Eggs are expensive

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Whether you save money depends on a lot of factors. Most people don't. I agree that the initial setup can be very expensive. My family moved into a house with a dilapidated chicken coop in the back yard. Fixing it was a lot less expensive than building or buying a new one.

Are you on any sort of acreage? If so, that opens some more options for saving money. Free range, growing feed, and the like. No one in my house likes to eat carrot greens. I'll bet the chickens won't mind them. I grind grain for bread. I'm usually pretty good about keeping bugs out, but not 100% successful. Chicken feed. Wormy fruits that dropped off of trees don't appeal to me, but chickens have a different perspective on that. Some of the broodier breeds will self-replicate and save you having to buy new birds every couple years.

Availability of eggs and meat in a crisis (economic, weather-related, etc) is also a plus. If you have an acre+ or would like to have more options if things go sideways, check out Florida Bullfrog's book: Free Range Survival Chickens. He's got some very good info in there. The cost of getting chickens might be well worth it if grocery prices continue to go up or supplies become limited for whatever reason.

Finally, lots of folks on here keep chickens as pets. More power to them, but that costs money. If you're trying to save money, you'll have to cull poor performers in favor of those that do better. Even small laying hens are good for soup stock. Waste not, want not.
 
Hello and welcome. That is a perfect reason to have chickens. That's why we got started. As @eworms indicated, you will need to be prepared to cull the non performers. I can speak to this as we have a non producing production breed. One year old and has never laid an egg in addition to having experienced a couple of significant illnesses. She consumes feed and takes up limited valuable space. That said, with us being new to this ourselves, we cannot cull her - yet. I'm getting close to that though since we are in city limits and limited to a small number of chickens allowed and barely have enough eggs to support ourselves through the week so we are still buying store eggs. Kind of defeats the purpose. She's also our "trainer" of newbies, which seems to be a perpetual thing this past year, so she does serve a purpose.
Best of luck with everything.
 
PamNiles said:
Hi everyone, What would you say to someone who might be thinking of starting to raise chickens and is now looking at the high price of eggs in supermarkets, thinking this might be a reason, or tipping point, to finally take the plunge and start building a chicken enclosure and getting chickens? Is that a good reason (high egg prices) to start raising chickens? Or what about a combination of wanting to raise chickens, with the price of supermarket eggs being the catalyst to get you off the couch? Particularly interested in hearing from people in Illinois and anywhere near Chicago (which apparently is one of the few big cities that allows raising backyard chickens). Thanks!
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WELCOME TO BYC!!!! :welcome 🥳 🎉 🥳 :welcome
 

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