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

[dunnmom]

I ferment pellet feed instead of grains for my hens. I use about 3 cups dry pellet for each day's worth for my 6 Buffs. I had to ask someone who does it how much dry feed to use because most sites use dry grain measurements instead of pellets. I supplement their feed with garden and lawn weeds when they are plentiful because mine don't free-range, but always offer the feed in the morning, weeds in the afternoon. They eat all of the feed and sometimes all of the weeds, too. They maintain a healthy weight so far on this diet.

 

[GardenJen77]

I too recommend building a strong coop as predator proof as possible. It will pay off over the years. I now use my flimsy prefab coop for a broody w her chicks. It is surrounded by fencing and covered on top. That's the only way to keep it from dismantling due to weather. My flock loves scratch grains, so I buy a bag for the winter. The rest of the time they eat grass and bugs in the garden, so don't buy treats for them. My flock helps me a lot by eating the bugs in the garden and I give them some of our vegetables as payment for their service

I sell eggs at $3.50/dozen to pay for my flock's organic feed, but I often run into this situation: people I know well (and not so well love to have the eggs for free, but won't buy them. I think I'm selling them for a very reasonable price, but it seems people expect to get eggs for free because they know me and are somewhat surprised to be charged for them. If anyone here has been in the same situation, I'd appreciate some advice.
As to make extra money, I have a small flock so I'll be happy just to break even.

I too have the same problems actually selling eggs. People want something for nothing. They just figure you have extra eggs that you NEED to give away, so why are you charging for them?? Luckily, now I have one customer who came up to me and told me she would GLADLY pay for my eggs, because they are fresh and organic, and she will be a regular buyer.

 

[Hillaire]

I have finally gotten to the point where I can sell eggs (I have 10 bantam cochins). I get enough for my family which is about a dozen and a half a week and can sell 1 or 2 dozen... it isn't much of a return yet but I have poults growing and will be laying by fall. I also have sold any birds that are not the temperament I want for a decent rate (cochin bantam roosters actually sell pretty well) any cockerals I get from the chicks I have growing now will be sold as well. I also watch how much my flock consumes daily as to not over feed which causes less waste

 

[poodlechicks]

Thanks for the great advice, lazy gardener, donrae, GardenJen77!

 

[3riverschick]

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 

Just wanted to say congratulations on your new BYC badge!!
Karen

 

[3riverschick]

Buying or building a coop. build a Woods open-air Coop that will save you money because you won't have to heat it, even in the coldest weather. you can find all the info you need on the BYC "Coops" forum on the "Woods Coop" threads. The Woods Coop is an all-in-one structure. Coop and run in one.
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I use the KISS method raising my chicks. proper environment, fresh water, quality chick feed, grit after 1 week old , and Poultry Nutridrench at the rate of : one drop by mouth per chick at hatch; then I put 1/2 teaspoon to one quart of water in their water for the first 12 to 14 days to get them off to a strong start . Incease size of grit at proper growth stages for best development of the gizzard. Oh, I forgot ,helpings of Okios Triple Zero Yogurt for probiotics maybe 3 times a week for the first two weeks. Take out of brooder after about 10 minutes so that it doesn't spoil under the hot lights. The molasses in the Poultry Nutridrench actually encourages the same proper bacterial growth in the GI tract yogurt does. However, I'm all about enhancing the neonatal gastrointestinal tract so I don't think it hurts to give them some extra probiotics. HTTP://www.nutridrench.com
That's all I need. It's KISS.
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Reducing expenses. I don't worry too much about that because it's not about the money , it's about the breed.
And the only other supplements I give the birds when they are older are: black oil sunflower seed, sprouted forage oats, and organic grass clippings. Oh and when they're molting I switch their feed to Nutrena Feather Fixer. That's it ,easy peasy.
HTTP://www.plotspike.com Forage Oats. Click on Deer Food Plot Seed.
Click on Plotsike Forage Oats.
At the rate of: 1 cubic inch per bird per day of 4-7 day old sprouted oats as green feed.

Best,
Karen

 

[Christabean]

If I had it to do over I would build a coop. My prefab coop is cute and has held up OK for a year, but now that my chickens are huge, it seems tiny, and the appealing features of multiple doors weren't as helpful as I thought; one simple door on a chicken shed would have been easy and doable rather than trim and bells and whistles. I used chicken wire and hardware cloth fencing for the run and all added up that became a surprisingly huge expense. I had a lot of plants and trees to work around, so not totally avoidable, but if you have an empty flat space, a chain link kennel would have been much cheaper. But often the cheapest way is less pleasing to the eye.

I also worked out that I spent around $40 (not including housing) to buy each chick and feed her to point of lay. So buying point-of-lay chickens would have been cheaper, but I don't regret paying more for the cuteness of baby chicks. I spend about 25¢ per egg on high-quality feed, so they now pay for themselves as far as I'm concerned. Housing is the big expense.

 

[dawnd13]

When I first started out, I bought a prefab coop and built a small run. The run has grown in size over the last couple of years and I have still have the coop, but it is really flimsy and not secure. I lost some of my chickens earlier this year to a coyote, so I am in the process of building a new coop. I wish I had just built one to start with, but I learn as I go and was new to chickens about three years ago now. I have not added up the total cost of the new coop yet, but it will end up in the $600 range. I bought most of the materials new and have built most of it myself (hubby has helped when home). I have a cabinet shop next door to my work that has provided materials to me via the dumpster. I check it weekly to see what they have thrown away. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to get 3/4 melamine that I have now made into my nesting boxes. Anyway, I think I initially spent about $300 on the prefab coop so I will have over $1,000 into my chickens at this point, just in housing that is.

I have to say that I don't really pay attention to what it costs to get my eggs in terms of feed. I spoil my girls with meal worms all the time and have them trained to come when I shake them in the can. I let the big girls out of the run every afternoon when I can watch them. I am in an area with a lot of predators...coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, hawks, owls, etc. so I have to be close by. My dogs also keep an eye on them, but I don't let them out of my sight. I also give them scrapes and buy them lots of veggies since we are cold in the winter and have no vegetation that they want to eat in the yard. Since we are kind of high desert, we don't have a lot of plants the chickens like to eat, but they do love to dig for worms and bugs in the leaves. I plan to plant a garden again this year, but can't do that until late May. The girls will get what we don't eat.

I have not sold eggs yet. I tend to give any extras away to people at work, friends or neighbors. We eat a lot of eggs, so I don't have that many left over. This year, I got six new chicks to replace the ones the coyote got (plus a couple of extra) so I should be getting more eggs this year. If I get a lot of extra eggs I may sell them and I think I can get about $5/dozen in my area. At that rate, it will take a long time to recoup on what I have spent, but I look at it as stress relief and a hobby I just love. That to me is worth every penny I spend on my girls.

 

[missy1971]

When I first started out, I bought a prefab coop and built a small run. The run has grown in size over the last couple of years and I have still have the coop, but it is really flimsy and not secure. I lost some of my chickens earlier this year to a coyote, so I am in the process of building a new coop. I wish I had just built one to start with, but I learn as I go and was new to chickens about three years ago now. I have not added up the total cost of the new coop yet, but it will end up in the $600 range. I bought most of the materials new and have built most of it myself (hubby has helped when home). I have a cabinet shop next door to my work that has provided materials to me via the dumpster. I check it weekly to see what they have thrown away. A couple of weeks ago, I was able to get 3/4 melamine that I have now made into my nesting boxes. Anyway, I think I initially spent about $300 on the prefab coop so I will have over $1,000 into my chickens at this point, just in housing that is.

I have to say that I don't really pay attention to what it costs to get my eggs in terms of feed. I spoil my girls with meal worms all the time and have them trained to come when I shake them in the can. I let the big girls out of the run every afternoon when I can watch them. I am in an area with a lot of predators...coyotes, mountain lions, bobcats, hawks, owls, etc. so I have to be close by. My dogs also keep an eye on them, but I don't let them out of my sight. I also give them scrapes and buy them lots of veggies since we are cold in the winter and have no vegetation that they want to eat in the yard. Since we are kind of high desert, we don't have a lot of plants the chickens like to eat, but they do love to dig for worms and bugs in the leaves. I plan to plant a garden again this year, but can't do that until late May. The girls will get what we don't eat.

I have not sold eggs yet. I tend to give any extras away to people at work, friends or neighbors. We eat a lot of eggs, so I don't have that many left over. This year, I got six new chicks to replace the ones the coyote got (plus a couple of extra) so I should be getting more eggs this year. If I get a lot of extra eggs I may sell them and I think I can get about $5/dozen in my area. At that rate, it will take a long time to recoup on what I have spent, but I look at it as stress relief and a hobby I just love. That to me is worth every penny I spend on my girls.

totally agree on the hobby and stress relief part...I love it as well!

 

[sevenfatcows]

We have a source for empty, used, 275 gallon IBC tanks with frames. My husband picks them up a few at a time for free from an epoxy floor contracting company. They are glad to have them hauled away. We have built a number of "instant coops" by cutting doors and ventilation and adding roosts. We also put an A frame roof over the top, using corrugated PVC roofing sheets from Home Depot, even though the whole cube is enclosed. We do it to make it cooler in the summer since heat is our problem here in the high desert. Each cube can house up to eight grown chickens comfortably since they are used just for sleeping. The cubes have a good size access hole with a screw-in lid at the top which is useful for hanging feeders, if I am housing chicks, or hanging lights in the winter. In addition, each cube has a drain at the back which opens or closes with a lever. It is pretty easy to hose the thing out as needed. In the winter, I use litter in the bottom, but in warmer months, I sprinkle diatomaceous earth in a thin layer each morning after raking droppings out. That keeps the flies down. We are pretty happy with the way our concept has worked out and have a coop and run at our feed store as a demonstration. We sell the tanks for those who want to build their own. The cube coops cost us nothing but the time to haul, rinse and cut the openings. The PVC roofing costs about $12 per sheet and one is enough to cover each cube. Roosts are made with scrap lumber.

We feed our free range flock fermented lay crumble and fodder, which I grow in a bucket system. I have 45 adult birds, mostly large fowl, as well as about 12 to 20 growing out at any one time, plus baby chicks hatching pretty much continuously. Chick feed is fed as wet mash, but not fermented. I found they really wasted a lot of feed if I fed it dry, but really none to speak of if it is wet. The local fruit market gives me a couple of 5 gallon buckets of vegetable and fruit scraps daily in exchange for eggs. Most of that goes to our steers, but the birds get a lot of the softer stuff, so the chickens eat lots of tomatoes, melons and berries. This is not as much work as it may sound like, and the bottom line is that I go two weeks or more on a bag of crumble for the laying flock and all my roosters and a 50lb bag of seed for fodder may last twice as long, at least.

We sell about 6 to 8 dozen eggs weekly to regular customers, at $4 per dozen. We also sell baby chicks, started pullets and young laying hens.