Egg Prices

[tinkarooni]

I have been holding steady at $3.00 per dozen for two years now. I think it's time to raise the price in the spring. How much do you think I can raise it? $3.25 or $3.50? I don't want to jump a whole dollar. But I do package ours nicely in cartons from eggcartons.com and homemade label with storage warnings and an expire date. I have done this from the start to try and attract a steady customer base willing to pay more than Wally World and it has worked. I never have extra eggs once I have filled my customers orders. But how do I tell them I am upping the price? I was thinking maybe a flyer sometime over the winter that starting April 1 the price is going up due to the cost of feed?

We are also one of those people just trying to cover the feed cost with our eggs.....I don't know how you guys cover the cost if you are only charging $2.00 a dozen?

 

[savingdogs]

What if you just explain that feed prices have gone up?

I was thinking of doing the same because it is true. I think my market will accept a 50 cent rise.

 

[journey11]

I've been thinking on that too. I've been tracking my feed costs v/s egg production for about a year now. 31 hens are eating me out of house and home. I think I can find a better price on feed if I buy in bulk and maybe I won't have to raise my price any. Getting it from TSC in 50# bags was fine when I only had 13 hens. I only went through an average of 100# a month. Lately I have been buying 100# about every 10 days, including the scraps they get and free-range (not so much of that now that we've had snow on the ground for awhile--so they eat more!) I think I have enough containers to store 1000# at a time. I know some folks who raise and sell pastured poultry at the farmer's market and I finally found out where they're buying their feed from, so I'm going to try my luck there! A lot of my customers are elderly and I hate to raise the price on them. I'm currently charging $2.00/dozen, but for my 3 elderly neighbors they get theirs $2.00 for 18.

 

[curly_kate]

DH & I were just discussing that we need to really keep track of food intake vs. egg output. We're at $2 because that's what the market will bear around here. I'm sure friends & family would pay more because they're all city folks, but I'm not sure that the locals would when they can get them for $1 a dozen at Kroger.

 

[savingdogs]

I would have to figure my egg output vs. feed intake on a yearly basis. When I had everyone laying and selling at 3.00 a dozen, we were making money. However the last couple months I've been feeding a big flock of unproductive birds so that really evened things out. Luckily things seem to be picking up again! But if I had figured my costs summer vs. fall they would be dramatically different. Also, my birds eat a lot more in winter and we have electric light in the coop that comes on when it gets below 32.

So I pretty much have to keep my price at 3.00.

 

[hankus]

1.50 to most and 2.00 tops for round here. People don't want to hear about better, all they want to hear is bottom line price.