The Cost of Raising Chickens

[kateseidel]

It's a good thing I am doing this for reasons other than money! By my calculations, it will take approximately 450 DOZEN eggs to make up for what I have spent up to this point. I sound like one of those commercials: Chicken coop - $1,500, chicken stuff - $400, watching the peepers grow up - priceless!!

 

[teach1rusl]

Money well spent, as I'm sure you know!!

Yeah...DH and I joked about selling our first year of eggs for $20 a dozen...lol. I look at it as them SAVING me $100 a pop on therapy sessions though, cause chicken therapy is the BEST!

 

[lilblessings5]

we just did those same calculations after purchasing a new 12x16 barn for my growing flock. My husband doesn't understand the enjoyment out of it but he does understand "you don't have to buy many any birthday/christmas gifts for a long time"

Enjoy your birds.

 

[Mahlzeit]

Haha how many chickens do you have? 450 dozen are laid faster than you think

 

[Deanner03]

I stopped doing that math a while ago. I knew it was a bad idea.

 

[ChickenMama18]

Quote:
I'm with ya!

 

[Shannon's Chix]

Quote:
I'm with ya!

Agreed! However, I have to say...once we (well, dh really) finally got it right with the FOURTH coop,

...the price is not bad now. Getting it right with the coop and run took the most money for sure!

 

[Tala]

The initial setup is the worst part. I remember that my 6 chicks from TSC cost me dang near $60 after a heat lamp and several wattages of bulbs, feeders, waterers, ETC.
Now that I've got all that stuff, the only cost for additional chicks is the consumables like pine pellets and feed.

I also built my 8x8 coop for less than $100 by using a lot of recycled materials - the main costs were a 6ft chainlink gate and Quickcrete for the corner posts.

 

[beckymom3]

You can really cut costs by raising chickens you hatched from fertile eggs bought at the grocery store! You know those eggs come from good layers!

 

[Carenm]

So true! That first week was a killer on the bank account. material to build a coop, buying stuff for the brooder, chick food, 3 different lights.

But, watching my kids enjoy them is priceless.

My kids thought chicks had teeth. They had no idea how a chicken digests its food so I had to show them and now they are telling others, lol.

Fun fun!