New member and to all of it.

[9990rusty]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the group AND to raising chickens. Is it worth raising chickens financially? The health benefits are understood as you can control what they eat but we have a limited budget so it must be a overall money saver. A friend gave us a coop that will hold four or five in the roost so for now that's the max number we can raise. What do you folks think? p.s. - we live in the tampa bay area of florida and i can't find where to buy chicks or chickens.

 

[matt44644]

 

[sunflour]

Hello and welcome.

Having your own small flock will not save you money. It is far cheaper just to buy eggs. Maybe you should be looking at who in your area sells organic or free range eggs instead.

I am sorry if this is not the opinion you seek. But the rewards of raising your own small flock are not financial.

 

[Yorkshire Coop]

Hi
Glad you could join the flock! As above with sunflour its not as cheap keeping chickens as against buying just eggs. Here is a nice article for you to check out it's a great read all about the cost of keeping your own flock https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/how-much-does-it-cost-to-raise-backyard-chickens

Wishing you the very best of luck

 

[TwoCrows]

Hello there and welcome to BYC!

Most feed stores carry chicks this time of year so call around and see if anyone nearby has any. Be careful of straight run bins as these will have roosters in them, that is if you don't want any roos. Pick from the pullet bins instead. (hens)

As for space requirements, each bird needs 4 to 5 square feet per bird in the coop and 10 square feet per bird in the run. Any less in the coop or run and they are going to fight and can injure each other.

Stop by our learning center for lots of good articles on all the aspects of keeping chickens..https://www.backyardchickens.com/atype/1/Learning_Center

Great to have you aboard and welcome to our flock!

 

[BantamLover21]

I'm glad you joined us!

X2 on sunflour. Raising chickens is an enjoyable and rewarding hobby, but it is not very cheap.

 

[Wyandottes7]

Welcome to BYC!

I'm glad you joined.

In most cases, keeping chickens will not save you money. Really, the only way you can make money with chickens is to raise large numbers of them, like the commercial industries (or, raising rare breeds and selling them). So, if you want to keep chickens in order to save money, it may not work out.

As Sunflour said, the benefits of keeping your own backyard flock aren't financial- they are knowing what your are eating and enjoying your birds personalities.

 

[Ol Grey Mare]

X 2 to TwoCrows and Sunflour.

Perhaps you can post a photo or two of the coop you were given and we can see what you are starting with and what your initial costs for any sort of improvements, etc might be as well as the appropriate number of birds (many coops come with grossly overestimated numbers of birds it should house). The good news is, if the coop is in good shape and you don't have a lot of initial work to do to get it up and ready for a new flock that will help eliminate a good portion of the initial expense of getting into chicken keeping - which will help keep costs down for you in this venture.

 

[Book Em Danno25]

 

[ChickyChickens]

Welcome to BYC!!! There are loads of members on here…so if you have ANY questions…just ASK!!!

Hope you have loads of fun and all your answers answered here on BYC the BEST CHICKEN KEEPING FORUM on EARTH!!