cost of raising birds...

[Bammony]

How much money do you spend in a month to feed your flock? How many birds do you have and what kind of feed are you feeding them? Also, do they free range at all in addition to the feed you provide?

 

[tazcat70]

Oh goodness....I had 11 birds and I bought flock raiser and scratch. Cost about $30. It lasted 2 months, and they were free ranging too. Now I have 25 youngsters out there too, and I think I am going through a bag of flock raiser every 2 weeks. They free range but not much out there for them.

I figured it up once and it costs me about $10-15 a year per bird, depending on the bird. I was going for how much it cost me to produce a doz eggs. I have 4 bantams that only lay about 6 eggs a week between them, darn freeloaders!

 

[briteday]

Now that the weather is cold I'm going through 50 pounds of layer pellets each month (6 RIR) @ $13/bag. I've also bought some COB with molasses to help keep their energy up on these cold days @ $11/bag, probably last me 2-3 months depending on the weather. Then there's the miscellaneous stuff...oyster shell and grit ($0.20/pound, maybe 2 pounds per month???haven't really payed attention to how much they are using), a few pounds of black sunflower seeds, whole oats, wheat, @ $0.30/pound. And I always keep a small supply (5 pounds or so) of alfalfa horse cubes on hand if I don't have fresh greens to feed them. The alfalfa cubes run $0.30/pound from the bulk bin at the feed store.

Lastly the girls get as much greens from the produce department castoffs at the local organic grocery...free!

So most months my feed bill runs between $15-20. But selling the excess eggs always pays for my feed, and then some.

 

[Bammony]

How old are your birds Briteday? And Welcome to BYC by the way!

 

[Bammony]

I'm spending about $60-$70 a month to feed 40+ chickens, 2 turkeys and 1 guinea. I just know know if that's too much.

 

[speckledhen]

We go through about 2-50# bags of layer pellets each week and one bag of scratch every 2 weeks or so. I'm paying about $100-120/mo to feed 50 birds. They do freerange most of every day, at least the laying flock (most of the total birds) does, but there is no pasture here-we live on a mtn in the woods.

 

[hcammack]

I am going through 2 50lbs bags a month now that its colder. thats about $26 dollars for 10 hens. Im going through 1 bag of scratch every two months. Also going through 1 bag of starter for 8 pullets every month. So about $55 a month for 17 birds.

Henry

 

[briteday]

Thanks for the welcome! I've been lurking here for a few months and just recently had the time to actually sit down and register.

I got my 6 RIR girls from a guy on craigslist in September. He said they were hatched early in May. He was frustrated because they hadn't layed a single egg and he didn't want to keep feeding them. But they had to be gone by noon that day! So I packed them up in a dog crate and brought them home...never had chickens of my own before. Rigged up a little hoop coop for the night and DH made a "min-cooper" the next day. We went to work on building a "6-cylinder coupe de ville" ( 6 hens = 6 cylinder, DH teaches auto shop!) so now they sit on a 4 x 8 raised planting bed, A-frame type, with coop above the run.

AND, I got the birds on a Sunday, they started laying on Monday! It could be that he had them in a spare dog run next to 3 pit bulls that lived outsdie 24/7. I think the birds were a bit stressed.

I'd like to put a bit of weight on them still, as their chests seem a bit thin to me. And with this cold weather. I'm on the Nevada side of the Sierras so we've had some cold nights recently, down to 0 degrees in the valley where I live. Other than warming a river rock by the fireplace and putting it in the coop before going to bed I haven't needed to heat the coop and they seem to be very happy and healthy.

We originally got the girls because my 17 year old daughter has always wanted chickens and she will be going off to college in a few years. Now she would like a silkie as a pet. And we have so many people wanting eggs from us that I can't make them fast enough right now. So I'm thinking about 6 americaunas in the spring, and a silkie (she wants blue or brown). The egg buyers seem to think that colored eggs are better than the white eggs, and since I already have brown eggs from the RIR... I'm just hoping americaunas will be as trouble free as the RIR. One of her friends raises chickens for 4H so she will get us some chicks in the spring. They should be a better quality than the RIR's that were bought from the feed store. And if I end up with any roos the kids will take them back for showing.

 

[Bammony]

Briteday-I think you'll be very happy with some EE's(green egg layers). All of mine are very friendly and are calm birds. That's really good of you to get chickens for your daughter. I wish my parents had let me get all of the animals I wanted as a kid(Great Dane, duck, goat, etc.), though I did get my first horse when I was nine. What state are you in?

 

[Chick_a_dee]

I have 15 birds

We were paying $14.00 for a bag of layer (or grower up until recently), we go through about a bag a month using a hanging feeder.

Sometimes the bag will stretch a bit longer if I feed corn on the side, which is about $13.00 a bag and that lasts for ages. I've had the same bag of corn for 2 months LOL. I'll probably only have to get a new bag of corn at the end of December/ first couple weeks of January.