Can I sell eggs in Nova Scotia?

Do I need a license to sell eggs in Nova Scotia?

Not a licence from Egg Farmers of Nova Scotia, with 200 or fewer layers. The Marketing Plan says no one may produce eggs in the Province except under a licence issued by the board. The Egg Regulations then say, "Despite Section 20 of the Plan", that a person is exempt from the requirement to hold a licence "if they produce eggs using 200 or fewer layers in a year". A layer is a laying hen, and a laying hen is a hen 19 weeks old or older.

The exemption comes with conditions. The production of a spouse, common-law spouse or registered domestic partner counts toward the person's own. An unlicensed person may produce eggs only in a facility they own or lease. No parcel of land may be used by one or more unlicensed persons for more than 200 layers in a year, nor for any mix of licensed and unlicensed production.

Above 200 layers the board licenses. The Egg Regulations list three producing licences. A producer licence goes with egg quota, "the maximum number of layers that the holder is entitled to use". A specialty licence is for specialty eggs, with an application fee of $250.00 (returned if the application is rejected), and the board may refuse one when no quota is available in its specialty pool or when it judges that not in the industry's interest; applicants are drawn at random when there are more than it will issue. A heritage licence is open only to a person who has "produced and marketed eggs in the Province without holding egg quota in every year since July 25, 1984", and may not exceed 499 layers in a year. We did not read how the board decides when to offer a specialty licence.

Selling is a separate rule, in the answers below. The Food Safety Regulations set permit classes and fees for food establishments, and the public market vendor permit is the one the Department's booklet names for selling eggs at a market. We found no source that asks a permit for selling eggs at your own farm gate; ask your public health officer.

Source: The Egg Farmers of Nova Scotia Marketing Plan, N.S. Reg. 239/1982, s. 20(1) and the definitions, The Egg Farmers of Nova Scotia Egg Regulations, N.S. Reg. 325/2022, ss. 2, 4, 5, 14, 15, 17, 24, 26 and 35 and The Food Safety Regulations, N.S. Reg. 206/2005, ss. 3 and 5.

How many eggs can I sell without a license in Nova Scotia?

The limit is in layers, not in eggs or dozens: 200 or fewer layers in a year needs no licence, and more needs the board's. No source we read puts a limit on the eggs or dozens an exempt producer may sell.

The sources word the line differently, and we settle neither. The Egg Regulations count layers used to produce eggs "in a year", and bar a parcel of land from more than 200 layers "in a year". The Department of Agriculture's booklet says "You may have on your farm at any one time, no more than 200 laying hens unless you have quota", and its table says "Up to 200 laying hens per premise". Ask the board how it counts.

There is also a levy. The Levy Order, as amended effective April 19, 2026, imposes on "every producer" $0.4805 per dozen of eggs marketed, and where the eggs are sold to a person who is not a grading station operator the producer pays it directly to the board. The booklet says all producers of chicken eggs must report their sales to the board and remit a levy per dozen. We found no line in either that spares a producer using 200 or fewer layers, and we did not read how the board takes the report. Ask the board.

Source: The Egg Farmers of Nova Scotia Egg Regulations, N.S. Reg. 325/2022, s. 5, Getting Started in Small Flock Poultry in Nova Scotia, "Raising Chickens for Their Eggs", "Selling Eggs" and the summary table and The Egg Farmers of Nova Scotia Levy Order, N.S. Reg. 170/2006, ss. 2 and 3.

Can I sell eggs at a farmers market in Nova Scotia?

Yes, with a Public Market Vendor Permit. The Department of Agriculture's booklet says ungraded chicken eggs may be sold "at the farm gate or at a public market", which it describes as "a farmers' market that is held no more than two days a week" and says Nova Scotia Environment considers "an extension of the farm gate". Eggs sold there "must be sold to the final consumer, be clean and be stored at 4˚C". Because eggs are a Schedule A product, "a Public Market Vendor Permit is required to sell eggs".

The department's guide for public markets lists "Uninspected ('farm fresh') eggs" among its Schedule A foods, and adds that they "must only be sold to the final consumer and must be clean, washed and crack free". A Schedule A vendor must hold the permit, one for each market, and each permit allows two days a week at one market. The guide asks vendors to apply at least two weeks before they sell. A public market, there, has three or more food vendors with at least one selling Schedule A foods, under a market organizer who holds a Public Market Organizer Permit.

The Food Safety Regulations set the public market permit at $38.70 plus HST for one year, and the permit application form states $44.12 with HST included. The guide says its wording may differ from the laws, and that a vendor selling at a public market has no approval to sell the same food at a store.

Source: Getting Started in Small Flock Poultry in Nova Scotia, "Selling Eggs", Food Safety Guidelines for Public Markets, Nova Scotia Environment and Climate Change, February 2023, definitions, section 3 and section 5, The Food Safety Regulations, N.S. Reg. 206/2005, s. 5 and Application: Public Market Permit (Rev 02Apr2025), section 4.

Can I sell eggs to a restaurant, a store or someone who resells them in Nova Scotia?

Not ungraded. The grading regulations require every container of eggs sold, offered or held for sale in the Province to be marked with a grade, and they exempt one sale: a producer who "sells, transports or delivers to a consumer, eggs produced on a farm owned by the producer". A consumer there is "a person who buys eggs for use by that person or the household of that person and not for resale", so a restaurant, a store or anyone reselling is not one. Ungraded eggs may be sent from a producer's farm to a registered egg station for grading.

The Department of Agriculture's booklet says the same in plain words: all chicken eggs sold in Nova Scotia, "with exception to farm gate or public market circumstances", must have been graded at an egg grading station registered with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. The board's regulations require a grader licence to grade eggs at a grading station, held by someone licensed to grade under the federal Safe Food for Canadians Act. The grading regulations are the 1994 text, amended in 1997, and speak of stations registered under the egg regulations of the Canada Agricultural Products Act, while the CFIA's page now cites the Safe Food for Canadians Regulations; the booklet is the newer reading, and we name no station.

A public market vendor has no approval to sell the same food in a store; the guide sends the vendor to the local public health officer. The Food Safety Regulations also require the food in a food establishment to come from a source subject to inspection.

The exemption has one more edge, where the sources differ, and we settle nothing. The grading regulations exempt a producer who sells to a consumer "eggs produced on a farm owned by the producer", and define a producer as a person who sells "only eggs produced on the farm owned by that person". The board's regulations let an unlicensed person produce eggs in a facility "owned or leased" by that person. We did not find a source that says whether eggs from a leased farm are within the grading exemption. Ask the Department of Agriculture before you sell ungraded eggs from leased land.

Source: The Regulations Respecting the Grading, Packing, Marking, Inspection, Advertising and Sale of Eggs, N.S. Reg. 58/94, ss. 2, 3, 5 and 8, Getting Started in Small Flock Poultry in Nova Scotia, "Selling Eggs", The Egg Farmers of Nova Scotia Egg Regulations, N.S. Reg. 325/2022, ss. 5(3), 11 and 12, Food Safety Guidelines for Public Markets, section 3 and The Food Safety Regulations, N.S. Reg. 206/2005, s. 30.

Do I need to grade or label my eggs in Nova Scotia?

The sources we read name no label for a carton of ungraded eggs sold to a consumer. The grading regulations set grade marks on containers of graded eggs, and exempt a producer who sells its own eggs to a consumer from the regulations altogether. None of the sources speaks of reusing a carton. Ask your public health officer.

The federal egg rules the CFIA lists cover eggs sent from one province or territory to another, not a sale within Nova Scotia. Ungraded eggs may cross a provincial line only to an establishment that grades or processes them, in a container labelled "Ungraded Eggs".

Source: The Regulations Respecting the Grading, Packing, Marking, Inspection, Advertising and Sale of Eggs, N.S. Reg. 58/94, s. 3 and CFIA: regulatory requirements for eggs, section 4.0.

Do eggs have to be refrigerated to sell in Nova Scotia, and at what temperature?

At a public market, yes, at 4°C. The Department of Agriculture's booklet says eggs sold at a public market must be "stored at 4˚C", and the public market guide says cold foods must be kept at 4°C or colder. The guide covers Schedule A foods at a market, and lists uninspected eggs among them.

The sources we read give no temperature for eggs sold at the farm gate. The grading regulations set 4°C only for cracked eggs sold at retail. Ask your public health officer.

Source: Getting Started in Small Flock Poultry in Nova Scotia, "Selling Eggs", Food Safety Guidelines for Public Markets, section 4, "Food Protection" and The Regulations Respecting the Grading, Packing, Marking, Inspection, Advertising and Sale of Eggs, N.S. Reg. 58/94, s. 3(8).

Can I sell duck, quail or other eggs in Nova Scotia?

The board's licence and the 200-layer line are about hens: the Plan, the Egg Regulations and the grading regulations define an egg as the egg of a hen. The Department of Agriculture's booklet says you may keep any number of domesticated ducks, geese or other domesticated fowl for meat or eggs "without quota, license, or permit", and that grading "is not legally required for eggs of domesticated fowl species", though a third-party retailer may require it. The booklet's rule for selling at a market speaks of ungraded chicken eggs and the guide of "uninspected" eggs, and neither says whether a duck egg is one. Ask your public health officer before you sell them at a market.

Source: The Egg Farmers of Nova Scotia Marketing Plan, N.S. Reg. 239/1982, definitions of "egg" and "hen", The Regulations Respecting the Grading, Packing, Marking, Inspection, Advertising and Sale of Eggs, N.S. Reg. 58/94, s. 2(f) and (h) and Getting Started in Small Flock Poultry in Nova Scotia, "Raising any Other Domesticated Fowl for Meat or Eggs" and "Selling Eggs".

Do I have to wash or candle eggs to sell them in Nova Scotia?

The public market guide says uninspected eggs "must be clean, washed and crack free". The sources we read say nothing of how to wash them, and nothing of candling for an ungraded sale: candling and standards belong to the graded eggs, which the grading regulations tie to the federal egg regulations. Ask your public health officer.

Source: Food Safety Guidelines for Public Markets, section 5, note on uninspected eggs and The Regulations Respecting the Grading, Packing, Marking, Inspection, Advertising and Sale of Eggs, N.S. Reg. 58/94, ss. 3(3) and 9.