How to keep chickens cheap?

[Animals970]

Hi, I've always known that chickens were pretty expensive, but now I don't know.... You see, I'm gonna get really serious with my rabbits (like breeding and all that jazz) and I was getting some more chicks this spring, but now I don't know if I can afford more chickens than I already have.

I have 19 chickens as of right now, and they are laying but $2 a dozen doesn't pay the feed bill. My question is, 'How do y'all keep chickens for cheaper?'. Do you feed them scraps?, Free range? What?

Thanks,
~Animals970~

 

[azelgin]

My question is, 'How do y'all keep chickens for cheaper?'. Do you feed them scraps?, Free range? What?

Thanks,
~Animals970~

Yes, yes and yes.
I also raised egg prices to $3 a dozen. People are more than willing to pay more for eggs from free range chickens. The yolks have more color. The eggs have more taste. I have customers that will no longer buy grocery store eggs. One of the neighbors main residence is in Phoenix. They take home all I have, sometimes 10 dozen, when they go back to the city.

 

[Animals970]

So, raise egg cost's to $3 ?

 

[Ridgerunner]

You’ve hit the problem. If we are buying all their feed there is no way we can compete with the commercial operations. They are just too efficient.

Once you get past the costs of setting up housing, feeders, waterers, and all that stuff food is the big ongoing expense. So what can you do?

Can you charge more for your eggs? Is there something special about them that your customers will pay more for? Organic, free range, or something like that. Maybe get blue or green egg layers.

The commercial operators use chickens specifically bred for egg laying. They are bred to lay fairly large eggs. Those hybrids are small in body so they don’t use a lot of feed to maintain a big body. They are really efficient at converting feed to eggs. They don’t have much meat on them if you want to eat them, but you can still get a meal out of them if you cook them right.

They manage their environment. They use lights and feed to keep them from starting laying until they are mature enough to lay, then they up the length of day to start them laying. They strive to keep a stress-free environment so they don’t go into a molt and stop laying or so they don’t lay abnormal eggs. When the flock production drops from continuous egg-laying to the point it becomes non-profitable, they either replace all the hens or force a molt.

They don’t overfeed them. They give them a high protein Starter to get them off to a good start, but soon switch to a lower protein (and less expensive) Grower to maintain the best rate of growth coupled with maturity. The lower protein feed slows their rate of growth and delays start of egg production along with the lights. They want their chickens mature enough so their bodies can support laying those larger eggs hey are bred to lay without medical problems. When they start to lay, they feed a Layer that has the right amount of protein to support them laying the large eggs but they don’t provide a high protein feed, probably somewhere in the upper 15% almost 16% range. Not only is higher protein feed more expensive, it encourages them to lay bigger eggs. With their smaller more efficient bodies, those extra-large eggs a can lead to medical problems.

They have the whole process down to a science. That’s why they are so efficient. I went through most of that so you can maybe pick up a hint of something that might help you.

What else can you do to help make yourself more efficient? Look around at mills that grind their own feed instead of buying over the counter. 19 hens does not make you a volume dealer but maybe you can get a break on feed costs. Your county extension agent should be able to tell you where the nearest mills are.

Grow as much of the food as you can. This is a two edged sword. They need a balanced diet so if you give them too much of one thing you are upsetting that balance. There are some experts on here that can give you a lot of help on that. I don’t do that so I can’t.

Letting them free range can help. Let them find their own food. That’s been the traditional model for small farmers keeping a flock to feed the family for thousands of years. They generally don’t even feed them in the good weather months because they don’t have to spend that money. But you may have predator losses if you do that. You might be able to manage that with a dog or fencing, but some losses are likely. A lot of that depend on your quality of forage too. If all you have is a manicured lawn they are not going to get a huge amount of variety. Small farms generally provide different grasses and weeds, grass and weed seeds, dead vegetation like decaying leaves in a woodlot, and all kinds of creepy crawlies for them to eat. How much this can help you depends on your quality of forage and your predator pressure.

Some people on here do make a profit on their eggs, but it takes some work and fine tuning to get a system that works for them. It’s a challenge. Good luck finding yours!

 

[Animals970]

OMG, thanks for typing all of that. So, what type of breeds should I get?, Are white leghorns the best? or what?

 

[azelgin]

Leghorns are great layers, but people have the notion that brown eggs are farm eggs. I doubt you'll be able to charge what you need to, for the white Leghorn eggs, to stay even on your costs.

 

[Animals970]

So, what breeds would you suggest?

 

[Hooligans7]

So, raise egg cost's to $3 ?

Although I'm sure that $3 a dozen for your eggs would be worth the price, a 50% increase 'overnight' could be alarming (or off-putting) to your customers. You might increase the price to $2.50 and explain that feed prices have increased.

If anyone thinks you're gouging, explain that 'Eggland's Best' eggs are selling for that price and yours are far better, so no one should get shook up about that. If you need to go to $3 per dozen, you might wait a few months, monitor the overall egg market, and see what the market will bear.

One more thing, and this is universal. Customers are willing to pay more for *any* product or service when the vendor or provider has a great-looking or 'fancy' business. For example, tests have proven that customers dining in a fancy restaurant are convinced that the lousy instant coffee they were served tastes wonderful and well worth the $5 price. Why? Because it is served in a Waterford China cup and saucer in a fancy restaurant! NO other reason. Fascinating, no?

 

[azelgin]

I've heard good things about the Red Sexlinks you already have. My best brown egg layers in my flock are NH Reds. I'm sure there are better breeds, but they are also great foragers. they're the first into the fields in the morning and I've yet to have one go broody, which, if you want eggs, is a major pain in the butt. The EE don't produce as well as some of the others, but they are smaller, eat less feed, lay consistently through the winter and people LOVE the colored eggs. I have some Black Austroplorps, which I had read were not broody. Not so, in my case. I have some French Marans, which I was hoping would give a darker brown egg, also not happening.
I got rid of my Wyandottes and standard Orpingtons. I also have a lot of mutts, all laying brown, or, colored eggs.

 

[azelgin]

Although I'm sure that $3 a dozen for your eggs would be worth the price, a 50% increase 'overnight' could be alarming (or off-putting) to your customers. You might increase the price to $2.50 and explain that feed prices have increased.

This is what I did. When I told my customers I was thinking of getting out of the egg business, since they don't lay well during the winter, and feed prices never came down from the increases a while back, they offered to pay $3.