Cost of keeping chickens

[Tre3hugger]

Im in agree. I know the hardships just hit everyone hard this year but simply sell them off if you cant afford them. With everything I have I spend about 7k a month on feed vets and everything else. Its a lot to worry about but at the same time if its just chickens and ducks feed and vet for them isnt that bad. Besides that if you want animals thats your choice and your choice if you dont take care of them properly. But thete is always dep of ag to take care of people that mistreat

Wowzers. I wont spend that, TOTAL, in my flocks lifetime lol. They are perfectly happy and thriving.

 

[Jstone70]

hmmm...if an animal is watered, fed the proper feed, and housed appropriately to keep the dry and warm, however ugly it may be, a keeper is not going to be in trouble.


Outside of the reach of many people. 7K a month is quite high and you don’t indicate numbers or types of animals you are keeping for 7k per month.

Only get in trouble if you break their body parts. I have 3k+ chickens I have cows donkeys horses rabbits goats mule dogs fish ducks deer and turkeys

 

[Tre3hugger]

Only get in trouble if you break their body parts. I have 3k+ chickens I have cows donkeys horses rabbits goats mule dogs fish ducks deer and turkeys

If your fish gets sick do you take it to the vet?

 

[Jstone70]

If your fish gets sick do you take it to the vet?

No the vet comes to me

 

[Matejka]

No the vet comes to me

Wow! A vet that makes house calls. In impressed.
Realistically, someone earning $15 an hour, earns $31,200 gross a year. Bring home pay varies, around $24,000 or less yearly. So, most are on a tight budget to buy essentials, much less luxuries. There are ways and means to keeping chickens inexpensively.
When my grandparents were raising chickens, the chickens were VERY important. Every part on chicken was used, feathers for beds, pillows, meat for eating, feet and head made soup, eggs etc.... However, they never NEVER bought feed. Money wasn't spent on chickens. No electricity, water was from a well, bucket onxrope dropped 50 + feet and hauled back out. Seldom was well waterceven used to water birds We need to return to simpler times With our thinking on what is good and right. I fill my water bowls fresh water daily, the birds find the nastiest, dirtiest water (pot under table I have houseplants on) to drink, or the mud puddles after I water.

 

[black_cat]

I think that the important things are food, water, and shelter. Doesn't matter what the food or water is in, just that they have proper access to it. Shelter doesn't matter as long as it's wind and rain proof. I don't think that it's wrong to not take your birds to the vet, but it is wrong to see one injured/suffering and just leave it without helping it at all. Even if helping is to put it in a nice warm place, or culling it to end it's suffering.

 

[Chicalina]

I appreciate the opinions shared and wanted to answer a few points raised.

I am not saying a lot of money needs to be spent, or that every chicken needs to be taken to the vet when it is sick. Quite the opposite. A lot can be achieved on a shoe string. If you raise for meat, or even for pets then culling can be the kindest option if you can't afford veterinary care for a serious injury or condition. But you should not keep chickens if you cannot afford basic OTC medicine and regular preventative treatments.

I personally rarely visit the vet with my chickens, simply because the local vets know nothing about poultry. And I'm in a rural area! But I could afford the treatment if I did choose to take them. Like for example to get a necropsy or blood test if my hens were all getting sick, or possibly for a serious wound that I thought needed antibiotics but would heal, but some on this forum wouldn't even do that.

I also have two second hand coops that I put together and spruced up a bit. No Taj Mahal here! They don't need fancy, just warm and big enough and secure.

Feed is relatively cheap but I hear that some people prefer not to buy the manufactured feed for costs reasons. I'm in the UK and our human food and general cost of living is way more expensive than in the US. Despite that we can still buy supermarket chickens more cheaply than it costs to hatch, raise and butcher our own on a small scale.

My mum has told me about the chickens and rabbits they kept for food as a child in the post-war era where they were very poor. They also had a lot more fruit and veg than we eat now because they grew their own. And the chickens ate the scraps, bugs, worms, plenty of fresh stuff and corn. They probably ate better than the family tbh.

 

[black_cat]

I personally don't think that commercial feed is too expensive ($10 for 40lbs-that's $1 per 4 pounds of food) but I know that for some people, that's almost 2 hours of work that just went into their chicken food, and I can understand why it would be easier to feed them on scraps.

 

[Chicalina]

And @Tre3hugger as for privilege I am grateful every day for what I have, which isn't that much. But nobody gave it to me. I have worked very hard for it myself. And I have known much much poorer times in the past, so it is not helpful to talk about privilege when you don't know my experiences.

I would love to have loads of land and the space and time to 'homestead' properly. But that is not very possible here in the UK without a LOT of money! Here, at least in the South East of England, being self sufficient would be a luxury and requires an independent income, it is not a low cost way of living. I can't even afford to buy a house here, let alone land as well!

 

[Chicalina]

I personally don't think that commercial feed is too expensive ($10 for 40lbs-that's $1 per 4 pounds of food) but I know that for some people, that's almost a full day's salary that just went into their chicken food, and I can understand why it would be easier to feed them on scraps.

Good quality poultry feed here costs about £8 to £9 for a 44lb bag. That is $10 to $13. So about the same.

$10 cannot be almost a full day's salary. Federal minimum wage is $7.25 per hour.