How much do chickens cost per year?

[tcltoughmom]

Here in WV you can get scratch for about $9.00 and cracked corn for the same, but laying mash or crumbles is about $13.00 all in 50#bags--but Purina Layena is about $15.00 but hard to get. I have about 45 chickens and they eat about 50 # per week, but they are sick right now-----trying everything. I got a used utitility building shaped like a barn for $200.00, bought paint and primer, 75.00 and have bought treated wood and fencing 350.00, a small carrying compreser and staple gun- 179.99 , 10.00 and for two lots one on each side of little barn, I let them free range about 3 hours per day,in my fenced in back yard- might start doing more, they love bread and tomatoes. I was getting 11 eggs a day till they got sick, had dept of agriculture to come- will take a week for results, so I am giving antibiotics---rooster booster, sulmet for 2 days, and wormed them, ---any other ideas? O yea does the nic nacks count? I have a chicken mat in barn, milk can by door, chicken flag on fence, rooster hooks inside barn, radio with batteries, flag and sign on small coop, storage bins(rubber maid) linolium rug in barn floor and on shelfs, two ebay coops, and 3 incubators, so I hope I can just get caught up---I hope I don't have to kill my chickens----especially my silkies---it will be so hard to start over. Teresa in WV

 

[speckledhen]

The cost of layer feed, scratch, chick starter on occasion and shavings for three coops costs us about $1600/yr for an average of 50 birds we keep (sometimes more, sometimes less)

 

[dadreda]

Quote:
Not obsessed yet!

 

[chevydmax04]

a 50lb bag of feed runs around $13, my 18 chickens, 2 turkeys, and 2 geese can go about three weeks on that in summer, cause they roam the yard. In winter it will last about 2 weeks. All total I spend roughly $500-$600 a year on feed and bedding. As for the eggs, once you eat fresh eggs from your own coop, you will find the ones from the store to be tasteless and bland. The yolks in my eggs are almost orange they are such a deep yellow. I sell my excess eggs for $3.00 dozen and I have people waiting to get them! And it is fun to have them, I can go out back and call my chickens, geese and turkeys and they all come running!

 

[TexasVet]

I wanted to know that myself, without guessing, so I developed a software package called "Chicken Trackin'." You can check it out at www.ChickenTrackin.com.

Kathy, Bellville TX
www.CountryChickens.com

 

[cposz]

They cost alot less than kids.
(having both, I can attest to this personally.)

 

[elmo]

Less than a child. That's all I'm sayin'.

 

[thecochincoop]

My chickens cost me $1443.41 this year and I made about $1511.71 but the year isn't over I still have to buy feed for a couple more months so I will probably break even

Last year they cost me about $350 and I got them in April! As long as they pay for themselves I am OK with that, If you get into breeding show quality birds you definately dont get into it for the money, oh and by the way I got almost all of my housing supplies for free or almost free so if you have to throw that in there too then the price goes up and of course the # of birds that I have at any given time fluctuates so I really have no way of figuring cost per bird

but the enjoyment that they bring to my life is priceless

forgot to add over $50 in entry fees for the Ohio National too, darn I think I'm in the hole again

 

[blueseal]

$800 a year for grain and shaveings

 

[purpletree23]

Way too much! We built the coop/shed, the run, insulated the coop, bought all the equipment and chicks and nesting boxes etc. So far we've collected about 2 dozen eggs and figure each egg costs about $65.00 a piece. But you know what? Those fuzzy butts bring me joy and happiness everyday and wouldn't trade them for their weight in gold.

If I want to 'get away from it all' I grab a beer/wine a lawn chair and go out to the coop, let them out of the run and watch them scratch and roam and come up to me wanting treats and listen to the funny noises they make. You can't beat that.

Is that red neck psychiatry?