Egg Business Plan, With a 12-Month Projection

An egg business plan sets out how many hens you'll keep and how many eggs they'll lay, what a dozen costs, who buys them and at what price, the rules, and the first year month by month. Eggs look simple, and the sums are less forgiving than they look: feed, the hens themselves wearing out, cartons and an hour or two of collecting, washing and packing every day add up to more than $4.60 a dozen for pastured eggs, before any fees. That leaves a real margin at a farmers market, a thin one in an egg share, and almost nothing at the wholesale prices grocers like to pay. In the example below, a Tennessee farm with 400 hens sells about 760 dozen a month at peak, makes a profit from the first month, and ends the year about $4,300 ahead on $46,700 of sales, after paying $20 an hour for every hour of work and setting money aside for the next flock. Below is a description example, what a dozen costs, the three channels, the rules, the projection, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: the flock, how the hens are kept, where you sell, the goals.
• Hens make the plan: 400 laying at about 75% is about 300 eggs a day, 25 dozen.
• Cost a dozen with feed, hen replacement, cartons and your labor; it's more than the feed bill suggests.
• The market pays best; wholesale often barely covers the cost of pastured eggs.
• Lay drops in winter, so does the income.
• A flock under 3,000 hens is outside the FDA's Egg Safety Rule, but cartons, cold holding and state rules still apply.
• TaroStack keeps each day's eggs as a lot and walks any carton back to its day. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Clover Hollow Farm, a made-up egg farm in Franklin, Tennessee, I use in these examples, writes:

Clover Hollow Farm keeps 400 laying hens on pasture in two mobile coops, moved every few days. We sell eggs at two farmers markets, through a weekly egg share, and to three grocers and two restaurants. Every carton carries its pack date. In our first year we plan to sell about 760 dozen a month at the peak of lay.

Cartons from graded egg packers often show the pack date as a three-digit day of the year; how that code works, and whether it suits a small farm, is in julian date code format.

Part 2: what a dozen costs

At 75% lay, a dozen eggs takes 16 hen-days of feed. The hens are bought once, at the start, and wear out over about two years of laying, so 48 cents of every dozen is set aside for the next flock. Labor is the biggest line: two and a half hours a day for 25 dozen. How to put labor into a cost for any product is in how to compute labor cost in baking: the arithmetic is the same in a coop.

Part 3: customers and prices

The market leaves $2.16 a dozen; wholesale, 37 cents. At $4.75, wholesale would lose 13 cents a dozen. It still has a place: it takes the eggs the market doesn't, on the weeks the hens out-lay the stall. But the plan should know which channel pays for the farm, and price wholesale from the cost, not from what the last farm charged; how is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.

Part 4: the rules

Federal rules depend on the size of the flock. The FDA's Egg Safety Rule covers producers with 3,000 or more laying hens at a farm that doesn't sell all its eggs directly to consumers (21 CFR 118.1), so a 400-hen farm is outside it. Two rules still reach a small farm. Every carton has to carry the safe handling statement, boxed, with "SAFE HANDLING INSTRUCTIONS" in bold (21 CFR 101.17(h)). And a store or restaurant holding eggs for sale must keep them at 45 °F or below (21 CFR 115.50), so it will expect them cold when they arrive. States add their own rules on licensing, grading, candling and labels, so check with your state's agriculture department before the first sale. This is general information, not legal advice.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $490 a month: the pasture lease ($100), coop and fence upkeep ($50), power for the cooler and washer ($40), insurance ($50), market fees ($120), the vehicle ($100) and the website ($30). The year starts in March with point-of-lay pullets, which reach full lay in May; lay drops as the days shorten and recovers in late winter:

The year's sales are $46,678 and the profit $4,279, on top of $20 an hour for the work and 48 cents a dozen set aside for the next flock. Moving 100 dozen a month from wholesale to the market would add $179 a month; raising the wholesale price by 50 cents would add $150.

Part 6: the startup budget

Get the template

Download the egg business plan workbook. Four sheets: your channels with price, variable cost and dozens a month at peak; the year, month by month from March, with sales, profit and cash; your fixed costs; and your startup budget with working cash. Change the monthly percentages to match your own flock's lay. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

Twenty-five dozen a day go into a cooler, out to two markets, an egg share and five wholesale customers, and the oldest should always go first. A restaurant asks which day's eggs it got, the egg share needs 40 dozen on Wednesday, and the cartons run out the week the hens lay best.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps every day's eggs as a lot.

Each day a lot. Each day's eggs go into stock as a lot with their pack date, counted on a phone in the cooler with no signal needed. Picking takes the oldest first, and lots close to their date show in your alerts.

Orders against the cooler. Egg share and wholesale orders are sales orders for their day that show whether the dozens to fill them are in the cooler while you're still typing. One report walks any day's lot to every customer who got it.

And the cartons before they run out. Cartons and feed sit on the reorder list in days of cover against each supplier's lead time, and margins are reported by product and by customer, so the wholesale account that doesn't pay shows up.

Lots, sales orders, counting and margins by product and customer are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

Is an egg business profitable?

It can be, modestly. In the example, 400 pastured hens bring in $46,700 in the first year and leave about $4,300 after paying $20 an hour for the work and setting money aside for the next flock. The market pays best; wholesale barely covers the cost.

How much does it cost to produce a dozen eggs?

In the example, $4.63 for pastured eggs: $1.60 of feed, 48 cents of hen replacement, 15 cents of bedding and grit, 40 cents for the carton and $2.00 of labor.

How many hens do you need for an egg business?

It depends on your market. In the example, 400 hens laying at about 75% give about 25 dozen a day, which two markets, an egg share and five wholesale customers take.

Do I need a license to sell eggs?

With fewer than 3,000 laying hens, the FDA's Egg Safety Rule doesn't apply, but cartons need the safe handling statement and stores must keep eggs at 45 °F or below. States have their own egg rules, so check with your state's agriculture department.