Counting The Costs?

[Cindy in PA]

The eggs are definitely better, but as others have said not cheaper! I have used my coop for almost 25 years with only minor additional cost (new flooring etc.), so my $500 from 1993 is long forgotten. Eggs in the store cost just above what they did in the 1920's, so cheap is where it is at, of course that is our whole food system & I don't believe we are healthier for it! I do not agree that chickens are a lot of work. Much easier than my dog & they give me eggs! The only time I mind them is when I have to clean them out twice a year & I'm rushed for time or something, but a few hours later it's all done! They are worth it to me, but definitely not a money maker. I have no real outlet to sell eggs & my organic feed is not cheap, but I am eating really good eggs!

 

[igorsMistress]

You're not likely to spend the same on a dozen backyard eggs as what you get in the store. Backyard eggs can be expensive. 4 chickens need 3 days and 3 lbs of food to produce a dozen eggs and that's if they all lay an egg a day. Production typically falls off during winter, but you still have to feed them.

Will you feed organic food or regular? What can you get in your area and how much will it cost you to feed the birds? What about grit and calcium? Will you ferment the feed, which reduces cost a bit, or just feed dry? Are you prepared to potentially feed every wild bird that flies over? If not, how will you prevent that? Hint: it ain't easy!

Are you prepared to get up rain or shine or snow and take care of your birds every day? Even when you're sick? Wash the waterers, scrape the roost, stir the litter, do major coop cleaning when it's necessary? What about coop and maintenance costs? What are you going to do with all the poop? Don't forget you'll need to look your birds over once in a while too.

How precious is your time? How will you deal with a rooster?

I've seen some wonderful coops made from recycled items on this site. There are tons of diy threads to make almost anything you need if you're handy like that. Feed doesn't have to be expensive. I can get non gmo feed here 40 lbs for $23 including tax and I buy that brand of scratch too. But I also grow stuff for my birds and I buy them greens, mealworms, fruit, and meat once in a while. Added cost.

I thought about getting chickens for a few years before I decided to take the plunge. I've had my original flock almost a year now. I've added to my flock twice and now it's twice the size I started with. I wouldn't change my decision. My flock brings much joy and many smiles to our home. They're worth every penny to us. The chores are easy because I planned the coop to suit my needs. I spend maybe 10 or 15 minutes a week on coop maintenance and about the same cleaning up the yard. I planned for the work and made it easy.

My chickens were an impulse buy. We were just checking feed costs and looking at waterers and feeders and we left with 4 chicks. By the time we got the coop built we had 6, now we have 10, one is a roo. Be prepared for chicken math

Good luck with whatever you decide. I love having chickens.

ETA: My cost per dozen is less than what I would pay for "free range" organic eggs at the grocery store though. It took a little work to find a feed I liked at a reasonable cost.

 

[PirateGirl]

@igorsMistress that's a pretty good price on feed, what are you buying? I've been shopping around for something different.

 

[igorsMistress]

@igorsMistress that's a pretty good price on feed, what are you buying? I've been shopping around for something different.

I'm getting Bar Ale non gmo at Pet Club for that price. I buy the 20% protein chick crumble and put OS and egg shells out for the layers.

I first got it at a feed store, $35 for 40 lbs and way too expensive!

 

[Birdinhand]

the way I look at the vegetable, egg and meat production cost/benefit equation on our urban homestead is this. I am a foodie, I love really good food, more of a quality than quantity kind of person. In addition I care about where and how my food is grown. to get a rational comparison to the quality of what I produce and it's value I do not compare to Walmart prices of mass produced factory food, I compare to boutique farmers market prices because they are the ones most often feeding organic feed to humanely raised birds, or in the case of vegetables, actually being good stewards to the land by tending well to the soil. when I've taken a brass tacks look at the cost of eggs and meat and vegetables that we grow ourselves I find that it's more expensive than the cheapest we can buy but less expensive by a good margin than comparably grown produce. To produce really good food you cant fake it and use pesticides and steroid like fertilizers or rely too much on antibiotics, you need to have fertile soil, feed quality food and assure that the birds are healthy, strong and naturally resistant to disease. And, in addition to the pride and joy of eating some of our own food, we love our chickens as pets, even the one's we eat. Overall, you do need to invest significantly initially, but the outcome is priceless in the long run.

 

[song of joy]

Keeping chickens is not cost effective. Store bought eggs, especially if you shop the sales are much cheaper.

Taking care of chickens requires constant care. They need feed and water every day. They need to be monitored every day. Their coop and run need to be tended to, even if you do deep litter.

You will need to keep your chicken facilities predator proof, and exercise constant vigilance in that regard.

You need to constantly assess the health of your flock, and be ready with an action plan for external, internal parasites, injury, and illness.

You will need to collect eggs daily. Sometimes you have too many, sometimes you don't have enough. You will need a plan to manage those extras, as well as a plan to manage the lean times.

Take all of these needs into account, and you will realize that chicken ownership requires life style assessment to be sure you are up for the challenge.

I enjoy my flock. They provide: entertainment, exercise, fresh eggs, fresh meat, compost for my garden and orchard. They eliminate weeds, insects (including ticks and mosquitoes) and even till areas of my garden.

As I was reading this post, I couldn't help but think about the value of learning to do all of these things. That's something we can't put a price tag on. With the advent of large-scale commercial farms, many people in our society lost the ability and opportunity to learn how to manage livestock. I view small farms and even backyard flocks as an opportunity to reconnect with part of our heritage and get to know the livestock we were entrusted with.

 

[lazy gardener]

As I was reading this post, I couldn't help but think about the value of learning to do all of these things. That's something we can't put a price tag on. With the advent of large-scale commercial farms, many people in our society lost the ability and opportunity to learn how to manage livestock. I view small farms and even backyard flocks as an opportunity to reconnect with part of our heritage and get to know the livestock we were entrusted with.

So very true. I could write a book. A lot of the reason why I do what I do is b/c I know that what I harvest on my own land is not tainted by factory farming. I know I will never be able to grow all of my own food. To try to do so would require more land, and more time/resources than I have available to invest. But... to grow what I can, to reuse, repurpose, build, and re-build what I can will make me and my family that much more independent. While I focus on the farming end of things, there is so very much more that goes into being independent. In the last 3 generations, so very much has been lost. How many of the young adults in America would be able to build a home, or even complete basic home repairs including electrical, plumbing, basic carpentry. How many would be able to go out in their yards and harvest a fully balanced meal? How many would be able to take a swatch of fabric and turn it into a shirt or a pair of pants?

So yeah, the thread title is very appropriate: count the cost: how many hours of my life will I have to give up to: grow a garden, to process the veggies I grow, to raise a chicken who will then lay my breakfast eggs. If I consider the cost of a can of green beans at the grocery store (45 cents on sale) compared to the time invested to prep the soil, plant the seed, grow the plants, go out every day and battle the Japanese beetles, harvest the beans, pressure can the beans... the number of minutes I have to work at a job to buy that can of beans pales in comparison to the number of minutes I invest in that pint of green beans sitting on my canning shelf. BUT... I have produced it myself. If every one who could: (grow a garden, raise a chicken, preserve some of their own food, re-use, re-purpose, re-cycle) did those things instead of spending themselves into debt, we'd turn the economy of this country on it's ear. Our government would be very scared of a nation of folks who were independent, and able to take care of themselves.

 

[Rick&chickTampa]

This is a great thread and I have enjoyed reading it. I am pretty new to this chicken thing and I did spend a bit on my coop and start up costs for waterier, feeders, and a bunch of stuff I stashed in my shed and don't use. I bought 5 red sex link that were of laying age for $5 each (let the breeder feed them for the first 5 or 6 months) Now I buy a 50 lb bag of feed per month for $16 and get 30 eggs or more a week so about $4 per week. I spend about 15 minutes a day feeding, watering, and cleaning up POOP (noticed no one mentioned POOP) I enjoy the chickens, my neighbors enjoy free eggs.

 

[nomirawr1]

I live in New Zealand, so the prices are not particularly relevant, but I'll put them into my experience anyway.

TL;DR: having hens is worth it for us, saves us about 23c per egg. Hatching isn't - and cost us a lot.

It cost me around $500 to set up with a coop & moveable chicken fence (or thereabouts). I paid around $20 per chicken, I have 2 commercial layers (Hylines), and 2 heritage breeds. I paid another $100 for special feeders/drinkers - stuff is stupidly expensive here in NZ cos it all has to be imported. The coop was cheap, so after 11 months it needed replacing - that cost me $800.

My ongoing costs for my layers are minimal, around $25 a month for feed.
I get around 90 eggs a month from 4 layers, usually more, but I'll stick with that number, for ease of calculation
So from my 4 layers it costs me 27c per egg.
This will, of course, vary based on molting, time of year, weather patterns, brooding hens, etc... I have very non-broody hens who molt one feather at a time and keep laying, so we haven't had too much disruption.

I buy in straw as well, but at $15 per bale, and it takes me 9 months to go through a bale, seems kind of negligible.

Bought eggs cost around $6 per 12 for free range eggs. Far more for organic. Thats around 50c per egg.

For us, yes, having hens is absolutely worth it. Especially when you consider that bought eggs can be a month or more old, but we get daily, fresh eggs. The difference in taste is amazing. If you have enough eggs you can always sell them to your neighbours to recoup some costs too.

Now, I've tried raising eggs, and had such terrible luck. The first lot - 6 eggs cost me $18 to buy eggs + $20 petrol to go pick the suckers up. $200 for another coop to house mama while brooding. Mama killed them all at 15 days, so that was a complete bust.
2nd lot of eggs cost me $36 to have shipped. Put under a different mama, and she hatched 1 egg. The rest died at varying stages of development (blood ring, 4x quitters at day 15-18, one hatched then died). We got 1 single chick (thankfully a pullet).
Chick starter and grower are both around $15 per bag, which lasts about 2 months with 1 single chick.
That equals around $37 for food for 1 chick for 5 months - before it's even laid a single egg. Assuming it's a pullet - I'd eventually make that back, but for a rooster, nope. Roosters are hard to rehome here, esp if they're not purebred lookers. If they're not an 'eating' breed, and you end up with a lot of roosters, you'll lose a lot of $$.

I guess at the end of the day, raising chicks, for us, is not worth it, simply due to the cost of buying eggs and big losses. We don't often have the option of buying already hatched 1 day old chicks here.

The enjoyment of having chickens totally makes it worth it for us to have hens though, even if we didn't have cheaper eggs from them. We have chickens with such random and awesome personalities

Time-wise I don't spend much time as they're free range. They're clean in the nesting boxes, so that's no biggie. The coop is bottomless, so every week or so I just shift it on the lawn and voila - clean. The kids enjoy feeding them daily and checking for eggs - which takes 5 minutes. We often go and just sit and watch them be idiots, but that's just for the lulz.

 

[Sunshine Flock]

Whelp.

I'm a super duper researcher and planner and organizer, but I lack follow through and suffer from chronic indecision, so I knew I wouldn't be ready when I brought home seven chicks earlier this year — and sure enough I wasn't.

But for me jumping in and figuring it out as I go gets things done, just not always when they need to get done, and when it comes to live creatures they can suffer the consequences.

So do be prepared.

Five is a good number in case you lose one of the chicks, which happens often enough. And then there's the rooster factor. If you don't want (or can't have) a rooster, then be sure to choose a breed that has a high guarantee of hens.

For their brooder box don't spend much money. They'll only be in there for a few weeks. We started with a cardboard box and made it comfy for them. My husband made a large brooder from scrap wood and welded wire he got for $5 (50 foot roll) a few days after they arrived.

The chicken coop has been an ongoing project: lack of tools, hand injuries, stuckness on decisions, dragging my paws. But the basics are done, and we're probably sitting under $500 for the conversion and a large chicken run with six foot fencing.

So the first year is your most expensive year.

As for their medicinal needs should problems arise (and they do), most issues can be addressed naturally and affordably with ingredients you may already have in your kitchen. There's lots of guidance on this in the forums.

I only buy organic feed. It's more expensive, but SO worth the extra cost. Right now the hens are molting, which means no eggs. Chickens should be viewed as seasonal crops in terms of food production. You can freeze eggs for use during winter months, but most breeds should keep on producing from what I've read.

But count on having to supplement your eggs a bit during winter with store bought eggs.

Even then, though, I think there's savings to be had. Not much, but the bigger deal for me is one more step taken toward sustainable food production and consumption.

And the super big deal is knowing my food has been humanely raised and fed. Those eggs you buy at the store? Cageless, no antibiotics (required by law), natural, free range? Creepy, scary, disturbing living conditions.

When I told my dad what he's buying into when he buys eggs from a high production egg outfit, he drove to the store and bought organic eggs for the first time in his life.

So there's that to consider, too.

On the down side, chickens age and egg production stops. Do you cull, or do you tuck them in a retirement coop and welcome new chicks into the egg production coop? That's something to think about.

But I do feel chickens are worth the effort. Maybe just get three. That's a gentle number and enough for companionship to keep them healthy and happy.

Just a few things to think about.