Selling Your Excess Eggs

Selling Your Excess Eggs

Once you’ve established a flock of chicken, there’s a good chance you’ll find that you have more eggs than you could ever eat. What can you do with those extras? One profitable solution is selling your excess eggs. Your successful venture will begin with a handful of important considerations.

What Are the Local Laws?

Some communities have restrictions on how many animals you can have in your yard and others may prohibit chickens all together. Many communities allow backyard chicken hatcheries to sell eggs to friends, family and neighbors without any requirements. If you want to move beyond that point, you may find that it’s necessary to meet FDA guidelines. Before planning to make a lot of money selling the extra eggs, be sure you understand your local laws.

Who Are Your Most Likely Customers?

If most of your potential market are individuals who are focused on sales, you might struggle to keep your prices low enough to entice buyers while making a profit. Are there other people in your neighborhood who are selling eggs? These and other factors will affect the price you can set for each dozen.

How Will You Package the Eggs?

If you’re selling enough eggs that you’re dealing with legal requirements, you probably won’t be able to reuse egg containers. If you’re only dealing with a few leftover eggs, you might not want to invest in packages. On the other hand, if you’re hoping to grow your business, a new carton with an attractive label can be a good source of advertising.

Will You Work With a Large Retailer?

If you have enough eggs, you might consider working with a larger retailer who will turn around and sell the eggs again. If you hope to reach this point, you’ll find that the legal requirements are much stricter and the risks are also greater. Create an emergency plan and look into applicable insurance plans.

Selling your extra eggs could be a great way to make a bit of profit without too much additional work. With a little bit of research, you may find that your backyard chickens are wonderful business partners.

How to Start Your Own Chicken Hatchery

How to Start Your Own Chicken Hatchery

A chicken hatchery is a great venture for budding entrepreneurs. Hatcheries offer reliable profits and a quick return on your investment. You don’t have to have much equipment to get started and you’ll find that the best way to gain experience is as you go.

Step One: Research How to Start Your Own Chicken Hatchery

Did you know that cleaning your eggs will prevent them from hatching? Do you know which side of the egg should be pointed up to protect the embryo inside? With a little bit of research, you should have no problem earning a profit from your chicken hatchery.

Step Two: Prepare a Business Plan

Nearly every successful business begins with a sound financial plan. You’ll need to balance your startup funds against the price of equipment and chicken. If you’re hoping to get funding from a bank or other lender, you’ll want to have a business plan that details how many birds you intend to handle and how you plan to repay the loan. Include a description of your business, the products you’ll sell, how you intend to market the chicks, a detailed description of operations and your financial expectations.

Step Three: Gather the Equipment

Before you can get started, you’ll need some egg incubators and brooders. The egg incubators are used to keep the eggs warm as the chicks prepare to hatch. The brooders keep the newly hatched chicks warm. It’s important to have an indoor space prepared for this equipment. You’ll want to have some way to maintain consistent temperature and humidity levels in that room.

Step Four: Select the Parent Flock

The parents of your flock will produce the eggs that your business needs for success. You’ll want to carefully choose a hardy breed and prepare an area to care for the parent flock and any young birds that weren’t sold as chicks.

Once you’ve done your homework, invested in some equipment and purchased your parent flock, you’re ready to start incubating some eggs. Best wishes!