Pre-Chicken Owning Questions... $0 Feed Bill?

With 3-5 chickens you will likely only get about a dozen eggs a week give or take, with them taking time off on really hot days and in the winter. You can grow some supplemental feed, but of course you will have to buy the seeds and the chickens will eat a lot. You can reduce feed bill by letting them range provided there are adequate greens and bugs. But it's really not fair to the birds to keep them without feeding layer feed - they need the calcium and nutrients. I'd do some more research before you get chickens - most small flock owners keep them as pets and you will spend a lot more on them than you think. I'm not trying to be rude, just making sure you have realistic expectations for the safety of the birds as well as your own welfare. It's much cheaper to buy a dozen eggs at the store than to raise your own. Good luck...

x2 - excellent advice!
 
Eggs for around $3 a dozen here at the market which I think is cheap and could probably get $4 without too much fuss. I do know someone about 30 minutes away who gets $6-9 per dozen. I'm wanting to go the free range and all organic route. You can really see the difference in the yolk and in the taste and the better they taste the more you can charge. :) Found another thread that was helpful too. I did a search for "cheap" LOL and it came up. Something like "Feeding chickens for cheap". Anyhow, I appreciate the help and insights! It's helping me formulate my plan of attack!
 
You can also soak grain In water for 12 hours or sprout them I have found that even soaking the grain for 12 hours makes a big difference in the amount of in the amount of food as in the grain got 50% bigger

Doesn't that just increase the size though? You wouldn't be adding any value to it as far as nutrients go. Right?
 
Organic feed will run you about double the cost of the regular feed. Or at least it does in my area. But shhhhhhh....don't tell my husband!
 
Ha!!! I hear ya. I have a portion of our acreage allowed for my 'animals and plants and sh*t' but her wants the rest of the yard for the ATV! LMAO!!! And if I buy something seemingly expensive... it's always on 'sale' or 'clearance'. ;)
 
In my area, you can often pick up free chickens on CL. As we moved into the winter months, people start to lose the interest in their little chicken experiment and don't want to deal with them in the snow.

Chickens are also little garbage cans and you can feed them a ton of non traditional chicken feed. Mine helped me clean out a cupboard yesterday and got graham crackers, grits, oat bran, peanut butter, red bell peppers and egg shells. They cleaned it all up. They typically get about 2# of fresh produce a day, 2-3 hours of free ranging and they each eat about 3 oz of layer a day (20# a week for 16 standard chickens). At $19 for 50#, each chicken eats $.07 worth of store bought feed a day. If you want to go organic, than the treats much be organic, the feed must be organic and they need to be fed that way from day one. Organic feed is in the $35/50# range. You will feed much more because they will get a larger portion of their diet from the feed. Your cost will be closer to $0.25 per day.

It would be hard to meet their nutritional needs without having to buy something. They will be lacking in some minerals (notably Ca), vitamins and protein if they get a large portion of their diet from kitchen scraps and from free ranging.
 

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