Collected vs sold: finding the eggs that go missing
A simple monthly check that matches what your flocks laid with what you sold, so lost and unrecorded eggs show up before they eat your margin.
On this page
The gap most farms never measure
Every egg your hens lay ends up somewhere: sold, still in the store, broken, eaten at home or given away. When those don't add up to what was collected, the difference is money you can't account for. On many farms nobody checks, so a small daily leak runs for months.
The monthly check
Do this at the end of each month, with numbers in trays of 30 so they're easy to count.
The balance
Eggs in store at the start + eggs collected − eggs sold − eggs broken or used = eggs that should be in store now
Then count the store. The difference between what should be there and what is there is your unexplained gap.
Here is an example with round numbers:
| Trays | |
|---|---|
| In store on the 1st | 120 |
| Collected in the month | 2,150 |
| Sold | 2,080 |
| Broken or used at home | 35 |
| Should be in store now | 155 |
| Counted in store | 128 |
| Unexplained gap | 27 |
Where the missing eggs usually are
Most gaps aren't theft. Work through the likely causes in order:
- Breakage nobody wrote down. Cracked eggs sorted out at packing, trays dropped in transport.
- Sales not recorded. Small cash sales at the gate, or a customer who took extra trays to pay later.
- Counting mistakes. A collection counted twice, or written in eggs on one page and trays on another.
- Eggs used or given away. For the household, for workers, as gifts.
- Theft. If the gap stays large after the rest is fixed, look at who handles eggs between the house and the buyer.
Making the gap smaller
- Record every collection, with cracked eggs counted separately.
- Record every sale the same day, with a receipt, including cash sales at the gate.
- Keep a breakage and home-use line, and fill it in when it happens.
- Count the store at the end of each month, and the gap tells you how well the rest is working.
A gap that shrinks from month to month means your records are getting better. One that suddenly grows deserves a closer look that week.
In OrnisNest, the Finance overview sets eggs collected against eggs sold and shows the difference as "not sold (on hand, used or lost)". It isn't a stock count, so compare it with what you count in your store.