To price eggs, cost a week of the flock: the feed, the cartons, the bedding and grit, the share of next year's pullets, and the hours of chores and packing, divide by the dozens the hens laid, and price for the margin you want after card fees. Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − fees). In the example below, 400 pastured hens lay 175 dozen a week. Their feed is $224, the cartons $61, and with replacement hens, chores, packing and the coop's share, a dozen costs $4.63. At a 30% margin after 3% card fees, that's $6.91, rounded up to $7. A store paying $5.25 leaves 46 cents. Eggs earn thin margins, which is why selling direct matters. Below is a dozen's cost, the price, egg shares and wholesale, winter, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Cost a week, not an egg: feed, cartons, bedding and grit, replacement hens, water and power.
- Count the chores: feeding, collecting, washing, grading and packing are most of the hours.
- Divide by the dozens actually laid that week.
- Price = full cost ÷ (1 − margin − card fees), rounded up to a quarter.
- Eggs carry thin margins; 30% is a realistic target, and direct sales are where it holds.
- Winter laying drops, so the same feed makes fewer dozens; price for the whole year.
- TaroStack keeps the feed counted and the egg cartons packed by date. More below.
What a dozen costs
Clover Hollow Farm, a made-up pastured egg farm in Franklin, Tennessee, I use in these examples, keeps 400 hens laying about three eggs in four days:
| A week, 175 dozen | Amount | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Layer feed | 700 lb at $0.32 | $224.00 |
| Egg cartons | 175 at $0.35 | $61.25 |
| Bedding, grit and oyster shell | $25.00 | |
| Replacing hens: pullets, a week's share | $46.00 | |
| Water and power | $10.00 | |
| Supplies, a week | $366.25 |
| A dozen | Cost |
|---|---|
| Feed, cartons and supplies | $2.09 |
| Chores, collecting, washing and packing, 945 minutes a week at $20 an hour | $1.80 |
| Label, and a share of the coop, fencing and netting | $0.74 |
| Full cost | $4.63 |
Feed is the biggest single cost, $1.28 of every dozen. Organic feed at half again the price adds about 64 cents a dozen, which is the honest reason organic eggs cost more. Hens lay for a couple of years before they slow down, so replacing them is a cost of every dozen, not a one-time purchase.
The price
| Dozen | |
|---|---|
| Full cost | $4.63 |
| Price at a 30% margin after 3% card fees | $6.91 |
| Rounded up to a quarter | $7.00 |
| Left after the cost and fees | $2.16 |
A 30% margin is lower than a bakery's, because the cost of a dozen is mostly feed and time, and shoppers compare against the grocery store. The margin has to cover the dozens that crack, the winter months and the business. How a whole egg farm's year works is in egg business plan.
Egg shares and wholesale
| Price a dozen | Left after cost and fees |
|---|---|
| $7.00, at the market | $2.16 |
| $6.50, in an egg share | $1.67 |
| $5.25, to a store or restaurant | $0.46 |
An egg share, paid ahead for a season, sells for a little less than the market and is worth it for the steady weekly order. A store at $5.25 leaves 46 cents a dozen, enough only if it takes eggs you'd otherwise have left over. How the same arithmetic works for any farm product is in farm stand prices.
Winter and the whole year
Hens lay less in the short days of winter, often a third less, while they eat the same feed. In a winter week the same $366 of supplies makes perhaps 120 dozen instead of 175, and a dozen costs over $5.50. Price for the year's average, not the best summer week, or raise the winter price and explain why. Whether you need a license or a grading room to sell eggs is set by your state; the federal rules are summarized in egg business plan, and keeping eggs moving oldest-first in FEFO vs FIFO.
Get the calculator
Download the egg pricing calculator. Type a week's feed, cartons and supplies, the dozens the hens laid, the minutes of chores and packing, labels, the coop's share, your hourly rate, card fees, the margin you want, a store price and an egg share price; it works out the full cost of a dozen, the price for your margin rounded up to a quarter, and what each price leaves. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The calculator uses one week. Laying changes with the season and the age of the flock, feed comes in by the ton at prices that move, and cartons packed on Monday need to be sold before cartons packed on Friday. A spreadsheet can price a week; it can't follow them.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the feed counted and the egg cartons packed by date.
Feed in the unit you use. Feed bought by the ton is stocked by the pound, and comes up on a reorder list in days of cover, worked out from how fast the flock eats it.
Each day's eggs a lot. Each day's collection can be recorded as a batch with its date, so cartons carry a pack date, picking lists put the earliest first, and the lots each store got are recorded as it ships.
What a dozen costs now. Feed prices are recorded with every delivery, and the price-creep report shows each supplier's prices over time.
| The job | Calculator | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Feed on hand | Look in the bin | Stock by the pound |
| When to order feed | When it's low | Reorder list in days of cover |
| Oldest cartons first | Write dates on them | Each day's eggs a lot, earliest first |
| Feed going up | Noticed on the bill | Price creep by supplier |
Stock, lots, reorder lists and price creep 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.