Selling eggs in Illinois is legal without a license only if you sell ungraded eggs from your own flock directly to household consumers on the property where your birds live. Every other scenario — farmers markets, deliveries, sales to stores or restaurants, or reselling eggs you bought from another producer — requires an Illinois Egg License from the Department of Agriculture. The license is $15 or $50 per year depending on how you operate, and the state enforces grading, temperature, and labeling rules on top of it.1Illinois Department of Agriculture. Selling Eggs
On-Farm Sales Without a License
Illinois exempts producers who sell nest-run eggs — ungraded, uncandled eggs straight from the coop — directly to household consumers, provided the sale happens on the premises where the flock is kept. The buyer has to come to you. Flock size does not matter under this exemption. Fifty hens or five thousand, the rule is the same.1Illinois Department of Agriculture. Selling Eggs
The exemption has edges worth knowing. You can sell checks (eggs with cracked but unbroken shells) and dirties on-premises, but those eggs are limited to the buyer’s personal use and their non-paying guests.2Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Administrative Code Title 8, Part 65 – Egg and Egg Products Act You cannot sell nest-run eggs to restaurants, grocers, or other businesses under this carve-out, and you cannot haul them to a farmers market or roadside stand. Selling to a licensed dealer is allowed. Everything else triggers licensing.
When You Need an Illinois Egg License
Anyone who buys, sells, or trades eggs in Illinois and fits the statutory definition of a broker, distributor, handler, packer, producer, or producer-dealer must hold a valid Illinois Egg License. In practice, you need one if you:
- Sell eggs off the property where your birds are kept, including at a farmers market, by delivery, or at a roadside stand away from your farm.
- Candle and grade your eggs. The act of inspecting and assigning grades turns you into a producer-dealer under the statute.
- Buy eggs from another producer and resell them.
- Supply restaurants, retailers, or food manufacturers.
A few others are specifically exempt: hatcheries buying eggs only for hatching, retailers who buy exclusively from licensed distributors, and consumers purchasing for their own use.1Illinois Department of Agriculture. Selling Eggs
License Types, Fees, and Renewal
Illinois issues two tiers. A Limited Producer-Dealer license covers you if you candle and grade eggs from your own flock only; you cannot resell eggs bought from other producers. The fee is $15 per year. A Full Producer-Dealer license covers your own eggs plus eggs sourced from others and costs $50 per year.3Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Administrative Code Title 8, Part 65 – Egg and Egg Products Act – Section 65.110
Licenses run annually. If your renewal application and fee are not received by July 1, the Department adds a $50 late penalty on top of the license fee.4Illinois Department of Agriculture. Egg Inspection That penalty alone is more than three times the limited license, so put the date on the calendar.
How to Apply
Applications go through the Illinois Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Meat and Poultry Inspection. Download the form from the Department’s egg inspection page, fill in your business name, the physical address where egg production happens, your contact information, and your estimated bird count, and send it to the Springfield office with the fee.
Expect a possible site inspection to verify sanitation and refrigeration. If you do not complete all license requirements within 60 days of the Department receiving your application, the application is terminated and the fee is forfeited.4Illinois Department of Agriculture. Egg Inspection
Grading and Candling
Every egg sold off the premises where the flock lives must be candled and graded first. Candling means holding the egg to a bright light to check for blood spots, meat spots, cracks, and the size of the interior air cell. Each egg then gets a grade of AA, A, or B. Eggs are also sorted by weight into size classes from Jumbo down to Peewee, and the carton has to reflect both grade and size accurately.
Eggs that do not make Grade B cannot be sold to retailers, institutional buyers, or food manufacturers.5Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Administrative Code Title 8, Part 65 – Egg and Egg Products Act – Section 65.40 The only outlet for substandard eggs is the on-farm, direct-to-consumer channel described above.
Temperature Rules
Temperature is where inspectors give the least ground. Graded eggs headed for sale off your premises must be held at 45°F or below after processing, and that ceiling applies through transportation to the buyer. Nest-run eggs sold under the on-farm exemption still have to be stored at 60°F or less at all times.6Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Public Act 99-0732
For a farmers market, that means a cooler and a thermometer at the booth. Inspectors can issue stop-sale orders on the spot for eggs above the limit, and the product can be seized.
Labeling
Consumer-size egg cartons sold through retail must display three things. The grade and size appear in bold lettering at least ⅜ inch tall, with no abbreviations. The name and address of the packer, or of the distributor or retailer who authorized the packing, must be printed permanently in letters at least ⅛ inch tall. A three-digit Julian date code showing the day the eggs were candled and graded is also required at ⅛ inch or taller. The Julian code is just the consecutive day of the year, so January 15 is “015” and March 1 is “060.”7Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Administrative Code Title 8, Part 65 – Egg and Egg Products Act – Section 65.30
Expiration dates are optional. If you print one, you’re bound by it: Grade AA eggs can carry a date no later than 30 days from candling, Grade A up to 45 days, and no egg can be sold past whatever date appears on the carton.7Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Administrative Code Title 8, Part 65 – Egg and Egg Products Act – Section 65.30
If you sell nest-run eggs on your own premises under the exemption, you can use new or good-condition used containers, and they do not need to carry any labeling.8Illinois General Assembly. Illinois Administrative Code Title 8, Part 65 – Egg and Egg Products Act – Section 65.20
Penalties for Selling Without a License
If you start buying, selling, or trading eggs without completing your license requirements, the Department assesses a $300 administrative penalty.4Illinois Department of Agriculture. Egg Inspection Inspectors can also issue stop-sale orders on eggs that fail grading, temperature, or labeling standards, which pulls your product until you come into compliance. The limited license is $15. The penalty for skipping it is twenty times that.
What the Illinois Egg License Does Not Cover
A few boundaries catch small sellers off guard.
The Illinois cottage food law does not let you sell raw eggs. Eggs are excluded as a standalone cottage food product. You can use eggs as an ingredient in baked goods or dry noodles if the finished product does not require time or temperature control for safety, but a dozen raw eggs at a bake sale falls under the Egg and Egg Products Act, not the cottage food license.
Federal FDA rules under 21 CFR Part 118 add a separate layer of requirements aimed at Salmonella Enteritidis prevention — but only for farms with 3,000 or more laying hens that do not sell all their eggs directly to consumers.9Food and Drug Administration. Small Entity Compliance Guide – Prevention of Salmonella Enteritidis in Shell Eggs During Production, Transportation, and Storage Covered farms must maintain a written prevention plan, test their poultry houses, and follow federal refrigeration protocols.10eCFR. 21 CFR Part 118 – Production, Storage, and Transportation of Shell Eggs If you have fewer than 3,000 hens you are exempt from the federal rule, but every Illinois state requirement still applies.
On taxes, egg income from a sole proprietor operation is farm income to the IRS, reported on Schedule F with net profit flowing to Schedule SE for self-employment tax.11Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Schedule F (Form 1040) Illinois eliminated its 1% state grocery tax on food for human consumption as of January 1, 2026, so raw eggs generally will not carry state sales tax on direct sales, though local jurisdictions may still impose their own.