Topic of the Week - Managing Expenses and Saving/Making Money Keeping Poultry

[17 chickens]

Coop fees:
I want our animals to have a safe and happy place so the start up cost can be high but worth while in the long run. You figure you are going to be using the houses and coops for many of years so make it worth while at first.

Feed:
I feed our chickens layer pellets to help with the waste, We are vegetarians so I give them the scraps from vegetables the can eat every day. Another way to help with the cost is cooking them up some oatmeal every day, They love it and it is cheap I can feed all 52 of my chickens a really great meal just before the go to bed at night for .26 cents a day!

Money:
I enjoy our chickens and in return they give us wonderful eggs. I sell our eggs to locals for $3.00 a dozen and I always run out and have a waiting list for eggs. I could charge more for them but I am not a greedy person and feel that is more then a enough! I have a couple of customers who can not afford $3.00 a dozen so in return they bring me a huge stack of egg cartons they collect from family and friends and bring them to exchange for a dozen of eggs each week. This also helps with supplying eggs to other customers and I don not have to go buy egg cartons.
I put all my egg money in a extra large basket and take money from that to do the up keep for the chickens and every year take out a portion to repay for the start up cost.
I would have to say If done right you will make money on your flock every year!

 

[Teila]

Subscribing!

Coming from someone who buys eggs to scramble and feed back to her freeloaders, I am thinking this one is going to be a learning experience not a contributing experience

 

[luckied]

COOP: Both our summer coop and hen house were built from pallets, discount/free lumber from stores and anything we had around the property already, such as using branches for roosts. They were designed based on what we had not what we thought we wanted!


FEED: We only spend about .50 a day on supplemental feed, mostly winter only, we let the birds free range. They seem much more content then the neighboring chickens that are only given feed while contained in a run. What of our property is fenced in for them was only fenced as my husband collected old fencing from other locals that he did work for or when seeing someone taking out old fencing we inquired about what they were doing with and most said scrapping it so feel free to take it.
We also incorporated the greenhouse, compost, worm farm and chickens into one streamline system. Compost fed to chickens, chicken poo mixed in to compost, after it has broken down the compost is used for worm farm, worm casings used in green house, end of season green house emptied of soil and straw and given back to the chickens!

RECOUPING COST: The moment we knew we would always have enough eggs for our family we found a couple friends to sell a set amount to each week, this covers the cost of the feed we purchase. Beyond those friends any additional eggs are offered for sale to neighbors on a 1st come first serve basis and not guranteed more unless we specify.

 

[birdwrangler057]

Coop:
I built a large A-frame coop for about $200 with all new materials (we wanted to start fresh), while I built a smaller coop for my EE's from lumber I had lying around, I ended up spending about $30 on hinges, latches, corregated steel, and screws.

Feed:
For feed, I buy the $15 50lb bag of layer pellets from the feed store; that lasts about 2 weeks for my 10 hens. I also purchase the 50lb bag of scratch to add in with the regular feed for protein. For calcium, I crush my own oyster shells. Over all, I spend about $30-$40 per month in feed. I also free range them, so this contributes to their intake.

Extra money:
Once we fill up with eggs, I usually sell the extras to our neighbors and fiends for about $5 a dozen ( people will pay anything for TRUE farm fresh eggs). I am also starting to incubate this year, so I may get into selling chicks.

 

[Nardo]

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This week I would like to hear you all's thoughts and practices on managing expenses and where and how to keep expenses down and/or recoup some of your money.

Recoup some of your money. . .

My coop was recycled materials and it has worked just fine, although I had to move some walls around to get the air flow right for our Summers.
I compost and have a lot of red worms and wrigglers that the hens get. They also get whatever scraps are left over, except I don't feed them sugary or salty foods. They eat very little layer feed but it is available all day. I take it up at night because we have a constant battle with field mice. I give eggs away to people who do me a kindness or who help me out in some manner. My neighbor on one side consistently mows the back part of our property and I give him eggs quite often. We cook with them and eat them, but have not sold any yet. I throw all leaves, dead plants, prunings, compost etc. into their run every couple weeks and they turn it all to fine silt. They have an area about 70 feet by 20 feet that is sunny on one side and shaded on the other, so they can scratch around.

 

[tlzimmerman]

FEED COSTS: Keep in mind that bagged feed at the store is not the only way to feed your chickens. Different parts of the country have different agricultural practices, but many feed mills are willing to work with people as long as the order size is reasonable. You can purchased mixed feeds by the ton, and yes 2000 pounds of feed is a bunch, but not so much that 2-4 people couldn't split an order and use it even with modest flock sizes. Figuring out how to transport and store cool and dry is the biggest problem. You can put a tarp in the back of a pickup and dump feed in it, and then scoop it out with a scoop shovel. Its a pain, but I've done it a bunch of times. Good workout.

Gettin a little deeper, it is even cheaper to make your own. In my own case its not fair because I am part of a large ag operation and am surrounded by it, but I get salvage grain year round with a little work and keep it in tubs and use it as I need it. When farmers are transferring grain in the fields from combine to grain cart to truck to town, inevitably we have accidents and spill some. Most of the time its only 20-$50 worth of grain and quite a bit of work to get by scoop shovel, and then of course it has dirt and rocks in it so you can't sell it as clean grain like that, but its perfect still for chickens. $50 worth of grain is a BUNCH when it comes to chickens.....corn right now is $3.50 or 56 pounds, so $20 worth of spilled grain is several hundred pounds and the farmers will be glad to have it out of their field if you ask. You can also find ground piles in our area when the elevators get full they pile it on the ground and then clean it up later, that leave waste they pile up to the side when they pick it up, and if you ask you can usually get permission to take that because they are going to put it in the landfill. There is a lot of grain not fit to feed in those piles, but plenty of good too if you are willing to dig through them.

Of course you can't just feed straight grain, but with a little work you can get bagged soybean meal and mix it with other protein sources and supplement your mixed rations and really cheapen them up. The beauty of chickens is they will eat almost anything, so you can use what you have at the time and make something work. Currently we have distillers grains for the cattle, and chickens LOVE LOVE LOVE them and they are a very good protein source.

My ration I am feeding my chickens every day right now is 7 cents a pound if I was paying for the grain...and I am using free grain I scooped out of the fields (wheat, corn, and milo). Actual cost is probably under 5 cents a pound, my chickens eat 1/4 pound or less a day, so it is pretty reasonable right now to feed them. Compare that to 20+ cents a pound for buying bagged at the feed store, and if I put the 2 side by side they eat mine first. I have to watch my vitamins and supplement a little b in the water from time to time, but its worth it.

 

[Chic Rustler]

As far as feed goes, it pays to know a farmer. I feed mine laying pellets and mixed grain. Its mostly wheat and roasted soy beans and corn but i also get milo sometimes. I get it for free usually. They scoop up any grain that falls on the ground and put it in buckets for me. I keep grit and oyster shells available at all times. I think i spent $30 last month on feed because i also buy grower crumbles for the chicks. Total flock today is 11 grown birds, 16 juveniles, and 30 chicks.


For money we sell eggs for $3 a dozen and make about $9 a week. Im hoping to sell some pullets this summer and help recover funds as well. Right now we are far from turning a profit....i have well over $1000 tied up in the coop, run and birds. But we just started a few months ago

 

[Folly's place]

I've come late here, and it's all been said already! I'd add that skimping on feed quality is poor husbandry, and that having a safe coop and run will save in the long (and short!) run, in chicken deaths and coop repairs. Mary

 

[Stephine]

Oh, dear, building the coop cost a fortune and I don't know how someone could ever come out ahead selling older chickens, but these few things help:
A no waste feeder and feeding method:
I have a long trough with a lip that they can not bill the feed out of. I feed Scratch and Peck and when the fines accumulate at the bottom after a few days, I dump those into a large dog bowl and mix with water and a bit if milf, yoghurt or cottage cheese and feed it to them - they eat every bit of their (expensive) feed.
They free range part time and need maybe quarter less feed for that.
I sell eggs at $10 for a dozen to friends and acquaintances and people buy them because they taste so much better than any other eggs they can buy.

 

[South OH Chicks]

I built my coops with used lumber. Someone on craigslist advertised free lumber from a deck they tore down. I went and got a truck full and built two coops out of it. I just had to pay for siding and wire for the floor. A friend of mine gave me the metal for the roof. I feed my chickens back egg shells for calcium and I use sand and gravel from the creek that runs through our property for grit. I have messed with sprouting and have not gotten a good system together yet, but it will be up and running by the summer. I free range as much as possible. I have a Rottweiler and Daschund for predator control. Just some suggestions.