have 4 chickens & 2 Cockbird haha. So i get fresh & organic eggs every morning. Cheers. It is a great topic.
Yeah, I couldn't imagine ever eating store bought eggs or even drinking store bought milk. You can never be sure of what they are feeding them on the commercial farms.
Your post is very informative and makes a lot of sense. I agree, raising chickens is not an easy task and not that a great source of income but it’ll be worth it! We also have a small chicken farm, btw. :)
Yeah, it's very well worth it when you consider the source of the food.
Good post, I believe that all living being should be humanly treat. I pay more for truly cage free, range free chicken eggs
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0.15$-0.25$ for each...in Turkey...
We hatched some chicks at the 1st of July and they just started laying on December 1st. They are in full production now :) Getting 1/2 dozen per day from 9 hens (2 of which are older) Feeding kitchen scraps, whole wheat berries, etc. Great article @mericanhomestead
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We had to buy normal eggs at the box store because our hens were in molt.
They are weak watered down tasting with a pitiful gross pathetically yellow yoke. Hard to even eat one after having real eggs for so long.
The old saying "you get what you pay for" applies to food also!
Farm subsidies not only devalue food, they make marketing a nightmare for small poultry/egg farmers (and by small, I mean anyone who isn't in the top 10% of producers). When the vast majority of people are deluded enough to believe that a chicken can be hatched, grown out, processed, shipped and marketed for 99 cents a lb. and still turn a profit...it makes it really hard to sell chicken and eggs for what they are ACTUALLY worth.
For the money I've put into my dang laying hens I could have bought enough grocery store eggs to last me the rest of my life...but who could eat that garbage after having real eggs??
Our eggs are delicious! but yes... we can't make money on them. We sell excess just to get a little bit of our money back. Funny and true story... my son will not eat farm eggs BECAUSE THEY TASTE LIKE EGGS! LOL (compared to store bought eggs that have no flavor... which he likes. yuck)
I like this post. Just this morning I asked about the enlarged coop area that was being built and if that was going to be for increased supply for re-sale.
We used to have about 20 chickens which is now down to 5 since all of the children have the left the house except for the youngest. We used to get more eggs that we could use but decided not to try selling even though in the semi-urban environment people would pay twice as much, but we didn't want to risk a lawsuit. Instead we bribed and or bartered with neighbors to avoid complaints since we live in town.
I must confess that you didn’t mix words in portraying this bitter truth, we must get value of our money in the things we spend them for, nutrition is essential when it comes to what we eat just you rightly pointed out on how some eggs comes without nutrition due to how mechanized they are.
Here in my house, I don’t have chickens 🐓 but that’s one of my plans as soon as I move to my permanent house with my family.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for posting! I just recently started eating eggs again after choosing a vegan diet for the last seven years. Definitely not in a position to steward any chicks of my own right now, so I head to the farmer directly, or to a farmer's market. I make the assumption that the chickens are treated with proper care, nourishment, y'know, let chickens be chickens. New in town, I just tried the farmer's market here ... booo to brittle white shells and pale yellow yolks. A sign of a poor diet, or living conditions?
All good reasons to raise your own chickens!
My chickens are mostly pastured and given scraps so feed isnt too bad. I get $4.50 a dozen, between 14 and 20 dozen a week, but I deliver them to my customers. I figure if Im going into town anyway, might as well make a couple bucks Lol!
Do they really charge tax on food in your area? That stinks!
Look up the benefits of vitamin K2 not be confused with the plant available K1. Pastured hens eggs have twice the K2 than factory farm eggs. K2 if the studies are be believed is darn near a miracle drug clearing out calcified clogged arteries, curing osteoporosis, healing cell mitochondria, lowering blood pressure, and much more.
You are on point! Funny thing is there was a FB post the other day on one of the Missouri Homesteading groups talking about the definitions between Cage Free, Pasture Raised and Free Range. Funny but not funny how the government and the commercialized ag industries have labeled the terms: Organic, Cage-Free, Free Range and Pasture Raised.
Being that we are not set up yet with chickens, we are stock piling any egg cartons we can get. We are hoping to have enough to provide for the family and then give some to close friends and maybe even sell some...but I need to talk with the MO Ag Rep to see what must be done.
Thanks for sharing Zac!
Kenny
Pfeiler Family Farm
Amen! I am amazed by the difference between my hen's eggs and the store bought ones. Very good post and I just had to resteem it! Thanks for sharing and God Bless!
The difference in farm eggs and store eggs are night and day. I was eating only farm eggs for just under a year, and when that became unavailable to me, it took several weeks to adjust to store eggs. I miss farm eggs and I hope to be able to start getting them again soon.
I do prefer getting fresh eggs from locals, but it isn't always possible. I do what I can do when I can do it.
So very true hope many of those supermarket shoppers get to read this!
I have sorely missed having fresh eggs since downsizing in anticipation of moving. We're at the new place now and will order chicks for a May delivery. I could barely sell our organic eggs at just $2/dozen before because folks thought that was too much money. Craziness!
I couldn't agree with you more!
I have found the same thing here! Everyone has a neighbor that has chickens. They balk at the $3 or $4 on the really good fresh yard eggs. What is worst, the farm fresh folk way under price their eggs because they have to to sell the. That starts a domino effect making it impossible for us all to sell a fresh eggs for a fair price! There are even folks here that are actually scared to buy yard eggs...like they will make them sick or something! I'm just going to reduce the size of my flock next spring and produce eggs for my immediate family and close circle and not have to fight to sell eggs.
The quality of eggs from the store seem to be worse than before. usually after eating store bought eggs I have digestion issues that I did not use to have. maybe farm fresh eggs would be better
I keep track of all my expenses and know exactly how much it costs to produce eggs. I easily sell all my organic eggs for $5/doz, having a hard time keeping them in stock. One of the useful tools for a homesteader is to know where the money goes.