Cost of keeping chickens

[Vickischics]

I think the majority of us chicken keepers that take the time to join this forum and read anything on here and do any research that it provides give a rip and a great deal of care about our birds and other animals we have. Many of us work, have busy jobs,lives,families,children,spouses, other responsibilities, yet we do the best we can to feed, water, exercise, clean and maintain our birds homes, coops, runs, etc. , We all do the best we can to observe our birds as much as possible for any illnesses or injuries and come here for advice if we need it and get any input if we don’t know how to care for their problems and go from there.

I Absolutely agree with you. We do our best being pulled in many directions everyday. Sometimes, some may just do it better than others. But, we all care about our kids, chickens, dogs, cats ect.. We do the Best we can.

 

[thepick4uchicks]

I Absolutely agree with you. We do our best being pulled in many directions everyday. Sometimes, some may just do it better than others. But, we all care about our kids, chickens, dogs, cats ect.. We do the Best we can.

I think everyone for the majority that are chicken keeper have to be big hearted animal lovers or they wouldn’t do it. I know many do it for raising meat and eggs sure but there is also the part in there that they have to enjoy handling livestock. Or they wouldn’t want to be around them as much as you have to be in doing all the care required. If you didn’t you couldn’t put up with what is required and all that work in their care. No way.

 

[cmom]

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

That’s ridiculous! Nobody spends that! That is crazy. She’s got rocks in her head or that is a type “o”. No way she spends that on some chicken feed. What’s it made out of Gold?

I use around a half a ton of feed monthly but I have a lot of birds and it doesn't cost near that much, not even close.

 

[Jstone70]

I have over 6000 animals people I'm not just a small owner im a large owner

 

[TLCMidMichigan]

I have had chickens that were abused by another chicken, predators or merely too timid to help itself. I gave them time to recover by having food and water available. Most do recover. But their not worth spending $100 for a vet to tell me, Blah, Blah, Blah. Then the bird dies anyway. I do my best to care for the birds. My needs are for meat and eggs.

 

[thepick4uchicks]

I have had chickens that were abused by another chicken, predators or merely too timid to help itself. I gave them time to recover by having food and water available. Most do recover. But their not worth spending $100 for a vet to tell me, Blah, Blah, Blah. Then the bird dies anyway. I do my best to care for the birds. My needs are for meat and eggs.

And that makes perfect sense and cents all the way around. Not all birds are meant as pets understandably. Almost all of us eat them as meat and eggs. I know I do almost daily and that goes for each six of my family members.

 

[thepick4uchicks]

I have over 6000 animals people I'm not just a small owner im a large owner

It takes people like you to make the world go round. Thank you for all you do. I really appreciate you and your animals as well as the care they receive from you.

 

[BDutch]

Thanks for starting this discussion @Chicalina . Very interesting to read how different we humans all are.

Just like many BYC members here I try to keep a healthy flock. Providing shelter, water and good feed. And letting them free range a few hours a day (if possible) for greens and bugs. Also checking their behaviour and if there are any visible parasites on them.

Besides I invest in a natural poison free environment and organic feed for my chickens.

Organic feed is a bit more expensive but its better for the chickens, the eggs are healtier for me to eat and its better for the global environment too. The cheaper feed here contains GMO soy from Brazil. Wich is a real no go fo me. Because they destroy the rainforest for it. The land buyers kill the natives who resist. And the farmers use so much poison on the crops that the people who live around the field get severe health problems.

Until now I had no badly sick chickens.

But If one gets sick I won’t take them to a vet. 5 reasons for that:

1. I believe many vets are mainly interested in selling antibiotics and making money when it comes to chickens. And are unable to cure chickens on the long run.
2. Vets are very expensive
3. I don’t want to give antibiotics to a chicken because this can cause problems with resistance (commercial farmers in NL/ Europe often have resistent bacteria that can’t be healed anymore).
4. Taking a sick chicken to a vet probably gives them a lot of stress and this can’t be good for their health.
5. I had some stupid/bad experiences with vets as a child and can’t help it to dislike the idea of having to deal with a vet.
   
   If a chicken is sick I put it inside the house in quarantine. Untill now this worked fine.
   Until now I only had some casualties with chicks. They died so quickly I couldn’t act upon it.

 

[Lilalienangel]

I have a regular income of 1400 a month. I have a flock of 9 chickens. I have to really budget myself but I still manage to buy them food created and distributed by a chicken nutritionist at $37 for 40 pds. I took my birds to the vet twice. Both times they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. The first time I thought the vet would brace her up for me. Nope. She just told me how to do it when I already knew. I just wanted help doing it as it was on a squirrelly little chick. Granted they are very reasonably priced. ($100.00 combined for both visits) but it really disillusioned me that they didn't actually help. I don't regret it though. I figure you get from your animals what you put into them. Especially when it comes to food quailty of the eggs and meat. It has paid off for me. I just started a year ago and I have a list of people waiting for my chicks already. They sell fast at top dollar due to their beauty and brightly colored eggs. I'm sticking with the food. However, I think one of my originals that I bonded with would have to be on death's doorstep before I would bring them to the vet again..

 

[Chicalina]

I have a regular income of 1400 a month. I have a flock of 9 chickens. I have to really budget myself but I still manage to buy them food created and produced by a chicken nutritionist at $37 for 40 pds. I took my birds to the vet twice. Both times they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. The first time I thought the vet would brace her up for me. Nope. She just told me how to do it when I already knew. I just wanted help doing it as it was on a squirrelly little chick. Granted they are very reasonably priced. ($100.00 combined for both visits) but it really disillusioned me that they didn't actually help. I don't regret it though. I figure you get from your animals what you put into them. Especially when it comes to food quailty of the eggs and meat. It has paid off for me. I just started a year ago and I have a list of people waiting for my chicks already. They sell fast at top dollar due to their beauty and brightly colored eggs. I'm sticking with the food. However, I think one of my originals that I bonded with would have to be on death's doorstep before I would bring them to the vet again..

That is expensive feed!

I have had similar experience with vets. Where I live they know no more than I do about chickens, and probably less. I can treat worms, ascites, bumblefoot, etc better by myself. But if I had a chicken with a serious wound (beyond my skills to fix) or a nasty infection then I'd take them straight to the vet for suturing or abx. That is, if I thought they could be saved. If it was extremely dire then I would probably euthanize them to relieve their suffering rather than try and save them.

I had an old hen once who was my absolute favourite. She was about 10 years old and a hybrid, so shouldn't have lived that long anyway! One day I found her having prolapsed so badly that all her intestines were outside her body on the ground being dragged around. She was an urgent and immediate cull. There was no vet and no saving her. Very sad day that was.