Selling eggs from your hens

Spare eggs from a garden or smallholding flock can go to neighbours, to a box at the gate or to a stall on market day. Each of those steps brings its own rules. The rules also differ between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

This site is a guide. It doesn't sell eggs, and it isn't connected with any egg producer or egg company, including any with a similar name.

Selling at the gate or the door

Defra marks its egg marketing page as applying to England and Wales, and links producers in Scotland and Northern Ireland to separate guidance.

APHA, the Animal and Plant Health Agency, runs egg marketing inspections in England and Wales. Its guidance of September 2026 covers a keeper with fewer than 350 hens who sells every egg straight to the people who will eat them, at the farm gate or door to door. That keeper need not register with an APHA egg marketing inspector.

Defra adds that the shells of these eggs can go unstamped, with no producer code. That holds when buyers take them for their own household, and the sale happens on the keeper's own farm or on doorsteps nearby.

APHA quotes the English definition of door-to-door selling. It is a sale made during a visit the buyer did not ask for, to their home, someone else's home or their place of work.

In Northern Ireland, DAERA's leaflet of August 2024 says ungraded eggs may be sold at the farm gate, door to door or at a local public market, within 28 days of lay. An honesty box or a vending machine is allowed only on the farm where the eggs were laid.

Taking eggs to a market

For England, a local public market means a recognised public market within the producer's county or a neighbouring one, or within 60 miles, whichever area is larger. APHA's guidance says roadside sales, from a lay-by for example, and car boot sales do not count unless they meet that definition. APHA expects its inspectors in Wales to apply similar principles.

In England and Wales, a keeper with fewer than 50 hens who sells ungraded eggs at such a market has no code to stamp. Defra says the stall must still show four things:

With 50 or more hens, Defra says the premises must be on APHA's register of laying sites before those market sales start. Once the flock is over 50 hens, each egg sold there must carry the producer code. Defra also notes that some markets set their own rule that hen eggs must be stamped.

In Northern Ireland, DAERA says a producer with more than 50 hens who sells at a local market must register with its Egg Marketing Inspectorate, which issues the number to stamp on the eggs.

Supplying a shop, café or bakery

In England and Wales, Defra says eggs bound for shops, caterers or restaurants need Class A grading, and grading happens only at a registered egg packing centre. To grade at home, the keeper registers the premises with APHA as a packing centre. The council's environmental health department must also approve the keeper as a food business operator.

A keeper who sends eggs off to another business's packing centre registers the farm with APHA as a laying hen establishment instead.

APHA's guidance lists what a packing centre needs, including equipment to candle eggs and to sort them by weight. It also says Class A eggs must not be washed or cleaned, before or after grading.

In Northern Ireland, DAERA says only Class A eggs may go through a retail outlet or to a restaurant. They are graded in a packing centre that DAERA authorises and the Food Standards Agency approves. Even with fewer than 350 hens, the production site is registered with DAERA and its number is stamped on every Class A egg.

Defra's page also covers salmonella testing in England and Wales. A keeper with fewer than 350 hens who supplies the public directly or through local shops does not have to follow the national programme's testing.

What may go on the box

APHA's guidance names four recognised methods of production, and the producer code on the shell starts with a digit for each. Organic eggs carry a 0, free range a 1, barn a 2 and eggs from caged hens a 3. "Pasture-raised" is not on that list.

On Class A packs, APHA's guidance allows other claims only when they are not misleading and can be shown to be accurate. Its wording is that they must be able to be substantiated as being accurate. So a seller who prints "pasture-raised" on Class A packs must be able to back it up.

DAERA gives an example from Northern Ireland. A keeper who lets hens out only at weekends cannot call the eggs free range, because the hens must be let out every day.

Registering the birds themselves

APHA's guidance says bird registration comes under separate law, made to control disease. For England and Wales, a flock of 50 or more poultry, of any mix, has to be registered with APHA. The deadline is one month from when the birds are first kept at the premises. Below 50 birds, keepers in England and Wales must still register within one month, counting any pets. GOV.UK says it is free.

In Scotland, the Scottish Government requires every bird keeper to join the Scottish Kept Bird Register, even with only one bird.

In Northern Ireland, DAERA says everyone who keeps birds of any species must register with its Veterinary Service. Pet birds kept in cages indoors are the only exception.

The Food Standards Agency counts selling food among the activities that can make someone a food business. For England, Wales and Northern Ireland, registration with the local authority is due no later than 28 days before the first sale. Scottish sellers can get advice on registering from Food Standards Scotland or their council.

When bird flu is about

Defra and APHA say that anyone who suspects bird flu in their birds, in England, Scotland or Wales, must report it straight away, even if the signs are mild. For Northern Ireland, DAERA publishes separate guidance.

In England, keepers inside a disease control zone must by law follow that zone's rules. In a 3km protection zone, keepers must keep their birds housed. Eggs can only move under a licence there, though table eggs can still go to shops or wholesalers that sell straight to the public.

In England, the egg marketing rules now say eggs may still be sold as free range while a housing order lasts. Scotland and Wales made the same change.

Records a seller keeps

APHA's guidance lists the records a registered producer in England and Wales keeps, by production method and by day. They include the date hens were placed and their age and number, any deaths, daily egg production, and farm gate and other direct sales.

In an avian influenza prevention zone in England, Defra says keepers must by law keep records of bird movements, deaths and eggs.

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