How many of you make a profit from your chickens? How?

[princesschickens]

We don't worry about making money from them, that was never the purpose....we just enjoy them. We have 8 hens, average 7 eggs a day. I sell the eggs for $2 a dozen to the "catty" women I work with, (but give them away to my friends and neighbors!) I just put the egg $ in an envelope, (not sure what we will do with it). I got the chickens as a hobby, and to have fresh eggs that we know where they came from. They definitely are good therapy. I come home at lunchtime to let out the dog, collect the eggs and have a little "chicken therapy" before going back to office. Believe it or not, chicken therapy really is priceless!

 

[BairleaFarm]

I profit but youve got to look at the big picture. Ive spend 3000 on chickens this year. that includes feed, eggs purchased, coop upgrates etc. figure in thats a soso tax right off and worth something. I dont sell eggs i hatch them all. I also have a no rooster policy. if you buy chicks from me and one turns out to be a rooster bring him back at any time and ill give you two chicks my choice. you figure i can sell a regular roo table ready for 7$ ive had no luck selling them so why give them away when i can make something. Ive got a waiting list for a CSA next year but i need 400 chickens come the first snow. I upped my price to 3$ a chick for day old mutts and still sell them as fast as they hatch. Had to turn people away this last hatch. Im double stacked in one the racks on my big bator and the small one is full. I network like a SOB. i talk to everyone and anyone having to do with anything chicken related. I know what feed i can get the cheapest (have to buy 2000 lbs at a time). You have to know what your customers want. If i dont have have a bird that some one wants i know someone that does. I can usually make a couple bucks from flipping them.

 

[briteday]

I found when feed was about $12/50# that I could make a profit by keeping a strictly egglaying flock of about 25-30 birds. It seems like people would pay $2/doz but $3/doz was too much. I wish we had a mill in our area for cheaper feed. But if we had a mill then it could only be supported by enough customers to buy feed, meaning more people raising livestock, and then lower prices for eggs since there would be more competition. Also, in the current economy we have found that many of our egg customers are cutting back, buying cheaper eggs. So if the economy ever gets going again and feed prices come back down, here's how we did it (also, with the help of a cost tracking program found right here on BYC from member "raizin")

Buy 125 commercial hybrid chicks at $165 including shipping. Sell 100 at the feed store price of $3 each = $300. Profit= $135. But those 25 chicks I'm keeping are going to eat $430 of feed to POL. Yes, I kept track of every bag of feed, every piece of equipment, increase in electric bill for running the brooder... $430-135 profit of chick sales= $295 in the hole. Chickens start laying productively at 20 weeks (5 months) and average sales of 10 dozen eggs per week (even with commercial egglayers you will only get 80% productivity and I always used 1-2 dozen eggs per week for our family leaving about 10 doz to sell) at $2.50/dz = $25/week or $100/month. $100 - $50 (feed and supplies, my chickens have access to pasture and I have a regular supply of organic veggies from the garden and local grocery store freebies) gives me $50/month profit... But you owe the bank $295 so that takes 6 months to pay off and the chickens are now 11 months old. I know that production starts to decline between 12-18 months of age (production charts on breeders commercial website gives me this info) so I order 125 more chicks for the coming year. The older hens are still laying and selling eggs for the 5 months that it takes to raise the chicks netting another $250 profit, combined with the $135 chick sales profit = $385...still owe the bank $45 to raise chicks to POL. But wait! Sell the 25 hens when the chicks reach POL at $10/hen = $250...now we're about $200 ahead ($250 from hens - 45 still owe the bank for feed on chicks = $205 profit). Generally I would use the $200 to make upgrades to the coop or buy equipment, especially in the beginning. And if you figure your time...forget it, you are never going to make a profit then. So, beginning the second year, I am profiting $50/month from the time the new chicks start laying. But I really only have 6 months of profit before I have to buy new chicks again. I now have 6 months x $50 = $300 profit + $135 profit from chicks sales again this year = $435...YAY!!!!! I now have enough to break even feeding the chicks to POL!!!!! (remember, where I live, it costs about $430 in feed to raise the chicks as long as feed prices remain stable) And this year the $250 from selling the hens will be pure profit. Repeat this year after year...until they raise the price of feed and your egg customers can only afford the $1/doz eggs at Wally World.

So I stopped "raising eggs" and sold the flock when both of us faced losing our jobs and would have to start with new employers ( I am thankful every day that we had savings and marketable skills to obtain new jobs), be away from home for training, and all the assorted expenses of starting new careers in both time and money while maintaining a household with a daughter in college. The $250 from the past year's hens + the $250 for this year's POL flock made for some nice grocery money to tide us over until the new paychecks started rolling in. But so far, I am unclear about next year. I now have just 4 pet birds that we kept. They do give us enough eggs to keep our family of 3 supplied. But even if I would want to start a new egglaying flock next Spring, it would be into the 2nd year before seeing a profit again. The cost of chicks is about the same, but the price of feed is obviously higher. Also, I no longer have egg customers and don't know that the sales would be any better in 2012 than they were this past year. So, I'm on the fence at this point, about ordering chicks next Spring. The cheapest feed I can find of reasonable quality is $15/50# x 4/month = $60. If I got $1/doz for eggs = $10/week = $40/month...doesn't even pay for the feed. My alternative plan is to order the 100 chicks, sell 95 = $285- $135 cost = $150 profit. And if I only raised 5 chicks for our own eggs, my cost to POL would be about $50-60. But could I still sell 95 chicks??? Don't know. On the other hand the local gal pal who normally hatches her own chicks to sell each Spring is not doing it this year so maybe I can tap into her customer pipeline for the commercial chick sales. Most people around here are not picky about breeds, just want good egglayers.

I've made it through the last bad economy in the 1970's and know that it will just take time for things to turn around. As much as we want it to, nothing can speed it up except time. So until Father Time makes the days go by...hmmmmm...profit??? Don't know. Probably depends on where you live and your personalized cost to raise eggs...ummm, chickens.

 

[Crippledturkey]

We sell our eggs for $2 a dozen as well, but when people stop by to get eggs and we get to talking and they come and see the chicks and the chicks run up to meet THEIR egg buying guests, and we get to talking and more times than not the buyers become friends and walk off with a dozen or two for free as they are friends. LOL. These new friends share the eggs with their friends who drop by looking for the "Cheap" organic Eggs, and the Chicks wind up paying for their feed in the end, and mabey have bought a 6 pack or two for their main Roo.

I do not see them making money until next spring though when i seperate the different breeds to mate and raise the chicks for profit on a trip to the sales barn. Also some have visited freezer camp, and will get us through the winter. Also on boring days you can sit outside and watch them interact, and it is a helluva bit more entertaining than paying $8 to go watch a movie. So Profit to me is relative.

 

[Pretty Pony]

Quote:
Me too!

 

[muddstopper]

I dont even try to make money on my chickens. We give most of the eggs to family and occassionaly swap some for garden goods. Sometimes we swap garden goods for other garden goods as well. Every now and then I will sell a few hatching eggs, but dont do that often either. I havent ever eaten one of my birds so I cant say I raise them for meat. Whenever I get to many or need to cull, I sell them to trader Joeblow and take whatever I can get for them, sometimes money, sometimes junk. I believe i could make money off of chickens if I really wanted to, but then it would become a business and not a hobby. I dont need the headache of being in business, so I think I will just keep my chickens as a hobby.

 

[crazygoatlady915]

I make some money with my hens! I sell my eggs for $4.00 a doz (people can''t get enough of those green eggs!)! But, once you add up the fees for the maintenance of the chickens, their feed being $20 a bag, and I need a bag every 3 weeks, then, there is the cod liver oil to get my eggs Omega-3, thats about $30, and I get a doz every 2 days, so that's like, $12 a week from eggs, $48 a month, and feed is ~$20 a month, so, each month, I have $28 left over, and I need that oil about every 6 months, so in that time I get $170, so in a year, I make $280!

 

[Fred's Hens]

Quote:
In a basic two column ledger, expenses go on one side and egg sales go on the other side. If one tracks every last expense, yes, even electricity and bulbs for brooding, bedding and small things that folks sometimes overlook, the real cost of buying, brooding, supplying and feeding pullets, (even if you got every last piece of equipment for free) will show that an egg business is very, very tough for the small scale operator to make a profit. It is miniscule. Making $200-300 a year would take a flock of 15-20 layers being very efficient. But, when you compute the hours and hours of labor, one's "pay" is about 20 cents an hour.

Yes, breaking even or making a tiny profit is possible. Three things. 1.) getting chicks at reduced prices. (if buying chicks) Finding super-efficient laying breeds at give-a-way prices is difficult. 2.) having a consistent feed supplier that sells feed at prices far below the typical chain "rural stores" will be necessary. 3.) having a large and loyal customer base willing to pay much more for eggs than grocery store prices.

Without the pieces of the puzzle being in place, being "profitable" is highly unlikely. Making a little pocket money is possible.

 

[kizanne]

If you ignore the original coop cost, fencing, run and such. I make enough for my eggs to be free. I raise what I consider to be free range, organic eggs which in the store here is 4.29 My family eats 2 dozen or more a week. If you look at that I'm saving $8 a week. But I have time and such in that the poster who said your labor comes to like 20 cents per hour is right.

But to me it is worth it to know exactly what goes into my eggs. I also have a garden. I can't homestead where I am (1 acre in a very nice neighborhood), but I strive to raise as much of my own food as possible with my restriction.

 

[welasharon]

I have a second job to pay for my chickens.