Mine are mostly pets and thus they all have names. Sure, I could get into raising birds for meat but I honestly don't want to be bothered. Easier and less hassle to just keep a small flock for eggs
I only buy bedding and food. Their treats are table scraps. Anything else I need lasts a long time, like oyster shells and grit. I bought a bag of oyster shells about 2 years ago and I'm still on that bag. One bag of food lasts about 3 months, so about $8 on food per month. One $7 bag of shavings lasts 2 months so about $3.5 on shavings per month. And I only used shavings for about half of the year last year because my dad was an attorney and I have been using his shredded paper from old files (not the best bedding, I have to clean the coop more often, but its free!!) And as I said earlier my chickens free range quite a bit and get table scraps.
We name ours, our farming family even names our hogs and beef. We know where they are going to end up and treat them (sorta) like pets until then.
LOL! We (sadly now) have 20 girls laying. Still debating on keeping a roo to hatch out processors, but with feed, nope. It's great to not buy eggs since we do eat a lot of eggs, so it might be a wash for us since we consume so many eggs. I'll have to do some calculations lolMine are pets
Yep, its honestly sad, because when we got ours, everyone was buying chickens because of the pandemic, then as soon as its over, they get rid of all their poor chickens
Mine eat way less than everyone says they should, and they are a perfect weight, healthy and happy
I consider mine livestock. I used to name them, but have stopped with my last two batches of hens. I give them a good life, but naming them made it harder to cull them when the time came.
Even so, I spend far more than $8 on a bag of food, I spend 32.00 per bag of 50 pounds of layer mash and that lasts my chickens about 2 weeks. They have a huge run and they get scraps and other goodies but there's no way even if they were able to be free range I could spend so little. You are far luckier than most of us.
I spend 16 dollars on 45 pound bags of feedEven so, I spend far more than $8 on a bag of food, I spend 32.00 per bag of 50 pounds of layer mash and that lasts my chickens about 2 weeks. They have a huge run and they get scraps and other goodies but there's no way even if they were able to be free range I could spend so little. You are far luckier than most of us.
