HENS IN BAD CONDITIONS!!!!

[Hinotori]

I had raised prices up to $3 dollars a few years ago when the feed prices were up. It was costing me $2.20 something for a dozen eggs and the carton. I'm back down to $2.75. I don't raise the super heavy layers like leghorns. I have blue egg layers who give 4 eggs a week on average. They also do not do well on the much cheaper layer feed. 16% protein has them ripping each others feathers out to eat as well as lower egg production. The 20% feed is more expensive. As for cartons, most of the time if I get them back, they aren't in usable condition. We don't have to have an egg sellers license for off farm sales, but we must still meet certain requirements. Such is the costs for blue eggs. I saw blue in one of the stores here once. They wanted $8 a dozen. I choked.

This is why I've gone more to selling silkie pullets and eating the cockerels. I can get $10-15 for a cull pullet and $25-30 for a show prospect, depending on age.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I also don't have daily layers. My Dominiques lay 3x/week on average, dorkings will lay less. The rest, we'll see but should be slightly more. Eggs are worth more to us when we don't get as many!

Those are decent pullet prices!

 

[Swede]

Well, things are slowly changing…

Egg makers are freaked out by the cage-free future - CNBC.com

EU Passes Law that Says: The Chicken Comes First - Triple Pundit

Most U.S. Egg Producers Are Now Choosing Cage-Free Houses : The ...

http://www.triplepundit.com/2012/01/eu-passes-law-chicken-comes-first/
Um.. that was made in 2012

 

[Swede]

Back in Braintree, they had a lovely free range egg farm. I used to pet the cute chickens and laugh at the turkeys. God bless the person who made that

 

[Swede]

The male chick culling may be ending...
(Article from last year)

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/p...20--male-chicks-could-avoid-death-by-grinder/

Good

 

[sumi]

I've raised my own chickens for 40 yrs now and have often sold the eggs, but never charged more than $2 a doz. Yeah, you can demand more in other areas, but should you? Cost me as much to raise a chicken as it does everyone else, so why the price discrepancy? Because they can and they want everyone to know that a superior product should command a bigger price...but what is that teaching the public? That they can't afford to pay that for food just because you treat your chickens better. That's why the general public will never get on the bandwagon for sustainable food markets because the people marketing them is gouging wherever and whenever they can to prove the point that their product is better.

I went and spoke to a big supermarket's manager a few years ago about the eggs they are selling (battery farm eggs only). A rival supermarket sold free range eggs as well, at exactly double the price I sold mine at. Long story short, I talked the supermarket into stocking free range eggs and at a reasonable price. I told the manager if I can make a 100% profit on my eggs by selling them at half the price their competitors do… A few weeks later they were selling free range eggs at a much lower price than the competing supermarket, though still more than I charged, it was a good start.

 

[Swede]

I went and spoke to a big supermarket's manager a few years ago about the eggs they are selling (battery farm eggs only). A rival supermarket sold free range eggs as well, at exactly double the price I sold mine at. Long story short, I talked the supermarket into stocking free range eggs and at a reasonable price. I told the manager if I can make a 100% profit on my eggs by selling them at half the price their competitors do… A few weeks later they were selling free range eggs at a much lower price than the competing supermarket, though still more than I charged, it was a good start.

Great work sumi! :