@Shezadandy , how many chickens do you have? You say you sell enough eggs to pay the feed bill ... I am wondering what the break-even point is ... and how much do you sell your eggs for? How long did it take you to get from 10 chicks to where you are now? Do you breed and hatch your own eggs? And what breed or breeds of chickens do you have? This sounds like any chicken keeper's idea of a success story ... how do I get there from here?
Well, let's see - presently 88 hens, 5 roosters and 39 chicks of various ages, 4mo down to less than a week old- starting 4 years ago with 10 chicks. This year, I mostly ordered pullets because of the move, and also to get some unrelated pullets, but mostly I like to set my own eggs when I've got a broody hen. Next year I'll be back to doing that.
The original group of 10 came from a hatchery. I didn't have a rooster, figuring that one of those first 10 would surely be a rooster, but they were actually all pullets. 6 months later I added 6 more pullets and an intentional rooster (always as day-old chicks). Then around 7 months in, one of the originals went broody, so I bought local hatching eggs because the rooster-to-be was too young to breed at the time. Then the next hen went broody later and I got to set my own eggs for the first time, which was really exciting. I lost my first rooster unexpectedly, but thankfully I had 6 of his sons to choose from, and lucked out for my main flock rooster. His (genetic) Easter Egger mom is from my first group, now 4 years old and still laying regularly, and I've got lots of productive daughters.
Breed wise, the only 'purebred' birds I have are chicks I've purchased - everything else amounts to a 'barnyard mix' or an 'easter egger'. My goal (very original, I know) is prolific long lived layers with fun colors. Next week when I go to do my egg orders I'll have to remember to take a picture after the size and color sort, it is a fun sight. There are a bunch of breeds. Black Australorps, Speckled Sussexes, California Leghorns, Dominques, Cochins, Barred Rocks, Cream Legbars, Black Copper Marans, Blue Copper Marans, Buff Orpingtons, Buckeyes, White Leghorn, Silver Penciled Rocks, Partridge Penedesencas, Welsummers, Wyandottes, Austrawhites, Cuckoo Marans, and then the not-really breeds like the Super Blue Egg Layers, Cuckoo Bluebars, Easter Eggers.
Everything I hatch falls into "Easter Egger" if it's a blue/green layer, and "Barnyard Mix" if it's a white/brown layer. With the chaos of the last year, I didn't sell fertilized eggs this year, but that's a nice boost to the chicken grocery budget. Around here $10 for a dozen fertilized eggs or $1/each worked out well. And of course my ad clearly identifies them as not in any way purebred.
I don't cull my older hens. Or flock roosters. That's one of my 'personal choice' things. After 4 years, I have 5 of my original 10, and 3 of those are still laying. If they manage to make it to old age without falling to EYP or something else, they can stay. That's where selling fertilized eggs comes in handy and helps feed the past egg laying hens.
Some set their eggs in the incubator and sell the chicks - that's one of those things I haven't done. Or raising pullets to POL for sale.
I started off advertising eating-eggs for $4/dozen, which is the going rate in the area. Once I've got a regular weekly customer, I'll do 2 for $7 or 3 for $10 assuming they're good about bringing cartons back. I keep an eye on the local grocery store egg prices, both in the 'organic' section and the regular egg aisle with all those ambiguous distinctions.
After that it's been word of mouth. Or odd encounters, like buying a used dog crate- turned into 2 new customers when I mentioned it was going to be used for a hen to hatch chicks. I haven't had to put an ad for eating eggs in years. Most weeks I'm sold out or close to it.
The chicken grocery bill gets covered by paying special attention to feed cost. We're lucky around here - we've got 2 feed stores that regularly offer discounted gift cards at Father's Day and again either over the Thanksgiving holiday or sometimes select days in December. The discounted gift cards amount to a 20% discount on any item you will ever buy every day of the year, no matter the sale- because they spend like cash.
In addition, one of those feed stores offers a certain % off for a specific bag quantity, any where from 3% off 5 bags, 5% off 20 to 12% off 40. So if we use a base price of $20- buy 20 bags- that knocks it down to $19 - then pay with the discounted gift card, another 20% off $19 … and we're at $15.20. Checking the current price online helps decide which store works out better as it floats around.
Now- what I REALLY watch for are the sales. I feed Flock Raiser because I've got a mix of everything all living together and it's the simplest way to go- with oyster shells on the side. When it goes on sale for $15 (quantity discount doesn't apply at that price) … off I go to stock up - and with my discounted gift card, I'm paying $12/bag for 50lbs.
It's also worth looking into specialty programs your local store might offer. I don't know what kind of discount I'll see from it, but having spent a certain amount annually at that store (tracked by phone #) in combination with the number of chickens I keep year round qualified me for the specialty program. Next time I'll get to find out!
