New and considering getting a few laying hens

[noodleroo]

In my opinion only, if you live in town and have just enough room for a few chickens, you have to want them for the joy of having chickens The benefit of having them is watching them, holding and petting them (if you want to), feeding & watering them, cleaning up after them and having the satisfaction of knowing that the eggs you get will be healthy. Once you buy or build the coop, the feed costs will be no more than having a cat or dog to feed. You have to think of the situation as having more pets, with benefits...not profits....

 

[LMS]

I should have been more clear -- I'm definitely not in it for the money! Esp not with only having 2-3 hens. But if we're paying the lady in the next town $4/dozen for eggs from her chickens, and it's going to cost us $12/dozen to raise our own, maybe it's not such a good idea. I just don't know enough about chickens yet to say that having them as pets will make it all worth it -- we're looking for ways to be more self-sustaining, and for ways to ensure our food is humanely raised and as clean as possible. I'm not an egg person. I mostly use them for baking, and my son eats them a few times a week. Until I started buying fresh eggs from our egg lady in the next town... Now I'm a scrambled egg addict and the supermarket eggs just don't cut it!

 

[gryeyes]

Oh, by all means, get yourself 3 hens. Well, build or buy them a coop, first. And a secure run (even if you decide you might want to let them free range, you'd need a run).

I FIRST considered 4, maybe 6 chickens for the fertilizer, knew I'd make pets out of them, and thought getting eggs too was a good benefit. I've since decided I'd keep chickens even if they never laid another egg for me. They're just incredibly quirky yard pets, each with its own personality and behavior traits.

I have 8 layers right now, a mature rooster, several juvenile chickens and two ducks. I usually get 6 chicken eggs a day in a variety of colors, and I sell some via word of mouth to people at work. (Some I give away - there are special people who aren't "customers.")

The biggest benefit has been the joy of an afternoon's observation of the flock dynamics. Happy chickens make the most calming sounds! Running chickens are just a hoot to watch - I cannot help but laugh to see this or that pullet tearing headlong across the yard towards something. Watching a chicken sun bathe - or dust bathe! - makes me smile. The rooster's posturing, or his courtship dance, or the way he keeps watch over his girls is simply adorable.

And the eggs ARE great.

 

[noodleroo]

Quote:
Yep, what gryeyes said!

 

[secuono]

So chickens only lay for 2 years? This kind of changes my mind on getting any at all. It would be far cheaper to buy eggs at the store than pay for shipping, coop, feeders, DE, bedding, fencing, feed!
How good are they at eating bugs like ticks and the such??

 

[gryeyes]

No, no, no, no! Chickens do their BEST laying the first two years of their lives. Then they start to slow down.

They're absolutely great for bugs, especially if you let them free range. Otherwise, they just catch what gets into their run, if you keep them in a run all the time.

 

[chicken nanny]

Chickens will eat all or most bugs, ants, worms, if they can run lose will be very healthy for them. Of coarse fire ants are not good they will get bitten by ants.. They also eat mice, small rats. are very good garbage eaters, They will eat all dinner table scraps.... Gl with your adventure with chickens. I LOVE ALL 28 OF MINE

 

[FarmerJamie]

Quote:
Couple of quick thoughts
- $4/dozen seems a little steep, we have a small glut of local egg producers around here lately, I just saw a "Brown Eggs/$1.50 per doz" sign this afternoon
- don't get caught up on the cost/benefit analysis. I built my 4x8 coop and 10'x50' netted run for a couple hundred dollars, since I was starting from scratch, but now it's paid for
- mine girls get a little bit of commercial feed each day, but a ton of kitchen scraps and free ranging
- I only ran a heat lamp in the coop over the winter, but they seemed to be okay with just that, no other electicity costs
- even raising meaties a couple of times per year, the cost isn't too terribly over the cost from the store, but it's soooo much tastier.

In the end, the positives you mention. in addition to teaching the next generation about real food production - a smile on a kid's face "ooooo, the egg is still WARM" is priceless. Any of the kids' friends who come over, insist on visiting the coop to collect eggs. I'm the cool dad!

 

[secuono]

So if I had 7-8 hens, I would still have eggs to make a dozen every...week, 2 weeks?
What if I had a mix of regular size hens & Bantams, would they get along? If I had a regular roster or a Bantam roster, would he be fine with the other sized hens/breed ok?
They would free range 2acres almost all day long.

 

[bakerjw]

Beware chicken "fuzzy" math. It will get away from you if you are not careful.

I started with 8 sex link pullets from TSC. Within 2 months I had picked up 5 Silver Sebrights (cute little bantams) and 5 White Leghorns. I am planning on growing a flock of WL and making new roos into capons.

I suspect that my first egg will be worth a good $500.00 or so. There was the cost to build the tractor with attached run. The electric fence system for protecting the tractor. Then there is the run up in the back yard with a yet to be built coop and the electric fence charger to protect it from predators. The costs all add up.

But in the end I will be getting at least 2 to 3 dozen eggs a week. I will be in control of what goes into the birds who make the eggs. I should have some good capons in a year or so. I will have some self sufficiency over our food supply. It is an investment in ourselves.

Had I known how much fun it was to have chickens I'd have done it years ago. They do some of the funniest things imaginable. Like when I let my girls out of the tractor for a bit of free ranging. God forbid that we have another moth incident. A flying moth can certainly provide the stimulus needed to cause a handful of chickens to run wildly around the yard much to the chagrin of one chicken owner.

Long and short of it is that they are worth it imho.

And think of the wonderment of having friends with small children visit for dinner and providing them with their own tiny bantam deviled eggs.