Confused.......how can you afford to feed your chickens

[Paganrose]

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These prices were broken down to a monthly cost.
I do pay about an extra dollar now for the corn, but I also buy milk from him too, so he offers it to me for cost, since what his cows waste in a few days, is a month worth of corn for my birds, plus I gave him a few of my extra hens I had last fall. The soy I get directly from an amish farmer, and it is 15$ for a 50lbs bag which lasts 3 months, A 50# bag of sunflowers at the co-op is 9$ lasts three months. A 50# bag of oats is about 6.50$ and 50# of barley costs about 3.75$ at the co-op. I use two each a month. Plus I feed lots of garden/kitchen scraps and I free range. I do seem to be going through lots of oyster shell now that my girls are laying more, so the cost of that has gone up a bit. It helps that I live in a big farming area. I could get a premixed chicken feed at the co-op for 10$ for a 50# bag, Organic 50# bag for 20$. I would love to feed my birds organic, but it is to expensive to go through almost 6 50# bags a feed a month. I could get organic grains at the co-op, but the price is to much, So I mix my own.

The way you had it posted made it seem....at least to me.......the prices you had listed and the amounts in parenthesis were one in the same. So in reality the dollar amount would be times 3? How many hens do you have?

I also live in the midst of a rural farming area (I'm one of those farmers) so I know that I can get grains a lot cheaper than other folks might be able to. Until recently I was also able to get feed from my coop for about $9.50 per bag, but now that grains are going up in price so is the price per bag. I'm not able to free-range any more due to my dogs and keeping my breeding flocks seperate.

I added up the amounts for the full bags I use each month and then divided the cost of the sunfolower seeds and the soy into 3 and added that to the other to get the total monthly amount. I have 18 chickens, 4 ducks and two geese currently. I havent checked the price on regular feed in a long time, since buying the grains was more ecomonical for me, so it may have gone up from last spring.

 

[justtoni44]

I apologize if this is a repeat.I did not have time to read all the threads.........
Although I want to later.interesting..............

I pay for food with egg sales................
Also barter eggs for fruits and veggies..........
Happy chickens.very little cost to me.....

 

[elizabethbinary]

Wow, this thread is fantastic from beginning to end!

I, for one, sell my eggs. Maybe I'm lucky but people here go GAGA for fresh free-range eggs they can pick up directly from their neighbour. I never have enough eggs and I sometimes go without (cannot buy grocery - taste alone!!) because I sell so many. I even sell the Araucana eggs for MORE than my big eggs because people think they're special, or something. No idea but they were the ones that offered $5 a doz for them when I charge $4 normally. Duck eggs are $3 for 6.

Just try raising your prices and sell your eggs; sometimes you'd be surprised what people like.

 

[kuntrygirl]

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[silkiechicken]

Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay :

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I agree Lazy J ....... We in agriculture can talk till we're blue in the face and people are gonna believe what they want to whether it's true or not.

We have an uphill battle in front of us. Unfotunately many people choose to believe the sensationalism and refuse to believe the facts and truth of what the American Farmer does everyday.

Jim​

+1, or is that +2. There are tons of misconceptions out there.

That said, feed was 12 bucks for a 50 lb bag of layer 6-8 years ago.

 

[Deanner03]

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That's very cheap. What state are you in? Here they would sell those eggs for close to 4$ & up a dozen.

That depends on WHERE you are in the state. Up here (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY Upstate), where there are lots of chickens, you're lucky to get $2.00/dozen. But we also have greater access to feed mills/cheaper feed.

 

[kuntrygirl]

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That's very cheap. What state are you in? Here they would sell those eggs for close to 4$ & up a dozen.

That depends on WHERE you are in the state. Up here (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY Upstate), where there are lots of chickens, you're lucky to get $2.00/dozen. But we also have greater access to feed mills/cheaper feed.

Same here in Louisiana. Eggs are a dime a dozen in my neck of the woods. If there were 10 houses on a block here in Louisiana, 9 of those 10 houses would have chickens and the owner would be seling eggs. Eggs are like bottled water here. They are on every shelf. Some people sell their eggs for $1.00 a dozen in my area. So, you try to sell your eggs at the best price you can or have 50 dozen eggs in your fridge. And feeding the eggs back to your flock is not an option. Cooked eggs as a treat to your flock can only go so far. So I applaud everyone who can get $3.00 - $5.00 for a dozen eggs. Just not gonna happen in my area. I'm lucky that I have a lot of customers and most of them are on my waiting list for eggs. My organic customers willing pay me up to $5.00 dozen for eggs because they know the value of farm fresh eggs. And my other customers do as well. They always give me extra for my eggs. Every state will be different as far as how much people are willing to buy farm fresh eggs.

 

[Rare Feathers Farm]

I started off at $2/dozen and now that I've gotten more interest I'm up to $3/dozen which people don't seem to mind paying. My problem is that come spring time, I sell hatching eggs for $30+ for 6 so I can't justify $3/dozen during the breeding season. That's why I need yet another coop with some good layers in it.

 

[MakNugget]

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That depends on WHERE you are in the state. Up here (WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY Upstate), where there are lots of chickens, you're lucky to get $2.00/dozen. But we also have greater access to feed mills/cheaper feed.

Same here in Louisiana. Eggs are a dime a dozen in my neck of the woods. If there were 10 houses on a block here in Louisiana, 9 of those 10 houses would have chickens and the owner would be seling eggs. Eggs are like bottled water here. They are on every shelf. Some people sell their eggs for $1.00 a dozen in my area. So, you try to sell your eggs at the best price you can or have 50 dozen eggs in your fridge. And feeding the eggs back to your flock is not an option. Cooked eggs as a treat to your flock can only go so far. So I applaud everyone who can get $3.00 - $5.00 for a dozen eggs. Just not gonna happen in my area. I'm lucky that I have a lot of customers and most of them are on my waiting list for eggs. My organic customers willing pay me up to $5.00 dozen for eggs because they know the value of farm fresh eggs. And my other customers do as well. They always give me extra for my eggs. Every state will be different as far as how much people are willing to buy farm fresh eggs.

$6 bucks up here at a Farmers Market, which I gladly paid. Hey, they eggs were all different purrrty colors, it was before my flock started laying.

 

[Wifezilla]

We in agriculture can talk till we're blue in the face and people are gonna believe what they want to whether it's true or not.

What may be true about one farm is not necessarily true for the other....BUT.... if you are buying meat from the grocery store, you are getting lower nutrition with that lower price.

Support your local farmers that follow principals you believe in. Better yet, grow what you can yourself. I have ducks and quail and pay $16 for a 50# bag of game bird feed. I go through about 1 a month if that is all I feed. I supplement with a pond that produces duckweed and minnows, garden scraps, etc... I am also planting crops specifically for the critters this year (2 types of amaranth). The yard is also getting converted to "pasture" by overseeding with white clover. Whole grains can also be offered. I can get steam crimped oats and milo for about $7/50#. I have one feeder for the game bird feed and one for the whole grains.​