Are your hens paying for themselves?

[bantyshanty]

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YUP!!! If I make even $50 in a month from eggs, chicks, etc., my husband tells me file my income tax separately

 

[JPHorvath]

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Love this!

I agree yes, best therapy around

 

[duckinnut]

Absolutely,my wife is making a ton of money!!!! I go to the feed store buy layer,scratch,flock block, shavings and oyster shell. I feed,water and clean the coop. Let them out and put them in at night. Collect eggs and check on their well being. She collects all the income from egg sales.

 

[ChicKat]

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Dukinnut----
Now THAT's teamwork!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Kassaundra]

We didn't intend to sell any chicken products when we started raising the chickens, and still do not sell anything. We eat as many eggs as we can and give away to family, feed them back to the chickens and to our dogs. We do not eat our chickens at all ( had grand plans in the begining, but we tried to do the deed and both decided if we had to kill our own meat we would be vegetarians) Our chickens are for our own eggs and for gardening, the entertainment was an unexpected plus.

So to answer your question, if you mean money no, probably not. But we don't have alot of money in our chickens either. The material their coops are made of are repurposed, the fencing is dual purpose chickens and garden, but we would not have needed nearly as much fencing if we didn't have the chickens, but then we would be buying mulch and fertilizer, and bug control every year for the garden. We feed the girls alot of garden scraps and restraunt scraps so our maintence isn't that pricey either.

 

[welasharon]

Mine won't live long enough for me to break even....I drove 1200 miles, three tanks of gas, for two days (had to have a hotel room) food for me, my daughter and her two kids, tickets to the Central Fl Zoo (cause we were going right by there...how could we not stop), $210 for three araucanas and three shamo....and I don't think they lay all that great!

 

[KDK1]

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And I thought I was the only one!

 

[Auscal]

I'm not selling eggs - but, overall I am paying slightly less for organic chicken food than I would be paying for free-range organic eggs for my own use (though, we are now eating twice as many eggs than we were "pre-chickens"). As for start-up costs, we did it fairly frugally, and mentally I have written that off as entertainment expenses LOL .

 

[PartridgeRooster]

Yup, I frisk them every night. Never knew chickens collected so much change.

 

[kizanne]

They will not make up the initial cost unless I get more to sell more eggs. I have had people offer to buy them at $3/doz. Mine aren't all laying yet. but.....

If 8 out of 11 lay an egg/day then weekly I'll get 56 eggs - 20 for our use would then mean 3 doz/week to sell at $3/doz which means I'll collect $27 per bag of $23 food.

So I'll get free eggs and $4 for oyster shell every 3 weeks. So if they don't have to pay for the coop they will pay for themselves but just barely.