The true cost of backyard eggs!

[TipsyDog]

I need to get 13,333 eggs before they cost the same as the $1.49 per dozen store bought eggs. Since I just started this year, I'm harvesting $8 eggs right now.

 

[Happy Chooks]

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Me too. I'm not figuring out the EXACT cost though. I don't want to know, I just want to enjoy my chicken hobby.

 

[TipsyDog]

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Me too. I'm not figuring out the EXACT cost though. I don't want to know, I just want to enjoy my chicken hobby.

I just rounded it out, I'm sure I spent much more

I agree though - I enjoy the hobby. I really don't care how much it costs. I just love my animals and they keep me busy and entertained.
I do seem to have a problem giving eggs away. They are little treasures to me and I fear no one else will appreciate them as much as I do!

 

[ScrambledAcresFarm]

Well, I have 30 acres, 16 ponds and all the wildlife 1 person could ever want. This allows me the opportunity to let my chickens grace from sun up til sun down all spring, summer and fall. Come late fall, I sell them. This pays for the winter feed I need to feed my next layers who have been grazing all summer also. I rotate, keeping fresh layers and avoiding out of pocket expences! Taa dah!

 

[cluckcluck42]

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I agree. I choose not to think about the money we put into the coop, even though we used recycled materials. Not to mention the waterer, food, hens, etc. And god help me, I cant resist giving the chickens treats so I raid our fridge every other day to treat the ladies. I know I will grow out of this, but right now I am just so amused with them it';s a great time watching them gobble things down. I may also be trying to get them to like me, if I need food to do so, well thats okay. lol.

It really is worth it to have that connection with your food.

 

[cluckcluck42]

Also the only reason eggs are that price in stores is because they overcrowd and overmedicate, the poor birds are in tiny cages their whole lives. They have a low cost of operation because they are big companies doing this in big amounts. We cant imagine having the same cost efficiency as them. We treat our chickens well, and they have a good quality of life. It simply costs more to do anything right, something Big Corps don't care about.

Truly not a far comparison, imo.

 

[ScrambledAcresFarm]

Right now in southern Missouri, eggs are .69 a dozen!

 

[werecatrising]

I haven't sat down and calculated, but I think I am doing well. I probably spend about $15 a month on feed. I spent about $10 building the coop. I scrounged up the feeders, next boxes, etc.
I think more about the amount of money I would be spending if I had to buy eggs. I use a lot. I have a dog I have to home cook for. Between the dog, myself, and my husband we go through about 2 dozen a week. A dozen eggs go for 3-4 dollars here. So I figure I am breaking even.

Only about half of my birds are of laying age. I figure once they are all laying, I can sell a few and probably cover the cost of feed.

 

[Thortherooster]

but....
they amazingness to know where your eggs are coming from, from healthy amazing chickens that you have watch grow up before your eyes....makes them 100 percent priceless...the joy in everything about them it cancels all of that cost out....!!! like kids, it all works out in the end..

happy new year...!!!

 

[savingdogs]

Wow, lots of you have kept much better track of what you have spent on your chickens. We don't know the exact cost of our eggs. While my husband was extremely ingenious and used mostly things lying around here to construct the coop, he did have to buy some lumbar and some hardware and a few other things. We also got waterers for when they were little chicks and then had to work out a system for them as big birds, and of course we have invested in their food and lots of little things along the way. We paid 50.00 for our flock of what is now 18 (as chicks) at the feed store.

We find we like buying them treats like flock blocks and sunflower seeds and I also enjoy giving them things like veggie ends and stale bread, leftovers we didn't get to eat, freezer burnt things, unpopular dishes, etc, that otherwise would have made me crazy to throw away because of the waste. I feel that is turning trash into eggs. I also love them eating the bugs. I haven't used their poo as fertilizer yet, but I'm throwing it in my compost pile over the winter to use in the spring so I'll have to let y'all know about that next year. But fertilizer is not cheap and the store is far away. Chicken poo is real close. All these things are hard to measure especially with the price of gas.

They have been extremely entertaining and what, after all, do people pay for entertainment these days, especially when it is good clean fun (except possibly the behavior of my roo)? Everyone in the family enjoys them and I have teenagers, so that is quite a feat to find something we can all do together like this and isn't measurable. I find that my elderly mother loves hearing my chicken antic stories and the people who get my eggs think I have the best eggs in the world, so alot of good comes of it. the 85 year old, the 13 year old and me the 50 year old all laugh at the something simple like feeding them a few grapes or a bowl of rice.

I used eggs as Christmas gifts this year in the baskets I gave away and everyone absolutely loved them. What a conversation starter! I decorated the cartons in some cases or put them into something creative. I found this extremely easy to do and it was so well received I hope I can do it again every year. Something that makes Christmas shopping so much easier for me is certainly of value as well. So alot of things about chickens are hard to measure in a per-egg price. The eggs are different and it is hard to compare them with those bland white things from the store other than you can make omelettes with both.

The longer you keep chickens the cheaper the eggs are so we hope they can pay for their layer pellets is our goal in selling some of the eggs.