Does anyone have an honesty box for eggs?

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Ranyhyn

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Does anyone do this with any success? We sometimes get a surplus of eggs here and to be honest the fact I've just opened the egg container and it's REEKING:( means we need to think about getting rid of some.

Does anyone have an honesty box and does it work? We don't get THAT many left over but enough to warrant getting rid of a few boxes a week. Is it worth bothering?

Thanks :)
 
We always put money in the honesty box for whatever we get from roadside shops. Can't speak for others, but we always do!
 
We have a box outside the house, generally we have no problems, people are usually honest though to be fair I rarely count the money. We did have a stage where someone was putting in old English or foreign money. I put a very abrupt note in the box and it stopped. People just drop the money in the egg box, it holds 7 dozen, some days we have to refill it a couple of times, so there is often several pounds in it.
Just to warn you, we started with 12 hens and now have nearly 3000!
 
I have an honesty box for a few doz eggs I have, had a couple of occasions where eggs have been taken and not paid for or people put in some money but not the asking price. However I have built up some customers who have a regular order so have now dispensed with the box, also started with 7 chickens and now have 40 ish.
 
I've been wondering about this but we are in a bit of a built up area, we are on a main road and near a local school, pub, chippy etc so lots of passing potential customers BUT.... i can imagine the local school kids running off with it etc!
I have thought about getting them to ring the bell etc but not sure if its worth it.

I am a volunteer for Fresh Start for Hens commercial hen rehoming and have gone from 5 initially in October, to 9 until this afternoon when i have just found one lady has passed over to rainbow bridge. she was a reject from the Feb rehoming that no-one would take, she had vet treatment for bumblefoot and despite it being touch and go pulled through :-(

I would LOVE to give more ex battery/commercia hens a home but would def need to get rid of the eggs as i have too many as it with with my few hens (and lumpy and beaky - the 2 rejects from feb - lumpy who has today passed away never really laid!)
 
Thanks :) to be honest the money isn't such a huge concern, but the wasteage is! Makes me quite mad! We don't have half as many hens as you lot but still end up with lots left over. My family live a way away and his family can't eat all the surplus (if they ever want to go to the loo again :D)
 
Depends where you live! If your local folk are a fairly honest bunch then you may aswel give it a shot. I wouldn't dare do anything like that where I live, my house would probably get egged!
 
My hens are bantams and I breed so tend not to sell eating eggs but I know plenty who do. The tricks for success seem to be to make the table or whatever attractive (I know one person who has photos of the chickens with their names on a board balanced on an old cart...and does a roaring trade) and how much foot traffic you get (once people have bought once or twice some actually drive to their favourite seller) :)
 
We get a healthy amount of road traffic passing by, the farm is on a cut through past a nice forest and public foothpath :) as for honesty well, we are in south wales! :D :D

Thanks for the advice re: how to present it, sounds lovely, I'm actually looking forward to it now! :)
 
I live in a dead end lane so no passing traffic. But I work in an office and take some boxes into work and there are a few people who like to take them and give me £1 for half doz.
 
Now that's a nice idea. I think I still might. Our eggs are like rocket fuel, might be best not going to the childrens home :D they'll sue me! :D
 
I'm not sure a childrens home etc would be able to use them as if you are a small scale hen keeper who sells from your door, you cant sell to anyone that does catering or sells them on once cooked etc.
 
You can sell any eggs to the consumer, dirty cracked etc but as soon as a third party becomes involved you have to be licensed with the egg inspectorate who will come out and check your unit. They measure everything to make sure there is enough room, there has to be a certain amount of feed room, scratch area, drinkers etc, you also have to have a clean area for grading and candling the eggs. It isn't as bad as it sounds though, once registered they will come out annually to check. You also have to salmonella test 5 times a year.
 
jrp204 said:
You can sell any eggs to the consumer, dirty cracked etc but as soon as a third party becomes involved you have to be licensed with the egg inspectorate who will come out and check your unit. They measure everything to make sure there is enough room, there has to be a certain amount of feed room, scratch area, drinkers etc, you also have to have a clean area for grading and candling the eggs. It isn't as bad as it sounds though, once registered they will come out annually to check. You also have to salmonella test 5 times a year.
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We were told not to put that the eggs are for sale, but ask for a donation instead to get round this.

We have just started selling eggs outside our house a couple of weeks ago. I got a kitchen blackboard with a picture of a bowl of eggs on it for Xmas, so I wrote "Free Range Eggs. £1 donation" and I leave it on the wall outside the house with a few boxes of eggs and a small moneybox next to it. It has worked really well. We are on a small dead end lane with about 15 houses further up. We sell about 7 boxes a week and try to put them out on Weds and Sat so people know when they will be there. We're saving the money and are going to buy a bigger coop with it, and take on more ex-batts. I've never had a pet that pays its way before!

Oh - and another idea for those that don't trust the honesty of their neighbours... My friend takes four boxes of eggs to a local coffee shop and gets a free lunch once a week.
 
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We do, at the end of our track.

6 fresh laid eggs are £1.50 and we have made probably £50 in the last 3 months so definitely worth it.

We have a jam jar full of 20p, 10p and 5p change and another empty one for the actual money.

Has any been nicked? Not this year but perhaps last year.
 
Honey, you are fine,you are selling direct to the consumer, if you were selling to a shop or pub etc, where the person eating them is the 3rd party you have to register. Your friend, by giving/swapping with the cafe is actually in the wrong, if there is a problem with the eggs eg. Salmonella your friend and the cafe will be in the dung so to speak.
I bet you will be getting more hens! It's amazing how your customer base will grow, we have people from 6 miles away come for eggs, we too are on a dead end road. We started with 12 hens, then 25 and gradually increased to 2800. We were supplying pubs etc but are now selling to a local packer who wants guaranteed good fresh eggs, it's great, no grading, boxing or delivering.
 
jrp204 said:
Honey, you are fine,you are selling direct to the consumer, if you were selling to a shop or pub etc, where the person eating them is the 3rd party you have to register. Your friend, by giving/swapping with the cafe is actually in the wrong, if there is a problem with the eggs eg. Salmonella your friend and the cafe will be in the dung so to speak.
I bet you will be getting more hens! It's amazing how your customer base will grow, we have people from 6 miles away come for eggs, we too are on a dead end road. We started with 12 hens, then 25 and gradually increased to 2800. We were supplying pubs etc but are now selling to a local packer who wants guaranteed good fresh eggs, it's great, no grading, boxing or delivering.
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I just read that out to my husband and he nearly died at the 2800!! We do have a six acre field that we don't know what to do with.... We started with six, and are at 10 at the moment!
 
Have a local farm where they have loads of fresh free range eggs with an honesty box which I use and I am sure most people do
 
Honey08 said:
I just read that out to my husband and he nearly died at the 2800!! We do have a six acre field that we don't know what to do with.... We started with six, and are at 10 at the moment!
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FYI. The Egg Marketing Standards Regulationsas amended, do not apply to:

Eggs not from laying hens;
Eggs sold directly to the consumer for their own use;
By the producer on their own farm; or
By the producer in a local public market (with the exception of farm gate sales, at local public/auction markets, or by door to door selling).

Tell your OH you could have 6000 birds on 6 acres!
 
Honey08 said:
I just read that out to my husband and he nearly died at the 2800!! We do have a six acre field that we don't know what to do with.... We started with six, and are at 10 at the moment!
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This all sounds sooo familiar :D Daughter started with six and is up to 600 and showing no sign of stopping ;)
 
My neighbour has an honesty box and has had to set up CCTV to monitor it as he was fed up with people taking eggs and not leaving the money.

A local lad bags up our horse manure and sells it at the bottom of his garden for 50p a bag. He has had his money box broken into and the contents stolen.

All this in a rural community that is supposed to be a nice area!

I'd give it a go if i was you, but empty your money box regularly and padlock it to something.
 
We put our excess goose, duck and hens eggs in a wicker shopping type basket at the end of our drive at the weekend.
A piece of card on it says goose eggs -£1 each, and also has our address and phone number because we read somewhere that you have to say where the eggs are produced.
The duck and hens eggs are put in boxes with the price written on the box.
hen's £1 for half dozen
duck's £2 per half dozen
Our son gets the money as pocket money. His friend who does the same in another village, whose dad is a solicitor keeps a careful record of how much he spends on feed etc and how much he makes, presumably in case the tax man calls.
The only time we had a problem reconciling money in/eggs taken, it turned out to be our local farmer, getting on a bit, memory not what it was, took two eggs in the morning and meant to come back later with the money. But hey we'll all be like that one day.
 
We buy all our eggs this way (which is quite a lot with the amount of baking that goes on in this house!) and also lots of greens and fresh fruit. We are very lucky with how many great places there are for us to stop between home and the yard (Depending on the season we get strawberries, tomato plants, asparagus, kale, potatoes, plumbs, sprouting broccoli, walnuts, cooking apples etc etc I could go on). I would imagine that based on the scale that many do it on, and keep doing year after year, people are indeed being honest enough to pay and that the demand is there :)
 
I used to take eggs into the office a sell them for a £1/half dozen.

One colleague bought a box and the following day returned them to me because they had not got the red stamp on them ! What a townie, not a clue.
 
AdorableAlice said:
I used to take eggs into the office a sell them for a £1/half dozen.

One colleague bought a box and the following day returned them to me because they had not got the red stamp on them ! What a townie, not a clue.
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If we put stamped eggs in the box, they are from the same hens, people will question whe they are from. It just meant they were due to be delivered out to a customer and were spare.
 
We would certainly not risk an honesty box where we live, people have to knock, and thy are very happy to. I did notice a house 2 miles away who have an honesty box though, but I have to say that two miles makes it a very different area.
 
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