Price of Eggs

Glinda and Melanie write:

Certain days have been markers for our fledgling operations in becoming a farm. Many of these markers center around the chickens. Up until now, they would include when: the baby chicks arrived, Richard harvested the roosters, the hennies laid their first egg, they became free range in the yard and garden, we gave away 1 rooster and 2 hennies to a neighboring farmer, we gave away eggs as holiday gifts and watched the delight on recipients' faces. (With great interest, we also heard cherished chicken and egg stories.) Today was another of those days: The 23 hennies are now producing 17-22 beautiful eggs of uniform size, far more than our family can eat per day. That means we are ready to sell a few dozen eggs a week to local families. After considerable thought, we settled on a price for eggs and created a label for the cartons.

Melanie has been doing her homework. We three partners drew on our experience in buying eggs from the Klawitters in North Dakota and our deep gratitude for the ability to purchase such a unique product in spite of a mass produced, desensitized world. Melanie drew on her experience with the Minnesota Farmers' Market Manual where she learned that a major issue is valuing our product and pricing it for what it is worth. Many small farmers in today's society tend to undervalue their product. This is further complicated by the fact that consumers in our society are oriented toward paying the least amount.

Melanie surfed the web to find out specifications for licensing in Missouri. Since we are not selling through retail outlets, we do not need to be licensed. She talked to a local producer, asking the going rate for farm fresh eggs and any useful tidbits of advice. Several consumers have indicated great interest in the product and in supporting our work on the farm. She asked what farm fresh eggs would be worth to them.

So what about free range? Melanie noted conflicting free range definitions. As a family, we wondered if the chickens need to be past their gate in order to be considered free range. We have settled on a "free range" definition that we have a non-confinement facility. The chickens have opportunities to forage within a fence which protects them from predators. Ours have access to the outside except on days when it is bitterly cold.

Melanie settled on $2/dozen, higher than some that are commercially available. These eggs are not your standard conventional grocery store eggs which generally come from large, mass produced, confinement operations. While common generations ago, they are very different and unique today. She priced them lower than organic eggs, because as yet we cannot find a source for commercial organic food. We are at present looking into other options because we intend for the chickens and eggs to be organic.

We brainstormed information to list on the carton and Glinda worked on design. Key areas on the carton are: farm fresh, local, free range, heritage breeds (Buff Orpingtons and White Plymouth Rocks), address with email and phone, pack date, price. We also included statements which suggest the uniqueness of our product: "We reuse clean cardboard cartons", "Raised by a family who cares about sustainability for families and the Earth", "Eggs like Grandma raised!"

We left out two pieces of information. We believe our chickens are happy and that is very important to us. They are humanely treated. Melanie also thanks them every day for their gifts of eggs.

Saturday will be our first outing to sell eggs. We will be taking them to the drop-off for our buying club in the community. Here we go!