Are chickens exspencive to keep?

[BrownSheep]

I would say it really depends on the coop. If you have an old shed you can easily (and Cheaply) make it a coop. If you only want 3 or 4 you can use a large dog house. I have 36 chickens and I pay about $18 for 50 pounds wich last 2 or 3 weeks

 

[Blue]

Quote:
Well, some of my chickens are bantams, so they are really small chickens.

My other chickens are all standard sized, but the majority of my chickens are 11 weeks old or less, so they're still on starter/grower feed. I also think the feed where I live is reasonably priced ($12 - $15 for 50 lbs.). We feed our adults both layer feed and scratch grain, and 50 lbs. of both will last us around a month. I've started giving my oldest chicks (11 weeks old) scratch to go with their grower feed, so I estimate that by the time all my chicks are old enough to get off the grower feed, I'll be going through probably around 70 lbs. of scratch and layer a month, but the prices should probably work out around the same because I won't be buying starter/grower feed then. The feed bill will probably go up a bit in the winter when the chickens tend to stay holed up in their coops avoiding the cold and don't have any tasty free ranging morsels to supplement them.

I know what you mean about the scratch. That's all some people feed, which can work if the chickens free range most of the time, but if they're cooped up all the time or it's winter with nothing to forage, they need the added nutrition from some sort of layer feed. Of course, I also know that some people feed just scratch to roosters to fatten them up for eating, which I guess also works, but for long term just feeding scratch isn't going to be good for the chickens' health.

 

[johnsons-r-us]

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.

I agree with both of you! Our coop came with the house we bought two years ago. Brand new, never used! Biggest cost was picking out my chickens. And I'm sorry to say I would not bring a chicken/turkey to the vet for big bucks. Our dogs, that's something else. My chickens are a lot of fun! They free range every day, go in the coop at night. I'm on my 3rd bag of feed since getting them as day old chicks last April. Feed is really a treat for them since they eat bugs

LOVE THAT! Some pine chips for the coop, did not have to buy feeders because I used things we already had. Give them water and thats about it. And treats if we have leftover stuff. They are cheap enough that we can get more if something happens and not feel like we lost a bunch. The kids love them roaming the yard and we can have those "teaching moments" as we get eggs, hatch chicks, eat chicken. We even had one of those moments when we lost a baby chick. Tiny Tim did not walk right shortly after arriving. When she died my 6 year old daughter cried. But we worked it out and it will not be the last time to loose something we love. So, having chickens is great. You can spend thousands on fancy coops, food and extras and that is fine. Or you can have them and not spend so much and that is fine too. Depends on WHY you are getting chickens and what your goals are in having them.

This forum has been priceless!

The information here is so much better than trying to just do it yourself. I'm still new. Still learning. Hoping for eggs in the next few weeks

Good Luck to you!