Are chickens exspencive to keep?

[Hawkeye95]

I think chickens are expensive! Why hasn't anyone mentioned vet trips, buying antibiotics, and dealing with all the little disasters that happen. I got my first turkey baby and had her for TWO weeks and she suddenly came down sick! Took her to the vet (she refused to eat or drink and just layed there). My vet spent 3 days with her tube feeding her and giving her antibiotic shots into her breast twice a day. It was awful! Once I got her home, I had to continue the Baytril antibiotics twice a day oraly and figure out the best way to open her beak and get it down- she was feeling much better by then and not very cooperative. I had to buy an $80 dog kennel to keep her in the house in while she recovered- that was pricey!

Okay... so fast forward, I'm working on my coop now... I've spent probably $400 already and don't have a whole lot to show for it! That is including trying my best to find free stuff on CraigsList (no luck) and going to the Habitat's ReStore for cheaper items. No one would give me pallets- they said that they have to return them, so no free wood for me. I'd say the baby chicks I have ordered are worth their weight in gold- probably more. That's not including the feed I've bought so far. Which, okay- the feed isn't going to be too bad, but it IS an expense. And if you don't have any money coming in, you simply can't afford it. They won't be here yet for a few more weeks, but I haven't set up a brooder yet either- more money... I saw the heat lamp was about $10 and that did not include the light which was another $8 at my feedstore. I would never have an animal that i couldn't afford to take to the vet if there were an emergency or buy the products necessary to care for them in their time of need. Don't get me wrong- I love doing all of this! I'm enjoying it and getting a kick out of it. But this costs money, and no way would I tell anyone this was a cheap venture.

 

[jjthink]

Quote:
Exactly, Loralee, and hence my post to the OP about reading up long and hard before taking one step in the chicken direction! Vets, meds, great foods, AC, I could go on and on! Thank goodness OP is asking before leaping.. Wish more people would.
JJ

 

[Hawkeye95]

Quote:
Exactly, Loralee, and hence my post to the OP about reading up long and hard before taking one step in the chicken direction! Vets, meds, great foods, AC, I could go on and on! Thank goodness OP is asking before leaping.. Wish more people would.
JJ

jjThink

 

[Nambroth]

I think 'expensive' depends on who you ask! Some people are able to get free used coops, or use an existing building, or get supplies for cheap or next to nothing, and thus startup is not expensive.
Some people are able to free range all the time and thus in the good weather cut down on feed costs.
In times past, people raised chickens with very little expense. However, those chickens were nearly always granted free range, often on large farms or properties where they could forage for most of their nutrition, and losses here and there of a chicken or three wasn't a huge problem.

The expense of keeping chickens really depends on what kind of care you want to give them. I have my own personal standard of care for chickens, which I feel should be the best kind of life I can give each animal. But, that is just my viewpoint (and some would probably laugh at me!!). My chickens ARE pets with 'benefits', but even if my chickens were only destined for my dinner table, I'd still try to give them the best lives I could before then (without being outrageous about it). People raise chickens less expensively than I do all the time. There is so much that is personally subjective about chicken care that it's hard to say "Yes! It's expensive!" or "No, it's not expensive!". For me, it has been expensive, but worth it. I built my coop and run to be as predator-proof as possible and it cost me a pretty penny, even with salvaging parts and doing all the labor ourselves. If I was in a bad way, financially, I would not have gotten into chickens and would have waited until I was stable.

I should mention, that this ended up being much more expensive than I thought it would be when I first started out! However, I'm the one that made it expensive. The startup is the pricey part, I would say.

 

[ranchhand]

Quote:
I think it might be better to wait until your dad finds a job. If he has to relocate, it will be that much harder to find a place that allows chickens, etc. Meanwhile, you can spend a lot of time here reading and asking questions, so when the time comes you'll be ready!

Best of luck to your dad with the job search!

 

[TK Poultry]

I agree with the majority chickens are very expensive especially if you start showing.... I can spend upwards of $150+ a month on shows, supplies, feed, and other things....

 

[gumbii]

you guys think that's expensive...?????


my primary hobby is a reef tank... the electricity to heat, light, flow, skim the tank is about 90 dollars a month... then the water i waste to make RO/DI... um... probably about 100gallons a month... a bucket of salt every three months 75 bucks... then the price of tank, filter, lights, bulbs, live rock, starter fish... i remember paying up in the area of 2,000 just to start it off... and it was a used glass tank, stand and i built the canopy myself... LOL...

my other pets have been reptiles... again, electricity to heat and to feed was more than the chickens per say... some snakes would eat two rats a week... so that was more than a dollar a day already...

chickens are somewhat low maintenance, gorgeous, cheap and they give you delicious eggs... and you can eat them... LOL...

 

[phasianidae]

They are about as expensive as you make them.

 

[phasianidae]

Quote:
I think it might be better to wait until your dad finds a job. If he has to relocate, it will be that much harder to find a place that allows chickens, etc. Meanwhile, you can spend a lot of time here reading and asking questions, so when the time comes you'll be ready!

Best of luck to your dad with the job search!

x2

 

[KenK]

Quote:
I agree. Some may think it makes me a bad person but I'm not taking a three dollar chicken to the veterinarian. No offense to those who do. I see folks wanting to give birds away all the time and two or three hens could be fed very cheaply on table scraps and scroungings and a little bit of bought food.

I do not think that chickens have to have mail ordered organic food and an air conditioned coop to be raised humanely.

I guess it comes down to pet or livestock.