Cost of keeping chickens

[Chicalina]

Yes it is time spent, but I am devoted to this lifestyle of growing good real food and giving that food a good life while it is on this earth. It is not a hobby it is an ethical ecological spiritual choice. Here is another divide in chicken keepers...chickens to me are not just a hobby. They are an intricate part of my whole food system. I LOVE animals but also love eating meat. The meat industries in America are questionable at best and absolutely disgusting at worst. I take pride in knowing that, if I am going to eat a chicken, it is one that I raised so I know it got to eat some bugs and live on grass and have an ok life. It wasn't confinement fed or factory farmed. I then use EVERYTHING I can for stock, dog treats, compost. There is ABSOLUTELY no waste. This helps me sleep at night and still eat meat. Also the taste the taste the taste!!! It is so different from the grocery store i'll never go back to that spongy bleachy fecaly chicken.
I don't believe that good real food is cheap or convenient, and I am willing to spend all the time I can working together with my land to cross things off the list that I need to buy at the store. Either way I have to work hard. Either at a job, for dollars for some chicken. Or i can work for myself, with my land, f*ck the dollars, and produce chicken. Seems to me like a no brainer all around.
Chicken is such an approachable and affordable livestock for meat option that they can really change someone's standing in their personal and local food systems, and it's those kind of changes on the personal and local level that will save the planet if it it is to be saved. Connection to real food, to me, is beginning to far outweigh convenience.

All that being said my last batch of pastuyre raised chicken averaged to about 1.25/lb. dressed. If you are smart and frugal it can be comparable price to the store, FAR superior quality.

I am very envious of you as I would love to live like that. Unfortunately it is not really viable for me without also earning cash as well and having a large lump sum to invest at the outset in buying the property and setting it all up. I have found a sort of halfway compromise by living in a village, working from home and keeping animals. I am only self sufficient in eggs!! My dream would be to keep pigs, geese, turkeys and goats (for milk, eggs, meat) alongside more poultry and have a smallholding in the countryside. I could happily spend my retirement tending to the animals, growing food, and cooking!

 

[Tre3hugger]

I am very envious of you as I would love to live like that. Unfortunately it is not really viable for me without also earning cash as well and having a large lump sum to invest at the outset in buying the property and setting it all up. I have found a sort of halfway compromise by living in a village, working from home and keeping animals. I am only self sufficient in eggs!! My dream would be to keep pigs, geese, turkeys and goats (for milk, eggs, meat) alongside more poultry and have a smallholding in the countryside. I could happily spend my retirement tending to the animals, growing food, and cooking!

It was about 7 years of working full time and planning before I got here. I still work 3 days a week at a smoke shop for some cash flow, but it sure beats full time at the factory! It is a crazy life that is for sure.

 

[Chicalina]

It was about 7 years of working full time and planning before I got here. I still work 3 days a week at a smoke shop for some cash flow, but it sure beats full time at the factory! It is a crazy life that is for sure.

I am all for quality of life rather than money. That's why I am self employed so I can choose my own hours. Still got to earn money to live though!

I know what you mean about quality of meat. I buy a lot of meat from a local farmer who raises and butchers it all on site (not intensive farming and very high welfare) and although it costs more, it is far superior to store bought meat. I just eat less of it.

 

[SegiDream]

I totally get that. It is fascinating for me to try and understand how the culture of homesteading is so strong in the US compared to the UK. Do you think this is because of your more recent (relatively speaking) history of exploring, settling and living off newly acquired land. We Europeans have got complacent! lol

Hmm. In part. A huge chunk of this country is so rural, lots of rich farm land, it's open and spread out. The more rural areas tend to have less income. So for some of us there was a family history of poverty and/or very big incentive to be self sufficient.

I don't like the homesteading fad. Or maybe it's just the term that I don't like. This "living off the land" stuff is in my roots. Throw me into a big city like NYC and I feel claustrophobic, trapped, irritated at the crowds the noise the stink the concrete everywhere and unnatural manicured parks. I can appreciate it for what it is but don't ever plan on keeping me there. My ancestors were farmers or worked the land in various ways, fearless, independent, common sense smart, accents so thick no hollywood actor could ever replicate, lived hard and worked hard for every little thing they had. What I saw growing up was my family continued to grow their own gardens and raise chickens or cows etc as well as having a regular job or two, when times were tough you relied a bit more on the land and the fruits of your labor to see you through.

I don't know if this is the right answer at all but I think maybe "homesteading" is so popular because that particular way of life is still common and land available. So when you want to or need to and there's opportunity and means, I'm not surprised people do it.

Sorry for the book. Hope that makes sense.

 

[Araucana Nest]

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... I don't believe that good real food is cheap or convenient, and I am willing to spend all the time I can working together with my land to cross things off the list that I need to buy at the store. Either way I have to work hard. Either at a job, for dollars for some chicken. Or i can work for myself, with my land, f*ck the dollars, and produce chicken. Seems to me like a no brainer all around.
Chicken is such an approachable and affordable livestock for meat option that they can really change someone's standing in their personal and local food systems, and it's those kind of changes on the personal and local level that will save the planet if it it is to be saved. Connection to real food, to me, is beginning to far outweigh convenience.

All that being said my last batch of pastuyre raised chicken averaged to about 1.25/lb. dressed. If you are smart and frugal it can be comparable price to the store, FAR superior quality.

You make very good points in your reply. $1.25 is an excellent conversion rate. Good job. I think I was closer to $1.80/lb when I raised Cornish Rock X which, as you know, doesn't factor in the work it takes to keep those pens clean. Raising layer cockerels for my dogs isn't nearly as labor intensive. Are you raising those commercial meat crosses?

 

[rosemarythyme]

I agree, my vet is great for cats and dogs but knows very little about poultry or tortoises, which I also keep. Perhaps they aren't getting any experience because those animals are rarely taken to them. Just a thought.

It's a matter of training. Most veterinarians don't take the classes to learn about exotics or poultry - think of how expensive vet school is and how little it'd pay off to learn about treating chickens, if relatively few clients are going to be bringing them in. The vets that do specialize in things other than dogs/cats or general livestock are relatively few and far between.

 

[Tre3hugger]

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You make very good points in your reply. $1.25 is an excellent conversion rate. Good job. I think I was closer to $1.80/lb when I raised Cornish Rock X which, as you know, doesn't factor in the work it takes to keep those pens clean. Raising layer cockerels for my dogs isn't nearly as labor intensive. Are you raising those commercial meat crosses?

Thanks so much! $1.80 is still really good. I raise fast growing Cornish x broilers. I put them in a tractor on pasture at about three weeks. I move the tractor everyday. It keeps my bedding cost near zero and I never worry about poop. This is how I did it last time. https://www.backyardchickens.com/th...of-meaties-just-arrived-26-cornish-x.1393220/

 

[nao57]

Since we're on this topic...

I do see some room for improvements. This isn't a criticism but a research question that's unanswered.

If people can know that their chicks need 18% protein on the dot, then how come we can't have a standardized researched figure for what percent of their daily diet can be forage?

That would help vastly for people in this crunch of hard times.

I also see a few comments where people are trying to buy their feed from a pet store instead of a livestock feed store, which would explain why they are saying its expensive. The agricultural stores will sell feed cheaply.

Maybe it would help also to go over the minimum numbers you can feed ducks and chickens and still have them produce?

I don't like the word homestead and the weirdness people give it, but I do think the movement is inspired. But it could be worded better, like living off the land like you say, or self sufficiency. I also hate the word 'prepper'. Why do they have to turn everything into some kind of nerd obsession word?

(How much do you guys give your ducks in feed per day? And how much for greens? I want to improve on this, just like the topic of the thread to have the best efficiency.)

I would think people could also do worm bin farming to help feed their chickens also. Worms do eat stuff that chickens can't eat.

 

[nao57]

It's a matter of training. Most veterinarians don't take the classes to learn about exotics or poultry - think of how expensive vet school is and how little it'd pay off to learn about treating chickens, if relatively few clients are going to be bringing them in. The vets that do specialize in things other than dogs/cats or general livestock are relatively few and far between.

Yep.

This is exactly right.
Growing up our family member for a vet even had trouble with the idea of people saying its cheaper to replace the cat than spend 200 dollars on it. It was always a battle. (More in the past especially when people used to be more real.)

 

[Chicalina]

Hmm. In part. A huge chunk of this country is so rural, lots of rich farm land, it's open and spread out. The more rural areas tend to have less income. So for some of us there was a family history of poverty and/or very big incentive to be self sufficient.

I don't like the homesteading fad. Or maybe it's just the term that I don't like. This "living off the land" stuff is in my roots. Throw me into a big city like NYC and I feel claustrophobic, trapped, irritated at the crowds the noise the stink the concrete everywhere and unnatural manicured parks. I can appreciate it for what it is but don't ever plan on keeping me there. My ancestors were farmers or worked the land in various ways, fearless, independent, common sense smart, accents so thick no hollywood actor could ever replicate, lived hard and worked hard for every little thing they had. What I saw growing up was my family continued to grow their own gardens and raise chickens or cows etc as well as having a regular job or two, when times were tough you relied a bit more on the land and the fruits of your labor to see you through.

I don't know if this is the right answer at all but I think maybe "homesteading" is so popular because that particular way of life is still common and land available. So when you want to or need to and there's opportunity and means, I'm not surprised people do it.

Sorry for the book. Hope that makes sense.

Thank you for your insight. I really appreciate it.

Land is so expensive here (unless you are in the north) that it is a way of life that isn't available to many. Conversely many farming families leave the land because the industry isn't very sustainable any more, plus the adult children often want more from life.

I grew up on a working farm (country estate) as my parents worked for the landowners, but then we moved to London when I went to school. I have 'come home' to some extent because I live in a rural area now, but i don't have land of my own. I would love to have a place large enough to have more animals and plants and just more space generally. I dream of buying some woods and building a log cabin in the middle!