Does anyone actually clear a profit with their chickens?

[scooter147]

I sell eggs at work for $1.50/dozen to my co-workers although most people just give me $2.00 and move on. I give them away to family and friends.

This pays my feed bill. I don't even expect to have my feed bill paid I have chickens because I enjoy it so.

 

[DDRanch]

Profit no, especially considering the cost of the new coop, run and shed. I think that would take me years and years of selling eggs. I don't think I am going to live that long.

However, I would like to break even. My food costs were increased by 30% in the last 5 weeks. I sell my eggs for $4/doz. Haven't broken even yet but some months have been close.

Anne

 

[fivebigreds]

With the cost of the coops , wire , feeders, feed , birds themselves and all their other must have stuff i figure they need to lay gold eggs for 6 months and then i'll turn a profit.

( if the price of gold holds up )

 

[krjwaj]

We figured we are about $200 into the chickens (so far). They are 2 onths away from laying an egg. I plan on giving away the extra eggs but it would be nice to have one consistent buyer each week; even if its only $2-3/dozen. We could put it a cup for the feed store

 

[Julie08]

I make a profit and I will let you all in on the secret it's guaranteed to work.

I pay for all my expenses out of my husbands account, when I make profit the profits go into my savings account.

Works like a charm

 

[Katy]

Quote:

 

[BettyR]

Quote:
The way I look at is if you can cover the cost of the feed you buy then the rest of the eggs you get are free. Plus the enjoyment of the chickens; to me that alone is a profit.

 

[ChickyPooh]

I plan on selling purebred chicks and eggs from my mixed breeds, would that help with making profit?

 

[Matt A NC]

I started keeping very detailed records 2 years ago. This year I am currently $352.22 in the RED. That includes feed as well as all birds, chicks, and eggs that have been bought and sold so far.

I am hoping to put a dent in that when show season starts and I can sell off the excess show stock I hatched this year. The problem is that the hatches have been about 80% Cockerels.

I am going to sell some of my pets this year, but that is just to make room. They will only be going to approved homes.

Matt

 

[JennsPeeps]

When we first got our girls we kept a mental tally of how many dozens of eggs they'd have to lay to "pay us back".

We initially figured $3/doz was roughly the going rate for organic eggs in the grocery store but they've since gone up to $4+.

First store stop: = ~$15 (4 doz)
Birds + feed + pine shavings

Second store stop: = $8 (2 doz)
Heat lamp bulb

Third stop: = $6 (1.5 doz)
Clip-on lamp for bulb

Fourth stop: = $2 (.5 doz)
Canary grit

(about now I'm thinking, "this isn't so bad!")

Then DBF starts the coop...

Stops 5 through 52: = $300+ (75 doz)
Wood for coop, misc. hardware, chicken wire, feeder, waterer, staples for gun, cargo net, more pine shavings, more feed, big girl grit, more wood for coop because we ran out, more hardware because I'm paranoid about predators, stakes for chicken wire to go around garden because they're eating it, the jalapeno plants they ate, the beans they ate... ad infinitum

I'm sure we've spent more, but counting past 83 doz eggs ... oof! That's nearly 1000 eggs. If we get 10.5 eggs/week from our 3 standards (and take the bantam cochin out of the equation) we're looking at 94.86 weeks until the girls have laid enough eggs to earn their keep. That's only 2 years, right?

If they lay well.

If they don't eat another bite of feed!

So yeah... profit... hrm...