Backyard critters as an economic buffer?

Hi, I am in the UK but we are also suffering in the economic situation.

My sister and I discused the difficulties we faced on low income and so we started with chickens. But she has many more than me. I have just 4, but they are good layers. they hae just started laying, first one now 2, and hopes for No. 3 soon. So they are certainly helping me out, as eggs are dear here, and I only eat free range eggs and have doubted the credentials of those in he stores for a long time.

But I love my girls, so they will not end up on a plate.

I converted a small playhouse for their coup myself, and built their run for very little so they were not expensive.

So I have found that they have been a comfort, both as pets and also as an assistance in dificult times.

I am now looking around for a small piece of land that I could rent and maybe have a goat and a donkey too, ( and a few more chickens maybe...lol. ) so it is actually leading me to a far more fulfilling and happier way to live my life closer to the land. Something I feel very strongly about.

Plus you meet the nicest people when you arrive at Backyard Chickens...lol.

Hope this helps,

Jena.
 
For us, the hens are a hobby, and nice pets. But do I feel a sense of security that they provide us with some added self-sufficiency just in case there are problems with the supply chain, tainted food, or hyperinflation. But I'm sure that none of that will ever happen, so hopefully they remain as just a fun hobby.
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Cheep insurance, if you will.
 
We got our chickens to have good quality eggs and add something to our diets that we can control and have the highest quality. Cost was not the main concern, I knew I would now be paying more for eggs than I did at Costco!

But it turns out that I have been able to sell enough eggs to cover my feed costs, and so the eggs we eat cover the cost of hens. When I "cull" it means giving away birds, because cityboy hubby won't hear of eating them. However....he has agreed to turkeys in the spring, so I am planning to buy enough poults to eat some and keep a few for breeding the following year's turkeys, if all goes well.

I'm with FractalFarmer. I also enjoy the secure feeling of knowing that I could fairly quickly become self-sufficient if needed. To that end, I have made it my goal to experiment with free sources of food for my birds as well. My plan is to provide half their feed by the end of 2009. I don't really want to do all the work of providing 100% unless I am forced to, as it is a bit more work. I have reduced my grain bill by half periodically, and if you looked at the price of whole grains vs layer mix, I am already at half price before even growing anything for them.

Grew a "chicken garden" this summer with kale, squash, pumpkins, mangels, etc and all I got was a row of rutabagas and a VERY fat groundhog!! I will be trying electric fencing for the garden by spring, since I have all the stuff, just no time to install it....a winter project for me.
 
just a hobby, the eggs are a bonus though
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I am going to be expanding the flock come spring though. But am looking at getting a couple of bantams. Maybe one other standard.
 
LOL, I think for the vast majority of people here, their poultry and other backyard critters are a very effective buffer against accidentally accumulating too much money
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Seriously, the only people gonna be SAVING money by having chickens are those who already have good housing for 'em, and either a) would be buying expensive organic free-range boutique eggs/meat if they weren't eating their own, or b) have (at least in large part) some cheaper way of feeding 'em than buying sacks o' layer crumb from the feed store. If your chickens are foraging for much of their diet, or much of it comes from inedible kitchen scraps, then if you spend next to nothing on housing, you MAY be getting "something for nothing"... although you are probably not getting optimal egg production.

Honestly, my impression is that the role of chickens (especially for meat, but also for eggs) during the Depression and WWII years was usually not that they were usually saving the family money per se, just that they were providing something important (protein in general, eggs and chicken meat in particular) that simply was not always available otherwise. When chicken meat was available, remember it cost a WHOLE LOT more per lb (relative to cost of living) than it does now, because it was not raised on such a scary industrial-type scale.

JMO,

Pat, whose home-raised CornishX broilers this year actually *did* save us money, but only because we were lucky enough to be able to house them in an existing former dog run.
 
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Wow! Great replies everyone. It is very interesting to see the different perspectives.

I feel a sense of security that they provide us with some added self-sufficiency just in case there are problems with the supply chain, tainted food, or hyperinflation. But I'm sure that none of that will ever happen

While I HOPE that will not happen...our current global economic situation CAN lead to all of the above. Having egg laying ducks in Spring will go a long way towards me not freaking out!
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It might be alot cheaper to get eggs in the store but with a backyard flock you'll always have eggs. We free-range ours so in the spring, summer and fall they require very little additional food. Originally we got ours as pets, but we are thinking of expanding next spring as more of an economic buffer, but they are still great pets..
 
We are working to get my run finished so I can get a dozen hens but it wasn't to save money (my coop and run is costing over 1000$). I have wanted chickens for 20+yrs. I want them because I want eggs that as organic as I can get for my family. It's the same reason we have our own honeybees, grow a huge garden, have planted my own orchard (apple, peach, pear, blueberries, plum, fig, blackberries, dewberries, cherry) and my small vineyard of muscadines and 'table' grapes and raise our own beef. We use no pesticides or chemicals on farm, hoping that our healthy fruits, veggies, honey, eggs and meat will provide our family with health...
 

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