The April 2021 Local Feed Prices Thread

[rosemarythyme]

Those prices would crush me. I'm feeding 50# a week, and happy that's all it is. Actually, I might be feeding more than 50# a week, I'm pulling from three bags right now to blend my own. Plus goats. My last 500# of feed was just over $100, and I'm break even with egg and chick sales, less the cost of licensing.

Scary thing is it's not even the most expensive chicken feed available at the store, and this store's prices are more reasonable than some others near me (the same grower goes for close to $38 at another store).

 

[LadiesAndJane]

Purina Flock Raiser at local feed store:
50 lbs for $23. This may sound steep, but everything has to be sent over here by ship. On Amazon it is over twice this price at $59.
Get my chick crumble on Amazon:
ManaPro medicated chick crumble around $5 for a 5 lb. bag.
Yep, expensive having chickens here (or pretty much anything else).

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Hmmm, at a 1/4# feed per day, one 50# bag is 200 days of food. If a chicken lays 4 days out of 5 (almost 300 eggs per year, not unproductive), that's 160 eggs per bag of food, or about 13 dozen. If you don't have to buy cartons, you need $3/dozen to cover feed costs. If you need cartons, that $4/doz to break even on feed. Except you need to raise them up to laying age, that's a 40# bag of grower, and pay for your bird stock as well, if you aren't hatching your own. Assuming you get a year of lay +, that's 40# grower plus 100# adult = $100, divided by 25 dozen eggs (breakage, winter, replacements) = $5/dozen with cartons.

and I've not calculated licensing...

Yeah, glad I'm not in your neck of the woods. I can get $2.50/doz, $5/30, buyer provides the container (helps immensely). and of course I breed my own replacements. But I also can't claim large/extra large eggs.

 

[alwaystj9]

We eat most of my eggs at work. I keep enough for household use and supply some older folks who sincerely appreciate farm eggs.
The guys at work take my eggs for granted until I have vacation and they have to eat pale, store bought eggs for a week!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

We eat most of my eggs at work. I keep enough for household use and supply some older folks who sincerely appreciate farm eggs.
The guys at work take my eggs for granted until I have vacation and they have to eat pale, store bought eggs for a week!

This past year, I've donated 100s of eggs (maybe a couple thousands) to the local school board employees, an elderly neighbor up the way who was born in a log cabin nearby most of a hundred years ago, and a couple down the street barely getting by. Good neighbors all, what they've offered in support and advice more than pays for the hundreds of eggs they've taken off my hands this year.

My wife and I sure could not have eaten them all.

 

[rosemarythyme]

Yeah, glad I'm not in your neck of the woods. I can get $2.50/doz, $5/30, buyer provides the container (helps immensely). and of course I breed my own replacements. But I also can't claim large/extra large eggs.

Guess it wouldn't surprise you, but last time I had to buy eggs, I was paying up to $8 a dozen in winter. Obviously those aren't run of the mill grocery store eggs, but still... steep!

 

[3xhhheather]

$30.50/50# organic soy free from a local mill. I ferment so it helps stretch the feed a bit. Just made the switch this month so I’m still waiting to see if should stick with it.

 

[alwaystj9]

Curiously wondering how much extra time/effort/equipment goes into fermenting the feed? I have more time/effort constraints than I have $ issues right now.
In South Louisiana I have spent considerable effort trying to keep things from fermenting -- my ancient, toothless horse has to have soaked alfalfa and if I wet it a 30 hours ahead of her eating it, it starts to ferment. I often have to bring corn into the house in July-August-September because the humidity condensation has caused me problems.

 

[KingD]

I pay £9 for a 20kg bag of layers feed.
British product

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Curiously wondering how much extra time/effort/equipment goes into fermenting the feed? I have more time/effort constraints than I have $ issues right now.
In South Louisiana I have spent considerable effort trying to keep things from fermenting -- my ancient, toothless horse has to have soaked alfalfa and if I wet it a 30 hours ahead of her eating it, it starts to ferment. I often have to bring corn into the house in July-August-September because the humidity condensation has caused me problems.

Here in N FL Panhandle/Wiregrass, like you, I can have fermented feed in about a day. Water is just outside the barn, so fill the feed buckets, add water, stir, lid, wait. Adds about 5 min to the process. I have not found, contra claims of others, that it significantly stretches the food, though i do feed either wet mash or fermented (depending on when I prepared it) each evening.

My birds free range, and my flock (see Sig, below) is "varied", so there are just too many variables in my personal equation to consider my experience more than a possibly interesting anecdote.