ways to keep our expenses down

[Kim_NC]

- I sell table eggs, hatch and sell chicks, raise and sell started pullets - all to cover costs. Hahaha...and indulge my addiction without breaking my wallet.

- I've found it takes about $3 to grow out a DP roo to 16-18 weeks for a 3 - 3.25 lb fryer. Sure sometimes you can buy cheap grocery chicken at that or lower - but it won't be healthy for you like your homegrown chicken. (We raise and sell meaties too, but still DP roos are worth growing out.)

- We buy shavings for bedding from a lumberyard - $25 by the truckload.

- And buy feed from a local mill. Usually the price will be 25 - 35% cheaper than typical feedstore prices.

- Feed pellets for less waste. I do use crumbles for treats and high protein boosts, But I wet them and feed in recycled cakepans to reduce waste.

- Compost all manure (mixed with leaves) for your garden and flower beds. Much better for the soil and the plants. You'll have a nicer garden and saves $$ on fertilizers.

- Recycle pallets. These make good building materials, wind blocks, or setup on cinderblocks for a shade, rain and hawk shelter.

- I feed a higher protein pellet (20%). Although it costs a little more, this allows me to feed more FREE weeds/greens, garden waste, etc without reducing their protein intake below the 16% needed for laying. The girls love the treats and the greens & veggies help make nicer, darker yolks.

- Free range if possible. They will forage their food and cut your feed bill if given the chance.

- We get veggie waste from a local grocery store. We use a lot of it for our pigs, but in Winter I feed a fair amount to the chickens when I don't have garden waste or there is less for them to forage.

- Sheetrock scraps instead of oyster shell. Yep! Sheetrock possesses calcium sulfate (gypsum). Tear the paper off, break it up a bit with a hammer...waalaaa!

- I also save eggs shells, bake in the oven to kill bacteria, crush and feed back to the girls. I feed them out in the yard, away from the coop, to prevent bad habits.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

Kim.......now dats the stuff cuz

 

[kcsunshine]

If you also raise rabbits, sheetrock scraps are great for them too. Just don't give it to a house pet rabbit, or you'll find your room corners eaten up.

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
Whenever I use an egg, I save the eggshell on a saucer. Sometimes the shells will sit there for several days drying out waiting for me to use my oven. After I've used the oven and turned it off, I put the saucer into the oven. The residual heat as it is cooling off, bakes the shells slightly and dries them out completely. Then I put them in a glass jar, take my ice-cream scoop and use it to crush them into tiny little pieces. They crush very easily after being dried and baked. (I used to use my food processor until someone warned that the plastic bowl of the food processor will be ruined by the egg shells, however if you have a glass bowl in your food processor, you could use that for this step). I then store the crushed shells in a glass jar until the container outside needs to be refilled.

I DID have some concerns that reusing like this would encourage egg-eating but so far that has not been the case. I think it looks, smells and tastes just different enough (after being baked and crushed) that they don't know or care what it is. But they certainly do go after it! And so far I haven't had a single soft-shelled egg so I guess its effective enough.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Let's see what we do:
Scavenge materials for free(pallets, 2x4's people dump, just got 400 ft of fence for free WITH posts)
Sell chicks
Sell hatching eggs
Sell or trade out table eggs
Recycle shells
Compost used bedding for the garden fertilize
Free range in the Spring Summer and Fall
Cheap treats in winter (rice & pasta)
Larger than needed coop for better air flow = healthier hens
Planning a chicken feed section in the garden this year

That's about all I can think of right now, but we do make our money back on what we spend on the chickens. My chooks are paid for

 

[aussieheelr]

Biggest feed saver:

I get "spoiled" veggies scraps from the local organic produce store!! 2 full garbage bags a week... and might start getting more

 

[dappertophatter]

Ways to save:
-Everybody goes out at LEAST three times a week and roots around the yard.
-After cleaning out a basement for a friend, we carted most of the stack of wood in the corner home and used it to build the coop's floor and roof.

-All non-poisonous weeds go to the girls. My flock once ate 2 bushels of weeds in 1 day.
-Definitely make sure they're not wasting feed. Good feeders so they can't bill out.
That's all I can think of right now.

 

[b.hromada]

Quote:
Oh you are soooooo lucky! I asked at our grocery store, and was told that they couldn't because of the risk of someone getting sick. I tried to explain to them, it was for my chickens, but still, no go.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I tried also, after reading that. I thought,"Well thats a good idea, but I've never done it....let me give them a call." But they didn't give me much hope. They didn't give me any reasons. Just that they couldn't give it to anyone. I don't guess they guard the dumpster, but my husband certainly won't go for that and I guess I'm not into dumpster raiding either.
I used to pick up the scrap food at the nursing home I am employed at on Sundays. I worked weekends only and just the scraps from our 120 residents used to feed my birds for 4 days, from a single meal. So if I had the scraps from 2 meals I could easily feed them for a week. The longer time passed the more I needed to feed them, until one meal's scraps would be wiped out in a few minutes. They got huge. Then one day I got a call from my boss. She was so sorry, but she had learned that I was taking the food home and said that I hadn't done anything really bad, but that she couldn't allow it to continue. Infection control issues. I understood her position and stopped. I then learned that it wasn't personal......apparently one or more of the aids got mad and reported every nurse on that unit for whatever they could and I just happened to be one of them. It was good while it lasted. They weren't yet laying and I would otherwise have had to spend a bunch of money getting them to laying point. My patients are all old and they thought it was just perfect that I had chickens and that the food wouldn't be wasted. It would make them tell me stories about when they were young and had chickens. They would tell me about their coop....which they used the French term for and about their Barred Rocks...again there is another name for, which I can say, but not spell. It only took me a few minutes to collect, because I had help. Now its over, but it lasted for months, so I got something for nothing for a while, and I guess I'm still reaping the rewards. I didn't even get in trouble.

 

[djmb74]

I know I am just noob compared to some of you that have had chickens for years, but having been a single father with 5 kids for a good number of years being frugal is something I know a lot about! haha

Everyone should join their local free-cycle and keep an eye on the free section of Craigslist. You would be surprised at some of the things people throw out! I got 200lbs of organic wheat berries last summer from someone due to weevils in them. I throw that around their run area and the stuff end up not eating grows into grass every time it rains and they eat that as well.

I also have a garden just for my chickens, I grow collard greens, Malabar, and New Zealand spinach just for them to eat most of the growing season. I also grow a lot of banana plants and they love the leaves almost as much as they love collard greens. Seeds are very "cheep"! They get all the scraps from the rest of our garden as well.

Anytime I see a new house going up(not as often as it used to be) I stop by and talk to the framing crew or anyone else I can chat with and give them my phone number to call me if they end up scraping a lot of lumber. I have so many 2x4's from doing that its crazy.

Need bedding/litter material? Call your local tree removal service companies, they will drop off as much mulch as you need for free. You can even ask them to only drop a truck load when they end up removing a certain kind of tree such as pine tree's or oak! I got a company here that calls me every once in a while and asks if I am interested in another truck load!

I also scored the tube frame for a 20ftx30ft green house from a nursery for free. Come march will be setting that up as our new chicken coop!