Egg Payment Etiquette

[Eve4Walle]

I need some advice....maybe will post elsewhere too?

We have 10 hens, and they are all in lay.

DH sells some eggs at work, and we also sell to neighbours etc (they found out we had hens and asked if we'd sell, we didn't go touting for business!), but I've given a woman at the school who I am friendly with half a dozen free on a few occasions which is fine, but now she's asking for a dozen each week and not offering any payment. What to do? Obv, this is not a big deal in the scheme of things, but they are still costing us to feed etc, and DH would be annoyed if he knew. I don't know how to broach it with her.

Any advice or ideas?

Just be honest - say it costs you about ... per egg to feed and care for the hens so could she give you about ... each week and you'd be more than happy to provide her with a dozen eggs a week.

Yes, just tell he rthat the price of chicken food is quite expensive so you've decided that you're very sorry but you're going to start charging for eggs, etc. Its probably not crossed her minds that chickens cost money to keep.

My husband does quite a roaring trade at work with our eggs. He manages to pay for his daily cappuccino by selling half a dozen a day for a £1. We used to also have an "honesty box" system at the end of our garden, that did very well when we had more hens (before the visits from Mr Reynard).

We've had to stop feeding ours organic feed though- the organic stuff is twice the price and I seriously doubt we'd be able to charge £2 per 6 and actually sell any.

You definitely shouldn't be giving them away, and certainly not to cheeky people! Bank on each hen costing about £1 a week to feed, and make sure the flock pretty much pays for itself.

Tell school woman you have sold them all and don't have any to spare! Just keep telling her that until she gets the message.

its illegal to sell eggs unless you have a licence, just incase you poison someone & they sue you ! we have just got our chicks who arent laying yet but we will just be giving them to people

Agree with duchesse!!

sandra, no it's not illegal. It is perfectly legal to sell produce etc at the farm gate, including eggs. And "poisoning" is far more likely to arise in intensive battery farms than in small flocks due to large movements in an out of stock and inadequate conditions for the hens. (although backyard hens are more likely to have untreated lice and mites, but these are not health risks to people).

don't forget that your chickens won't always be giving you enough eggs to sell!! We have 12 chickens and they sometimes have really good weeks and then bad weeks.

How about saying that you will let her have half a dozen eggs on the good weeks. That way if you need extra eggs then you can keep them. It also means she can't moan at you for not giving her a dozen every week if the chickens aren't laying.

Intense farmed chickens can lay about 300 eggs a year, normal chickens lay 200-250 max a year so there will be some time when they don't lay. Also you may get a few go broody and that will reduce the number of eggs for a while.

I would say that perhaps you can do a reduced price for a dozen on good weeks of £1 - £1.50 depending how much you want to sell. Around here they go for about £1.20 per half dozen upwards to £1.70 (better be bloody good eggs).