Breaking Even

[mossy_oak23]

Does anyone on here make enough money off of there chickens to break even or potentially a profit? The only expense my chickens have is feed. I have natural bedding, well water, i scavenge old materials around my farm for the coop. So its 11 bucks a month for a 50# bag of feed that my 6 hens eat through. Is it realistic for me to make that 11 bucks back a month and how?

 

[BarkerChickens]

With 6 hens...maybe. Depends on how much you can sell eggs for in your area and how many eggs you eat a month.

 

[mossy_oak23]

My hens aren't laying yet and they are a cross between araucana (decent egg laying bird) and cornish (game bird). How do your chickens decide what days to lay eggs if they say for exapmle they lay on average 200 eggs a year what the h/eck happened on the other 165? assuming you have 14 hours of light year round offered to them and ample spots to lay in and illness and diseases aside

 

[BarkerChickens]

On average, a chicken will lay every 30 hours. This varies depending on breed. My Easter Eggers for example, will lay ~4-5 eggs a week during the sunnier months and NONE during winter. On the other hand, my Barred Rocks lay ~4-5 eggs a week during the sunnier months and 1-2 eggs a week during the not so sunny months. All chickens will stop laying completely when they molt (lose feathers to grow in new ones) and this can last 3-9 weeks or so. We started out with 6 hens and it is just the two of adults in the house. We were getting up to 3.5 dozen a week. However, this was for their first year. A chicken's egg production tapers off a bit as they get older (though most never stop completely). In our area, few people sell fresh eggs, so we are able to sell ours for $3-4/dozen. But, we also go through quite a few eggs between breakfast, baking and we put an egg in the dogs bowls at dinner (they're spoiled, but it give them bright, shiny coats!).

 

[mossy_oak23]

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will all of those variables it seems that it would be hard to make sure you can get 11 bucks a month. (not a financial issue to pay the 11 bucks but it would just be cool to have the chickens pay for themselves

 

[Mahonri]

I don't come anywhere near breaking even.

Does anyone?

I don't know how it's possible unless you have lots of free feed.

It's a hobby for now and who knows with the economy the way it is, we may need the chickens to survive in the future.

 

[Luvducks]

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I agree!

 

[mossy_oak23]

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what are your expenses? aside from heating in the winter....????

 

[Beekissed]

I break even and actually have a profit on my birds. I freerange, so this supplements their feed bill, as well as give them other types of food to do this also. The amount of money I make in peak egg laying times more than pays for the feed for slow times.

You might want to increase your flock enough to get a dozen a day and sell to local folks. I sell for $2 a dozen and still turn a profit. Most folks sell for much more than this if they live near a metropolitan area.

In peak laying times, I get 3 doz. eggs every other day from my flock, 2 doz. on the off days. So, say I get 2 1/2 doz. on Mon., and save my 1/2 to round out my eggs on Tues., this can yield approx. $34 per week. As I go through a 100 lb. bag of laying mash in about a month, costing me $22 per month, this gives me a tidy profit in peak laying times. More than enough to offset costs in slow times. My birds slow down for approx. 4 months out of the year.

Subtracting the 16 weeks of slow time in which I am still selling, just not at my usual production level, I am still yielding approx. $1088 in egg sales from a 29 hen flock. Feed costs for the year approx. $300 but I'll even round that up to $400 to allow for rise and fall of grain costs. Rounding up on production profit, this will give me rough sales of $700 above my overhead.

I have no way of factoring in the savings I get on not having to buy my own eggs and meat from culled roos and older hens.

 

[mossy_oak23]

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a thousand bucks!!! Darn i need to expand!