How to Price Duck Eggs: Per Dozen, With a Calculator

To price a dozen duck eggs you add up its full cost first: the flock's feed by the batch, your time at an hourly rate, the carton and label, and a share of overhead like rent and power. That's what one dozen costs you. Then set the price so that, after card and selling fees, it leaves the margin you want: price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate). For a dozen duck eggs that costs $4.15 to make, a 55% margin after 3% fees means $9.87, rounded up to $10.00. Feed is more than half the cost, so a feed price rise moves the egg price; ducks that lay less in winter raise the cost of each dozen they do lay. A bakery price is a different number, set so it still covers the full cost with something left. In the example below, a Sonoma County duck farm prices its eggs for markets and bakeries.

The short version

• Full cost = feed a dozen + your time + carton and label + overhead.
• Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fee rate).
• Count your time at a real hourly rate, even if you don't pay yourself yet.
• Price a week's eggs against a week's feed.
• Raise the winter price, or accept less, when the flock lays less.
• Check what wholesale leaves after full cost before saying yes.
• TaroStack keeps each day's eggs as a lot with its pack date, sold oldest first. More below.

What goes into a dozen's cost

The farm's year is in duck farm business plan, and hen eggs priced the same way in how to price eggs.

An example: a dozen duck eggs

Hollow Pond Duck Farm, the made-up duck farm in Sebastopol, California, I use in these examples, gets about 88 dozen a week from 200 laying ducks:

At a 55% margin after 3% card fees, the price is $4.15 ÷ 0.42 = $9.87, so $10.00. At $10.00 a dozen, each leaves $5.55. It had been asking $9.00, which leaves $4.58. Bakeries pay $7.00 a dozen, which leaves $2.64, and take 40 dozen a week whatever the season. Cartons and labels are in how to package eggs for sale.

Get the calculator

Download the duck egg price calculator. One sheet: type the batch's feed, amounts and costs, the dozen it makes, the hands-on minutes, the carton and overhead, your hourly rate, card fees and the margin you want; the full cost, the price for your margin rounded up, and what a wholesale price and a test price leave fill in. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The calculator prices a dozen on paper. Feed climbs, the flock lays a third less in midwinter, and cracked eggs that can't be sold come out of every week.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps each day's eggs as a lot with its pack date, sold oldest first.

Each day a lot. A day's eggs go in as a lot with the date they were packed, so every carton's date comes from the day it was collected.

Oldest first. Orders take the oldest lots first by default, and a restaurant can be set to take only eggs with enough days left.

Feed in the cost. Feed bought by the bag is used by the pound, so the cost of a dozen follows the feed price.

Lots, expiry and costing 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

How much should I charge for a dozen duck eggs?

Work out the full cost, feed, collecting and washing time, the carton and overhead, then divide by 1 minus your margin and fee rate; the example's $4.15 dozen prices at $10.00 for a 55% margin.

How do you calculate the cost of a dozen duck eggs?

Add the batch's feed and divide by the dozen it makes, then add your time, the carton and a share of overhead.

What is a good profit margin on dozen?

Set your own target after fees; the example uses 55% on direct sales and accepts less on wholesale.

Why are duck eggs more expensive than chicken eggs?

Ducks eat more and lay fewer eggs than laying hens; in the example a dozen costs $4.15 to produce.