Eggs

Can I sell eggs in the shell in BC?

Eggs in the shell can carry Salmonella on the outside, so BC sets conditions for selling them at a market: clean and uncracked, kept at 4°C or colder, in crates labelled with your farm’s name, address and packing date.

Ungraded eggs from your own flock

  • At a farmers’ market

    A market with a market manager — farmers’ markets, Christmas markets, craft fairs

    Yes, if

    Yes, at farmers’ markets, straight to the people who will eat them. BC Egg, its Consolidated Order and the market guideline all allow it — though the regulation’s own exemption names only your farm or home, so market sales rest on BC Egg’s rules and the guideline rather than on the regulation’s wording. Other events don’t count.

    • From your own hens. Clean and uncracked, kept at 4°C or colder until the customer takes them (an unrefrigerated honesty stand doesn’t meet this), in clean cartons marked “Ungraded” in letters at least 2 cm high, with your farm’s name and the packing date. Don’t reuse cartons that still show a grading station’s or another farm’s marks.
    • Crates labelled with your farm name and the packing date (the 2026 draft adds your address).
    • The 2020 guideline expects you to contact Island Health before you start selling eggs at a market; the 2026 draft drops that step.
    • Up to 99 hens: no Egg Board permit. 100–399 hens: a small-lot permit ($250 a year); you must be 19 or older and produce to an organic, heritage, free-range or free-run standard the Board accepts. 400 or more: quota.
    • These are the rules for chicken eggs. BC’s grading rules and the Egg Board don’t cover duck, quail or goose eggs: at markets the shell-egg conditions still apply; for anywhere else, ask Island Health.

  • At a festival or event

    Fairs, festivals, sports events, fundraisers — anything that is not a market

    No

    No. Ungraded eggs may be sold only at your farm or home and, under BC Egg’s rules, at farmers’ markets — a booth at a fair or festival is neither. If the event has its own farmers’ market run by a market manager you can sell there under the market rules; otherwise, have the eggs graded at a registered station.

  • From your door, shop or farm gate

    Customers buy where you make, grow or sell it

    Yes, if

    Yes — from your own farm or home, to people buying for their own household. BC’s grading rule doesn’t apply to eggs a producer sells from their own farm or residence straight to a consumer. A stand or shop anywhere else doesn’t count, and a store can’t sell them for you.

    • From your own hens. Clean and uncracked, kept at 4°C or colder until the customer takes them (an unrefrigerated honesty stand doesn’t meet this), in clean cartons marked “Ungraded” in letters at least 2 cm high, with your farm’s name and the packing date. Don’t reuse cartons that still show a grading station’s or another farm’s marks.
    • Up to 99 hens: no Egg Board permit. 100–399 hens: a small-lot permit ($250 a year); you must be 19 or older and produce to an organic, heritage, free-range or free-run standard the Board accepts. 400 or more: quota.
    • These are the rules for chicken eggs. BC’s grading rules and the Egg Board don’t cover duck, quail or goose eggs: at markets the shell-egg conditions still apply; for anywhere else, ask Island Health.

  • Online, with pickup or delivery

    Orders taken online, by message or by phone

    Yes, if

    Yes, if the customer collects the eggs at your farm or home — delivery is different. The exemption covers eggs “distributed by a producer, from the producer’s farm or residence, to a consumer”, so taking the order online or by phone changes nothing. With 100–399 hens the Egg Board limits you to the farm gate and farmers’ markets, so no delivery; with fewer, ask BC Egg before delivering them yourself.

    • Collected at your farm or home.
    • No couriers, shops or apps delivering them (with 100–399 hens, no delivery at all).
    • You stay the seller.
    • From your own hens. Clean and uncracked, kept at 4°C or colder until the customer takes them (an unrefrigerated honesty stand doesn’t meet this), in clean cartons marked “Ungraded” in letters at least 2 cm high, with your farm’s name and the packing date. Don’t reuse cartons that still show a grading station’s or another farm’s marks.
    • Up to 99 hens: no Egg Board permit. 100–399 hens: a small-lot permit ($250 a year); you must be 19 or older and produce to an organic, heritage, free-range or free-run standard the Board accepts. 400 or more: quota.
    • These are the rules for chicken eggs. BC’s grading rules and the Egg Board don’t cover duck, quail or goose eggs: at markets the shell-egg conditions still apply; for anywhere else, ask Island Health.

  • To shops, cafés & restaurants

    Wholesale, or on consignment in someone else’s store

    No

    No. Ungraded eggs may go only to the people who will eat them; BC Egg says selling them to restaurants or stores, or giving them to food banks or community dinners, is illegal. To supply businesses, have the eggs graded at a registered station — though with 100–399 hens even graded eggs may go only to end consumers.

  • To customers outside BC

    Shipping or selling across a provincial border

    No

    No, not to customers. Federal rules let ungraded eggs cross a provincial border only in containers marked “Ungraded Eggs”, and only to a licensed egg grading or processing establishment. Have them graded first if you want to sell to another province.

The rules behind these answers

Sources

Graded at a registered egg station

  • At a farmers’ market

    A market with a market manager — farmers’ markets, Christmas markets, craft fairs

    Yes, if

    Yes, under the market guideline’s shell-egg conditions. Eggs can carry Salmonella on the shell, so the guideline asks for clean, uncracked eggs kept at 4°C or colder in labelled crates. The 2020 guideline in force also expects you to contact Island Health before you start; the 2026 draft drops that step.

    • Clean and uncracked, kept at 4°C or colder in transit, storage and display.
    • Crates labelled with your farm name and the packing or sale date (the 2026 draft adds your address).
    • The 2020 guideline expects you to contact Island Health before you start selling eggs at a market; the 2026 draft drops that step.

  • At a festival or event

    Fairs, festivals, sports events, fundraisers — anything that is not a market

    Ask first

    Maybe — Island Health decides booth by booth. At fairs and festivals, food that needs refrigeration must come from an approved premises and be kept at 4°C or colder; a booth that only hands it over sealed, as packed, is a “product booth”, while cutting, cooking or offering samples needs a Temporary Food Service Permit. Ask Island Health before you book (event applications are due 14 days ahead) — or sell at a farmers’ market, where the rules are written down.

  • From your door, shop or farm gate

    Customers buy where you make, grow or sell it

    Yes, if

    Yes. Once a registered grading station has graded and marked them, your eggs meet BC’s grading rule and can be sold from your farm or shop. Keep them cold and in the station’s marked cartons.

    • Kept at 4°C or colder.
    • In the grading station’s marked cartons.
    • With 100–399 hens, only to people who will eat them.

  • Online, with pickup or delivery

    Orders taken online, by message or by phone

    Yes, if

    Yes, with pickup or delivery. Graded eggs are sold like any other packaged food, so the way the order comes in doesn’t matter — keeping them at 4°C or colder until the customer has them does.

    • Kept at 4°C or colder, in transit too.
    • In the grading station’s marked cartons.
    • With 100–399 hens, only to people who will eat them.

  • To shops, cafés & restaurants

    Wholesale, or on consignment in someone else’s store

    Yes, if

    Yes with a flock under 100 hens; no with a small-lot permit (100–399 hens). Shops and restaurants must buy graded eggs, but the Egg Board’s order lets small-lot producers sell even graded eggs only “directly to the end consumer”. With 400 or more hens you need Egg Board quota.

    • Fewer than 100 hens.
    • Graded and marked at a registered station, in its cartons.
    • Kept at 4°C or colder in transit.

  • To customers outside BC

    Shipping or selling across a provincial border

    Yes, if

    Yes. Federal rules require eggs sent to another province to be graded and marked under the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations, which is what a registered grading station does. Keep them in the station’s marked cartons.

    • Graded, packed and marked at a registered (federally licensed) station.
The rules behind these answers

Sources

How it’s classified

In force — 2020 guideline

Its own rules

Sources

Proposed — 2026 draft

Its own rules

Sources

More in eggs, or every food, A to Z.

Businesses that sell it

Farms & market gardensGrowing fruit, vegetables, grains or microgreens.Meat, poultry & egg producersRaising animals for meat, or hens for eggs.

Last checked 26 September 2026. We check this guide regularly against Island Health, provincial and municipal sources, but regulations and laws change often and we can’t guarantee it is complete or current. Confirm with Island Health and your municipality before you apply, build or sell.

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