[Bionic]

I only have 6 chickens but they are good layers and I ended up with too many eggs for the two of us. A couple of months back I decided to put eggs outside for sale at £1 per half dozen. I really wasn't expecting much as we don't get any passing traffic but to my surprise they have been selling well. I have made in excess of £40 so far and could have sold more if there had been more eggs.
It makes me feel quite proud that its the local farmers wives who are buying them.
Well done those 
 

[mentalmilly]

Well done.  I started off with 6 chucks and sold the extra eggs.  Beware this can go too far, l now have 31 chucks and they keep themselves in food and pay for other stuff.  Addictive.

[happygolucky]

When we had a few more...16 I think, we used to sell eggs too, but at my husbands work in Glasgow, he would cycle with them in  his panniers and never broke any...when his job finnished we did not bother selling any and also we have downsized, the money from ours easily paid for thier keep...wondeful pets!!

[OhLaLa]

Way back before I had poultry I used to love buying my eggs 'at the gate'. I liked seeing them scratching around. It was that which geared up my interest and led me to getting my own hens.
 
Selling at the gate is great. It helps pay for feed and stops the build up of surplus eggs. And it's nice to know that people like your eggs and come back for more.
 
     
 
 

[zoe_emma]

I am seriously considering doing this, I am at home all week this week so could keep an eye out.

OH thinks the eggs will be taken and no money left - but I get the impression this is not usually the case? I like to think (perhaps naively) that most people are honest. What do others think?

[Bionic]

Everyone here has been completely honest so far. In fact, in one case, I was left more than a pound but I think that may have just been a case of them miscounting the change they had to pay with.
Leaving an honesty box out does give the opportunist a chance but on the other hand people seem to be happier that they can just take what they want without knocking at the house.
Give it a go and see how you get on

[zoe_emma]

I think I will. No time like the present!

[OhLaLa]

I am seriously considering doing this, I am at home all week this week so could keep an eye out.

OH thinks the eggs will be taken and no money left - but I get the impression this is not usually the case? I like to think (perhaps naively) that most people are honest. What do others think?

Unfortunately not everyone is honest. Screw your money box down to the table and make the lid lockable.
 

[suziequeue]

The thing I have found is that once people get a taste for "true" eggs - they ever go back. I take our eggs to work on a Monday morning and I have a waiting list of people wanting to buy them at £1.50 for six.

[sokel]

I drop all of my spare eggs off at my sisters and her neighbours buy them at £2.20 a dozen now people further afield have started going to her . We could easily sell in excess of 10 dozen a week

[harefarm]

I think I have now experienced what you mean suziequeue. Over the weekend I have had a couple of people tell me they have never tasted eggs as good as mine. They are rich in colour and flavour. One person said 'the best in Hampshire'.

Someone else came up and said he was told to come up for his eggs by a neighbour/friend because 'they are delicious'.

I really don't know what I do different with my hens to other people. The amount of people that say their hens (hybrids the same as mine) stop laying over the winter. I have had hens for three years - started with ex-bats. They have always laid right through the year - yes the ease off a bit over the winter but I still get some eggs. Maybe it the individual attention they get! They are free to roam in their LARGE run, have trees that they love, and have rain water as opposed to tape water.

[suziequeue]

I think it helps that I work in a city where people don't even seem to grow herbs in a pot on the windowsill!!!


So there's a big interest in anything "good life"-ish.

[HesterF]

Word of mouth is certainly good. I''ve sold to other mums at school and once somebody sees that you're selling them, they'll ask for some too. Given I've only got one hen laying at the moment, it's a good job it's half term - having trouble keeping up with the hen egg demand although the ducks are doing well. I charge £1.50 for half a dozen duck eggs and somebody was going to pay me £1.50 per egg the other day! - she'd never had duck eggs before so assumed they were really expensive (and they are really big - but not that big)!

H

[NormandyMary]

Im having a complete revamp of my chook facilities. The house we've got at the moment is pants. All pretty on the outside, but so difficult to clean out, and after only 18months, its falling apart. So once its been emptied again, the chooks are going back to a house which is the same size as the goats house. They will have loads of room, and will be able to shelter from the rain if I cant let them out of their run for some reason. I then intend to get another 3 or 4, but I want to get a couple of different breeds for a change, rather than just red, grey and white (light sussex). Its quite exciting! I need to have loads of eggs as I barter with my hairdresser. She tends to my locks, cust and perms etc as well as cutting OH's hair too and I try to give her a dozen eggs a week. Its not easy with only 3 chooks though, especially when Im dieting!!!

[Bionic]

Mary, as you are bartering with the eggs you definitely have the incentive to get more chickens. I have 6. 2 light sussex, 1 bluebelle (lays eggs like the light sussex but a bit bigger) 2 french copper marans (very dark brown eggs) and 1 barred wyandotte (paler and smaller eggs).
 
The copper marans and the wyandotte were eggs I bought by post and reared myself.