Eggs at the gate -OT

[Penners]

Will they be ok in the sun though?

If they get too hot, just sell them as "pre-boiled".

 

[Moo]

Just a small cautionary thought, Joce. That string looks suspiciously like the stuff I use to tie in plants: if it is, I'd keep an eye on it because it rots very quickly indeed, and you don't want your lovely basket to plummet to earth.

 

[CatherineB]

I would buy them at £1.50, definitely. The only potential downside is whether people have change. Could you risk putting some 50p's in the honesty box, and making an actual loss if they're nicked?!

I agree that a little note inside the box would be a nice touch, and possibly allow people to spread your name by word of mouth more easily.

Good luck, Joce and chucks!

 

[JoceAndChris]

Many thanks for all the very helpful, detailed advice.

Tesco charge about £1.58 for 6 medium free range eggs. Waitrose charge £2.29 for 6 Cotswold Legbar. Yours obviously vary in size, but they have the cachet rural, home production by chickens that the buyer can see/hear.

And don't forget that a substantial portion of the perception of quality of a product resides in its price. "Ooh, they're very cheap - they can't be much good."

I reckon you could charge £1.50.

Thanks so much for that vote of confidence Mr P. In that case I will raise my price immediately without self-doubt even though there's a little bantam egg in there.

My daughter has painted two slates with the name of our farm it took her ages. She drew faint pencil lines to set her height of letters then carefully drew the outline of each letter in pencil.


Will they be ok in the sun though?

What a lovely thing for her to do - that sounds fab. I'll have a go at letters like that. The eggs are in full sun between 7 and 10, then it moves round a bit and they're in shade, so I hope they'll be OK. No doubt people will complain if they find they're frying little embryos - I'm also having to snatch them out from under my girls' bosoms as they do like to sit on them for hours after laying !

Just a small cautionary thought, Joce. That string looks suspiciously like the stuff I use to tie in plants: if it is, I'd keep an eye on it because it rots very quickly indeed, and you don't want your lovely basket to plummet to earth.

Yes, it is, thankyou - I'll swpa it for some thin wire in that case.

I would buy them at £1.50, definitely. The only potential downside is whether people have change. Could you risk putting some 50p's in the honesty box, and making an actual loss if they're nicked?!

I agree that a little note inside the box would be a nice touch, and possibly allow people to spread your name by word of mouth more easily.

Good luck, Joce and chucks!

OK, I'll risk some change. And add the note - I did try writing a note last night but Chris said people won't want to know that my birds are called Beatrice, Maud, Hepzibah, Polly Peachum, Sukey Tawdry, Mrs Coaxer, Georgiana, Clarissa Harlowe, Millicent, Harriet, (running with the Earl of Harrowby), and Persephone, Erato, Queen Hippolyta, and Alcyone, running with Stymphalides, and Narcissus, who is gay. The current note names the breeds and egg colours, thanks the buyer for supporting rare breeds (the cream legbar is a very different bird to the Cotswold legbar used by Waitrose, which is a heathen hybrid) and also warns the buyer that fresh eggs that come from hens running with cockerels look a little different to supermarket eggs.

If you sell eggs on a large scale commercially you aren't allowed to let them be fertilised but the well-being of a hen who has a mate, constant guard and titbit-feeder (the cockerel passes all his best finds to the hens) is not to be under-rated. I couldn't take my girls' husbands away.

 

[philpjuk100]

What a great thing to do!I remember this being done in the 50s(lots of folk kept hens during and after the war) our neibours kept some in an anderson shelter and ww2 pill box and used to leave the eggs on the door step and folks used to push the money through the letter box.I am not sure how legal this was as eggs were on ration!sometimes spot in norfolk at the end of farm tracks daffs,eggs,logs etc for sale with a box for the money,probably the kids earning a bit of pocket money.We have a large bramley tree in the garden and put the apples in a big basket with a note on "help youself" and folks do!also when the chucks lay too many we give them to anyone who calls,postie,"here`s your post" and us "here`s your eggs"phil.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Oh, how sweet. Bet your postie loves you. I will mention to mine that he needn't pay, just pick up a box. I have given an awful lot away but 2 boxes a day is hard to get rid of.
I'd like to be a little enterprise - kindling, logs, jams, wild garlic, flowers, fruit in season, cakes, even tea on the lawn in summer. It's very busy here at weekends. Chris has, so far, resisted these ideas but we'll see.

 

[Feltwell]

Chris has, so far, resisted these ideas but we'll see.

I can kind of see why, especially the "tea on the lawn". If I've spent all week working then the last thing I'd want to do at a weekend is have strangers tramping all over the garden, especially if I've got a huge list of jobs to get done that are already longer than the time allows and I suspect I'd get roped in to help. Sorry to sound a negative note!

On the other hand, selling stuff at the garden gate with an honesty box during the week - can't see why not. But things like logs - would you want to be the one wielding the chainsaw to cut them all up? It's hard enough keeping enough going for your own use I've found!

 

[Moo]

We ... put the apples in a big basket with a note on "help youself" and folks do!

It's not just a country custom, y'know. We put a huge pile of bay-tree pruning on the pavement outside son's house in darkest SE4 with the same invitation and it was taken up with gusto.

 

[Penners]

Chris said people won't want to know that my birds are called Beatrice, Maud, Hepzibah, Polly Peachum, Sukey Tawdry, Mrs Coaxer, Georgiana, Clarissa Harlowe, Millicent, Harriet, (running with the Earl of Harrowby), and Persephone, Erato, Queen Hippolyta, and Alcyone, running with Stymphalides, and Narcissus, who is gay.

I have to agree with Chris. It does all sound a bit... er... precious, to the uninitiated! (No insult intended, dear). Anyway, you seem to have forgotten Lotte Lenya and Ol' Lucy Brown. And where are Bill Brewer and Jan Stewer? :wink:

The current note names the breeds and egg colours, thanks the buyer for supporting rare breeds (the cream legbar is a very different bird to the Cotswold legbar used by Waitrose, which is a heathen hybrid) and also warns the buyer that fresh eggs that come from hens running with cockerels look a little different to supermarket eggs.

I think that sounds just the thing. Maybe you could also weave in some brief mention of local food... minimum food miles, and so on? I hope you use the words "organic" and "free range in the garden".

Cotswold Legbars may be Martians, but their eggs are soooper!

 

[philpjuk100]

We ... put the apples in a big basket with a note on "help youself" and folks do!

It's not just a country custom, y'know. We put a huge pile of bay-tree pruning on the pavement outside son's house in darkest SE4 with the same invitation and it was taken up with gusto.

In the days before garden centers this is how gardeners got more types of plant,giving away surplus in exchange for different plants.We took my old grandmother around chatsworth many years ago but we kept loosing her,we later found out she had gone equipt wth brown paper bags and nail scissors and had plenty of new cuttings!

 

[JoceAndChris]

I can kind of see why, especially the "tea on the lawn". If I've spent all week working then the last thing I'd want to do at a weekend is have strangers tramping all over the garden, especially if I've got a huge list of jobs to get done that are already longer than the time allows and I suspect I'd get roped in to help. Sorry to sound a negative note!

On the other hand, selling stuff at the garden gate with an honesty box during the week - can't see why not. But things like logs - would you want to be the one wielding the chainsaw to cut them all up? It's hard enough keeping enough going for your own use I've found!

Oh, with my sensible head on, I completely agree. I'm sure if I were working I wouldn't want people traipsing all over the garden either, although, to have a pretty tea shop built in my spinney, with parking, for people to enjoy the views - and for it to be lucrative enough to pay a chef's wages - that would be different.

I think I'm going to struggle to find paid work I'd enjoy; thoughts of my own business go round and round in my head with no definite conclusions. There is space for a business here, and I want work that isn't solitary, I'm bored with 13 hours of my own company every day. I'm sure you're right about chainsaws and logs though.

I think that sounds just the thing. Maybe you could also weave in some brief mention of local food... minimum food miles, and so on? I hope you use the words "organic" and "free range in the garden".

That's an eggcellent idea, I think I better not mention I give them all the remnants of the kitchen table and chicken korma ranks very highly amongst their favourite food!

 

[skier-hughes]

I'd be careful with using organic, as the strict sense is quite, well strict, maybe use organically (sp)

 

[Penners]

I'm bored with 13 hours of my own company every day.

I'm very sorry to hear that, but at the same time immensely grateful to you for being bored with, rather than bored of!

 

[Moo]

Oh, I second that most heartily !!

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:
I don't think I ever got that right until joining this forum.

Anyway - good news on the job front, I think. I've got through the first online test for Census recruitment, then the telephone interview and just now the 3 hour online training assessment test. As long as the references work out OK, and I pass the classroom sessions, I think I've got it. Thanks so much, dear Mr P, for mentioning it.

 

[Penners]

I've got through the first online test for Census recruitment, then the telephone interview and just now the 3 hour online training assessment test.

That sounds exciting, Joce. What exactly does the job entail?

If you want to pass the classroom tests, be sure to take some lovely eggs for Teacher! :wink:

 

[JoceAndChris]

:lol:
Well, from all the "Siftability" and online testing you'd think at the very least the job entailed negotiating peace amongst the Middle East and co-ordinating aid for Japan. But no, it's simply knocking on the door and asking for the form.

If they refuse because they're busy, you have to put an "R" on your records.
If they violently refuse, you have to put an "X" and give more detail on a dummy form.
If they say they will post it, you have to put a "W"
If they say they have posted it, you have to put a "P"
If the house turns out to be derelict, you have to put a "D"
If you can't find it, you have to put "CF"

Asleep yet?

It gets exciting and complex if there are more than 6 children - an Additional Questionnaire is needed, not to be confused with Repalcement Questionnaire - or indeed, the Individual Questionnaire, which may be requested if one household member is unwilling to share their information with another. However, if they are under 16, this request for privacy is to be ignored.

You see, I can be trained!!!

 

[Penners]

the first online test for Census recruitment, then the telephone interview and just now the 3 hour online training assessment test. As long as the references work out OK, and I pass the classroom sessions, I think I've got it

Well, I know I sound extremely old and predictable, but do you honestly have to go through all of the above, in order to convince some officious, quangodious* twerp of your ability to carry out those tasks? :roll:

I reckon the test should consist of three questions:-

Do you speak English?
Can you read?
Can you write a few letters of the alphabet?

The job isn't exactly going to tax you intellectually, is it?

I trust you'll be wearing a handful of Her Ladyship's knuckleduster rings, in the interests of personal safety.

*The rights to this word are reserved. They may be released upon payment of the appropriate royalty fee.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Mr P, I may have to put a tenner in the post for the use of that lovely word quangodious.

And certainly, that should be affordable, as I am now Sold Out of eggs for a bit. Yesterday was slow, today the news spread like wildfire and orders have arrived on Facebook via a local lady. At one point I suspected the theft of one box, but it was simply a lady taking a box for fear they would all be gone and hurrying back to her car for change. How marvellous.

 

[Penners]

Sold Out of eggs for a bit.

Jolly good! I hope that was at £1.50 a box! If you get too many customers used to £1 then they'll feel a bit aggrieved to see the price suddenly inflate by 50%!

How about a little notice: "Sorry sold out. But the hens are hard at work."?