Cost of keeping poultry?

[kglazier]

i left out the intangible.... my daughter (11) really enjoys the chickens and helping with them. My wife, who at first thought I had lost my mind, finds them entertaining to watch and likes sneaking them expensive treats like my pomegranates. So the chickens have become something we all enjoy and bond over. My daughter is learning about where food really comes from and responsibility. ... For the folks that can't let the hens free range. you are missing a treat.

 

[nayeli]

kglazier, I think its important children are around animals and learn about nature! =)

 

[ChickenLegs13]

I'm seeing many people building coops that cost many hundreds to thousands of dollars. I'm wondering if this is an expensive hobby for most rather than a viable way of producing food in a cost effective way. 

That's for city chickens!
My family was farmer types that never spent a single red cent on a chicken, or any other fowl. Any birds we had were purely self substaining free ranging. We had a hundred or so cattle & hogs too and none of them ever spent the night in a barn or ate store bought feed.
I'm no longer a farmer type, just a country type so now I have to buy a bit of chicken feed. It costs me roughly $1 a day to feed 30 free range hens.
I have 2 pens totaling 1,200+ sq ft that they sleep in. These pens are easily subdivided for brooder, grower, dinner roosters, quail, or whatever pens when the need arises, cost me $40 to build.
I haven't had a proper coop since the 1970's, they sleep on roost poles with a piece of tin overhead and egg boxes are wooden boxes setting on blocks or nailed to the wall.
One day my wife told me the baby chicks were talking about me, they were walking around the pen saying "Cheap, cheap, cheap!"
I can produce eggs in a cost effective manner but not meat with the breeds I have now. I could raise cost effective meat birds if I wanted to, but it would take more time & effort than I care to put out.

 

[TK421]

I set out trying to save money. After doing the math, my eggs are probably somewhere between $3-4/dozen after you factor in bedding hay, feed, and wood shavings. But I am very cost conscious and just wanted to provide healthy food for my family. I get eggs and 3-4 meat birds for the family each year. I live in a nice suburban nbrhood and built an anassuming coop and run for $60. Since my interest is in raising food, I don't consider them pets. So in response to your OP, you can do this hobby well for not much money, but it won't be as cheap as the "food" you buy at the grocery.

 

[nayeli]

That's for city chickens!

My family was farmer types that never spent a single red cent on a chicken, or any other fowl. Any birds we had were purely self substaining free ranging. We had a hundred or so cattle & hogs too and none of them ever spent the night in a barn or ate store bought feed.
I'm no longer a farmer type, just a country type so now I have to buy a bit of chicken feed. It costs me roughly $1 a day to feed 30 free range hens.
I have 2 pens totaling 1,200+ sq ft that they sleep in. These pens are easily subdivided for brooder, grower, dinner roosters, quail, or whatever pens when the need arises, cost me $40 to build.
I haven't had a proper coop since the 1970's, they sleep on roost poles with a piece of tin overhead and egg boxes are wooden boxes setting on blocks or nailed to the wall.
One day my wife told me the baby chicks were talking about me, they were walking around the pen saying "Cheap, cheap, cheap!"
I can produce eggs in a cost effective manner but not meat with the breeds I have now. I could raise cost effective meat birds if I wanted to, but it would take more time & effort than I care to put out.

Haha I think your right. People in the city want the coops to look like mini versions of their house etc. I want mine to look nice but we are using recycled materials on it and its going to be in our backyard surrounded by a privacy fence so spending big bucks to make it the coop of the town wouldn't even make sense (not that I would). I'm expecting to spend some money but more on the coop then anything else since they should be able to free range in my backyard and I'll be giving them worms that I'll be raising! I can't believe your pen in so big though! Our house is only 1,523 sq ft!

 

[nayeli]

I set out trying to save money. After doing the math, my eggs are probably somewhere between $3-4/dozen after you factor in bedding hay, feed, and wood shavings. But I am very cost conscious and just wanted to provide healthy food for my family. I get eggs and 3-4 meat birds for the family each year. I live in a nice suburban nbrhood and built an anassuming coop and run for $60. Since my interest is in raising food, I don't consider them pets. So in response to your OP, you can do this hobby well for not much money, but it won't be as cheap as the "food" you buy at the grocery.

The eggs aren't that much! I spend around $2.50-$3.49 normally for my eggs because I always try to buy the free range organics! I like to pick them up on sale when they are 2/$5 but when I miss that then they fall right between your range and I don't get meat from them, and they don't keep nasty bugs out of my yard, nor do I get their manure to fertilize with =)
I may even make a grazing pen so I can put them around my front yard... who knows maybe they will even make it where we don't have to mow =) then they will really save money!