How much do you spend per month on feed for your small flock???

[jennh]

I have 13 hens, two roos. I average about 1-1/2 bags of Layena pellets a month at about $12 per bag. I do feed them BOSS with mixed seed, but that's about $12 a month. My girl's free range a lot , so that helps keep feed costs down. Lately I've been feeding pumpkins that I scarfed from people who were just going to throw them out. They get left over pancakes every Sunday, and sometimes leftovers during the week, but that's not very often. Also if I have any stale bread, they get that. My girls are pretty cheap to feed. I think the cost depends alot on whether you free range or not.

Jen

 

[chicken_crazy93]

I have 6 banty's, 5 big stock rooster's & 16 big stock hens & I feed 200lbs. of game bird 17% every month. It's $11.00 a 50lb bag so if my math is right I spend around $45.00 a month on feed. I'm gonna say around $20.00 a month on treats & supplements in the winter months. I raise my chickens for pure enjoyment so if I get one egg a day or 15, I'm happy & no amount of money can equal happiness. Soooo...., I'm gonna say that it doesn't cost me anything to feed my chickens. If anything, they're payin me.

 

[HEChicken]

For me, the girls do pay for themselves and I get free eggs. I track all of my expenses and income on Steve's chicken tracker. The number of chickens I have has varied over the year. Over the summer I had 8 laying hens. I'm now down to 5 laying hens and 5 9-week old chicks, so my feed expenses are higher while the number of eggs I am getting is lower due to molt, so it would probably be best to give you my "bottom line". For 2010, the chicken tracker tells me I made $2.88 a month profit. This means that after ALL the expenses and ALL the income were calculated, I came out ahead. What it doesn't track is that every egg my family ate was FREE because my customers provided enough income to purchase all of the feed.

 

[annie3001]

hello. not sure if this is considered a small flock, but we have 10 chickens. i spent about 30.00 a month of feed and hay.

 

[sutillman]

Since I know my husband does'nt know how to turn on a computer and won't read this I'll say I have around 65 birds. I spend about $60 a month on feed. Of course you have to figure in bedding, meds, housing, scratch, etc. So far I give most of my eggs away. If I figured everything in my eggs would probably cost $100 a piece so far!!!

 

[Fred's Hens]

I believe many posts make the point that it costs roughly a dollar a month to keep a bird.

However, I believe this varies by region, as the longer snow is on the ground, those of us in the far northern climes, cannot range our birds for almost 5 months. During these 5 months, the true costs are much closer to $1.50 per bird. The fact that they eat more to keep warm contributes to this.

I am not "brand" loyal on the layer pellets. Sometimes one can save a buck by selecting DuMOR, Armada or other "house brand" over Purina. My hens shift back and forth without any issue whatsoever. Scratch at $9.50 per 50# isn't a great feed value, imho. I closely limit its use.

Bedding and electricity for bowl heaters are extra.

 

[kentucky jay]

im pretty new to this but here it is , i have 9 chickens , in the first month i've used a 50 lb bag of layer mash , im getting some layer pellets instead of mash ( too much waist ) i paid 8.75 for the 50 lb bag of mash , i also bought a 50 lb bag of corn ( i've only used about 2 pounds maybe 3 of corn in a month )

 

[woodmort]

Ignoring the initial cost of the birds and the starter/grower it took to get them up to laying size and my time tending them, I'm spending about $2 a day in feed and averaging 2.5 dozen eggs from 40 laying hens. Since I sell my eggs--when I can--for $2 a dozen I'm making a profit over my feed costs at this point. (I'm also considering that the eggs my family eats--which are a considerable number--at $2 a dozen as well.) The problem will come when they go into moult and I'm again putting feed into them with no return.

 

[kla37]

I have 8 chickens and spend about $14 a month on layer crumbles and $7 on scratch. They also get kitchen scraps and weeds and bugs.

 

[mkearsley]

I only have 4 hens, two are currently laying (one has an egg a day, the other an egg every other day). I can sell a dozen eggs for $3 each. I pay about $21 for a 50 lb bag of 20% protein feed. It takes a month and a half to two months to go through the whole bag. I also feed a handful of BOSS (at $5/bag, bought it last month & I still have 1/2 of it). I also have oyster shells, which are about $8/bag, and I bought that over the summer, still 1/2 left. So, grand total would be roughly $14/month. My birds free-range all day, I feed them scraps once in a while. If you wanted to include the intial set-up costs, that'd be about $100 for the coop, $6 for the hens (not counting the 6 rooster chicks I raised & gave away), and about $40 for the feeders & waterers. Oh, I forgot the straw bedding, that was $7/bale, and a bale lasted for 3 months.

So, if the egg-laying is maintained, I can make about $12 a month with two layers, and spend about $16/month during the winter. However, during the summer, I get three eggs a day, the feed cost is cut in half, as is the bedding. So during the summer, I can make about $20/month, with costs being closer to $8/month because of the free-ranging & foraging. During the summer they get a lot more scraps from fresh veggies & fruit, too.