Has anyone gotten into raising chickens to avoid egg prices/egg shortages over the last year or two?

[LuciferRoo]

I did not get chickens to save money on eggs.
I just had this strange desire to have chickens.
I cannot explain this desire. It first hit me when I was living in a big city and my lot was just over 3000 sq/ft, which meant that I really did not have a yard.
I left the city and within a few months I had chicks.
Am I saving on eggs now? Maybe I am, but I invested in all the things needed to keep a small flock. I am sure those chickens have not laid enough eggs to pay for it, and when I bought eggs in the store, it was always Pasture Raised, or Pasture Raised Organic, and those eggs were never cheap.
I refused to buy the cheap eggs. I call them "torture eggs", because that is exactly what those chickens go though on a daily basis.

My chickens on the other hand live mostly a happy life. They free range in a big fenced in back yard and have a safe place to sleep at night. I let them out in the morning and lock them in at night'

 

[KyCoop]

I also had a weird desire for chickens. We were nervous to eat the eggs for the first time. We had never eaten anything but store bought.
We have not eaten a store bought egg in 5 yrs.
It makes me laugh when people tell me how lucky I am to have "free" eggs. I say yeah I'm lucky to get to slop through the mud to take care of them in the winter. I'm lucky to be able to afford treats for them and to "spoil" them with a secure, safe, dry coop to sleep on.
I'm lucky if I get 1 egg a day this time of year.

 

[K0k0shka]

Backyard chickens give you the most expensive free eggs ever! There's a reason why large scale operations keep their birds under such horrible, crammed conditions. You can be humane or cheap, but not both. Backyard chicken keepers tend to choose humane, hence the expensive eggs.

 

[KyCoop]

We should be getting 10.00 a dozen for OUR eggs.
We (back yard chicken keepers) take very good care of our girls and most of us know the name of the girl who laid that egg.
We tend them in every kind of weather imaginable, we treat them if they are sick, injured or old and cry when we are digging the hole when they are gone.

I think some of us do it because we really enjoy having chickens. I personally like knowing a chicken didn't suffer to give me an egg to eat.

 

[townchicks]

Please stress in your article that there is a lot more to owning chickens than getting eggs from them. They are living beings that need daily care, regardless of weather, safe housing, they get sick or injured and medical care is hard to find, so often you are on your own there. Hens can be just as loud and obnoxious as roosters, especially in the morning. Their poop stinks! They eat your plants and dig holes in your lawn. Many are sweet, but some peck hard. Molting, feathers everywhere. They stop laying when molting and in winter, and lay less as they age. Those sweet chicks at the farm store? A lot of them are boys. If you can't have roosters, or don't want more than one, you find a new home, or kill them. Guess what? All your neighbors are also looking for homes for theirs, too. So few takers and a flooded market for the boys. Reality. They are always the kids favorite too. You gotta love the chickens for being chickens, the eggs are a nice extra. I love having mine, but they are not the idyllic, pastoral lifestyle that the city dwellers and suburbanites picture when they they think " cheap eggs" Maybe suggest looking into chicken rescues too, they are going to be flooded soon.

 

[FrostRanger]

I think including a segment on what's required for basic chicken care, tips and common pitfalls of owning chickens would be a good idea. We do want more chicken owners but we want them to go in prepared and with realistic expectations. Chickens certainly aren't hard to care for but it is critical to have a good setup and to pick your breeds carefully (some breeds are better at laying eggs than others or tend to be more dominant than others on average and thus may not do as well with more docile breeds).

 

[lindy]

Before the egg craziness, i had to up my eggs to 4.50 a dozen. These are large colored eggs from birds that free range often and fed a corn, soy and gmo free feed. I buy the feed three hours from my home. I go thru a bag every week and have 16 birds in total. Three are roosters and three are silkies. I did not hatch any birds last season and am raising a few now.

Purchased as hatching eggs($5 each). Half hatched and so far down to four and still think at least one is a cockerel. As of now im only getting 1-3 eggs a day since fall-winter.

i ordered chicks from a good "hatchery" and they will be coming in the next few months. They were between 40-60 each. I am hoping to get into the more "specialty" chicken group since egg sells are really low in the summer.
I spend at least an hour a day with feeding twice a day, checking birds over, checking water ect. and an hour a week cleaning. So they are not terribly needy.

 

[CatInTheHenHouse]

I looked into getting chickens during the previous egg price spike a few years ago, but I ended up skipping on it as I did my research first and in addition to discovering the time and startup costs others have mentioned, I discovered that my HOA does not allow livestock nor birds.

 

[CoopBoots]

Hey all: This is Mark Dent, a journalist. I'm working on a story about egg prices and raising chickens and wanted to see if anyone on here had decided to raise chickens/hatch eggs because of egg shortages and egg inflation. For anyone who's done this, would you be interested in doing an interview to talk to me about this decision? Feel free to send me an email at [email protected].

I'm interested to hear what it's like raising chickens and whether you've found if it makes financial sense in the long run given higher egg prices.

My story is for The Hustle, a business and tech news site with 2 million newsletter subscribers. And you can see my work at markjdent.com. Thanks!

I got into chickens several years ago because of chicken culling during the Covid era. It wasn't specifically for eggs; it was food security in general. I'm not much of a gardener but I'm decent with animals and had prior experience. I could, if things were very desperate, "shepherd" my flock to let them free range and source more of their own food, but until for now I spend a good deal on feed.

No, I'm not saving money right now, and I probably won't ever unless the actual apocalypse comes. But it gives me some peace of mind and, once you have them, it's hard to go back. They make an amazing hobby that changes your relationship with your "food". You become partners and you depend upon one another.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Looks like mister Dent made his post on sunday, hung out for an hour or two and left. Hasn't been back.Guess he's waiting for people to email him.