The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Poultry & Waterfowl => Topic started by: taz08 on July 10, 2013, 09:20:08 am
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i sell eggs at the gate ungraded
i use new egg boxes and not returned boxes unless to refill
,, a few q ,, ( i have looked at egg keeping nothing there)
i know some1 delivering and reusing boxes soo
can i deliver them
can i use boxes that have been returned ,, and had duck or guinie fowl eggs in?
i would call EMB but they take ages to get back to you at times :innocent:
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I also sell ungraded eggs, usually to the village l am in, and usually to the same people. I re-use the egg boxes that are returned to me if they are clean and everyone seems happy with this system. When l started to sell eggs and did not have enough boxes l put on the sign for people to bring their own boxes and this worked until l got myself a supply of egg boxes to use. Mind you l only sell surplus eggs, about 8 - 10 dozen a week.
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As I have over 50hens I am registered with DEFRA.
I only sell at the gate, so not sure if delivering eggs, would make things different.
I reuse boxes until they get tatty or dirty, then recycle them. No one in all the years I have done egg sales has ever objected to this.
I put a best before date and my name/address on the box.
All mixed up, not sized. Only got hens, so cannot comment on putting duck eggs etc. in the boxes.
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im sure someone has mentioned microwaving cardboard boxes to sterilise them, before now. iv never done it though.
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As a teenager I used to walk and deliver eggs to various people and I was known as eggs on legs! Funnily enough that's what my body looks like now!
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I sell ungraded eggs at the gate in re - used boxes. I've never had a problem ( apart from not having enough eggs ::) )
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None of my regular customers mind reused boxes, they bring them back after all. I recently bought a supply of new ones because I needed more than I was getting back some weeks, and because I took excess to a car boot sale I was at where I wouldn't get boxes back from.
Can't say about delivery as in to people's homes but several of my customers used to be folk at an art class I went to and I'd take a few boxes every week to make it easier for them than driving over to collect. Sadly when the class finished in May for the summer, just as I had more eggs than ever, those clients fell away because I wasn't delivering to the class any more :-\ so now I have more eggs and less clients til September at a guess.. ::)
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deliveries are treated the same as 'farm-gate' sales
"If you have less than 350 hens and all the eggs you produce are sold directly to individual consumers at your
farm gate or by door-to-door sales you will not need to register..."
from
http://www.defra.gov.uk/ahvla-en/files/form-emr1.pdf (http://www.defra.gov.uk/ahvla-en/files/form-emr1.pdf)
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thanks ,, i missed that when i looked
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A lot of car boot sales do not allow the sale of food and drink. If you can sell at a boot sale, are eggs permissible, or would you be treated like a retail shop,and therefore need to grade them?
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You can sell at a farmers' market or boot sale without going down the 'packing station' route - ie ungraded eggs and without date stamps etc but you really must use new boxes. You should really at the gate - I always put new boxes out but some customers bring their own.
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My customers agree with me - what a waste to use a box once!! We have it drummed into us to recycle, yet we are then told to dispose of a perfectly useable box after one use. If I had to use a new box each time, my eggs would be a lot more than £2.20 per dozen. If people were so fussy, they would not bring the box back on their next visit ;D
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A lot of car boot sales do not allow the sale of food and drink. If you can sell at a boot sale, are eggs permissible, or would you be treated like a retail shop,and therefore need to grade them?
Check with organisers but for many "food and drink" sales means catering vans and the like, rather than a few boxes of eggs on the side of your normal carbooting items. They sell pitches to catering vans or run their own, on the basis of limited competition and thus maximum profit margins at a business rate rather than the private pitch rate of a standard car based seller. If you were selling only home baking, produce and eggs you would be more likely to be in breach of their regs because you'd be eating into their profits. The pitch money isn't usually enough to make a regular sale profitable, it's the catering, parking fees etc on top that add up. That's their business, you're the free attraction that brings the public in, so you have to avoid stepping blatantly on their toes..
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If I sell at markets I tend to use new boxes, but purely because they look more professional but as for all my regular customers that I deliver to, they always give me back the boxes back so they are used until they fall apart