ways to keep our expenses down

[rhoda_bruce]

I thought of this a while ago, while feeding my chickens and goat and I am putting my neck on a block here, so I hope I don't flop on this one.
Why don't we start a thread on how we keep our costs down.....just little things here and there. I know a lot of us spend more on our chickens than we are getting in, but some of us don't. Why???
I am willing to say why I come out ahead. How about you? Certainly we all do something better than the next one.

First I gave my chickens more than double the space the books said was required ( I knew they would eat up everything green anyway ). And I didn't order more than I thought I needed.

I pasture them where I need help with grass.

Kitchen scraps......everything; even shrimp peelings.

Take road trips to the grain elevator to get my feed super cheap. (that means having a large bin)

I don't under charge for my eggs and I barter for other things I don't have like fresh onions, venison, seafood, etc.

 

[StupidBird]

Oh Oh! Sign me up!
Mine aren't many, but here they are:
- Every member of the family keeps an up to date "scavenger hunt" list: lumber, roofing, fencing, bamboo for poles, free mulch & compost, cinder blocks, pavers, flat stones, windows, door, ...
- Every night the feeders go locked up inside, no matter the weather.
- DS works at a stable; when the expensive horse hay storage gets cleaned, instead of trashing it, he bags it up for the birds. I use 2-4 inches of pine shavings, then a fluffy layer of this sweet alfalfa and timothy. Right now I've also used it all over the little run in the tractor, which is covered with a tarp in this cold, rain, freezing mess. I change it at least weekly, right into the compost.
- Study this website, of course! Here I've learned to make a cheap water heater to keep the waterer from freezing. I only had to move the tractor close enough for an extension cord.
- Planning on planting extra for the chickens, cover crops and the like. I'm thinking millet and/or sorghum for the chickens and for my gluten -free diet. Sunflowers, extra greens, maybe a patch of alfalfa.

I only have five hens, but want more - there are just barely enough eggs, and I want some for trading. Trading eggs is more valuable to me than selling. I'm thinking some EE's. Must stay away from silkies.

So, we're gathering materials for a walk-in coop and a respectably sized predator (dog) proof run. It's going slow.

 

[patandchickens]

The big things for me are:

-- design and manage the coop to minimize how much bedding you use (unless you are using something 'free' like leaves or pine straw or sand you dug up from the back yard - but even then, the less bedding you use, the less labor). For me this involves allowing ample room per chicken, scraping droppings boards every morning (10 sec *total*, literally), and not getting all weird about expecting the coop to look like a newly-opened bale of shavings all the time. I use probably 10-12 bags of shavings per year for a flock of about 2 dozen chickens and 2 turkeys - and a lot of that shavings consumption goes towards chicks and temporary isolation pens.

-- design(or buy) and manage feeders to minimize billing-out and waste. If they dump half of it on the ground, most of that will be loss, so you end up paying nearly twice as much for feed as you need to.

-- restrain impulses to buy more chickens

-- keep eyes peeled for Useful Stuff along roadsides, at garage sales, and at auctions. I'm not sure I've paid more than 1/4 retail price for any of my run fencing, much of it was free, and I've gotten a number of other useful construction stuff that way too. And then, as much as possible, design around what you've got to work with, not around whatever your imagination alights on

Good idea for a thread!,

Pat

 

[HEChicken]

How funny - I was thinking about starting this thread a couple of days ago.

I look for everything used first. I got my coop from someone on Freecycle. I made my feeder/waterer using buckets obtained from the deli of my local grocery store for free, and a $1 tray at the thrift store. I made a cookie tin heater from materials I already had around the house. I made my nest box from a covered litterbox I already owned but wasn't using, a flake of hay from the barn, and added 2 golf balls we found....when walking the dogs on the golf course. I feed ALL kitchen scraps - and even scrounge scraps from my in-laws when we are invited there to eat (hey - they're only going in the trash there and if I'm willing to bag them and carry them out....)

Last week I needed to buy chicken feed. On the way into TSC, I noticed a cart with half price items on it. Among the bags of sheep, horse and dog food, were two bags of Flock Raiser. They were half price because they had torn open and been re-taped by the TSC employees. One bag was pretty much full, the other had lost a little food. But all told, I got at least 80lbs of food for the price of 50. The same day I saw an ad on Craigslist for "poultry feed". 28 lbs for $5. Since TSC charges $13 for 50, this was a deal, and I went to pick it up same day.

Instead of oyster shell, I recycle my egg shells. I started doing this before I had chickens, so already had a couple of jars before we got eggs. Now I recycle my own hen's egg shells. I plan to ask friends to save me their egg shells so that I can continue to use this when I am running low.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

awesome, awesome, awesome.....both of you!! Thats what I'm talking about. One more thing.....like major.....I have an incubator my mom got used at a garage sale for 5.00 years ago and I like to fill it completely. I have 69 eggs in now. I plan on selling the pullets because I don't need them and eating the cockerals, hopefully the sale of the pullets will cancel out the cost of feed for themselves and the males. I haven't bought chicken meat for a while now.

 

[The Chicken People]

How do you recycle their egg shells? Please explain! I get free shavings from a cabinet shop! I also check for the opened bags of corn or feed at feed store!
I trade eggs for other stuff and sell them to buy feed for layers and chicks!

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I could and should do the egg shell thing. My mom did. The thing is to make it so the chickens don't recognize them as egg shells.....or they will develope a taste for them. Crush them as fine as possible and mix them in the food. Don't let them know it came from them. It doesn't have to be powder.....just in very small pieces. All mine are in the compost bin. I can always fish them out. I don't need to get oyster shells. Never did. My coop is on the ancient grounds of a trailer park and they unearth lots of oyster and clam shells from the field drains and driveways. Now ya'll did it.....I feel like digging in my compost bin

 

[bibliophile birds]

my entire coop was made from items found around the farm. we saved TONS of money unearthing some old tin roofing panels which we used for the sides and the roof!

my coop is on an old hay wagon (see my coop page for pics) so, in theory, it should work like a giant chicken tractor, which will cut down significantly on feed when the grass finally comes back up and it stops raining long enough for me to be able to move it out of the mud hole it is currently sitting in.

 

[LynneP]

Great thread- The Frugal Chickeneer

-design your feeders or modify to cut down on waste
-use daily maintenance (cleanups) of platforms and dropping boards to save bedding
-make sure there is lots of room indoors in climates or situations where you must keep the chickens indoors. In winter zones you will save feed.
-be sure you use good nutrition, medicines and vets cost more than feed
-same with biosecurity, it's always cheaper to prevent infestation than to treat it

 

[rhoda_bruce]

I shread my junk mail and used envelopes to line my nesting boxes.

I plan on buying a grass catch for the lawnmower to further save on feed.

Myself and the other nurses and aids at my workplace received a fruit basket as a Christmas gift. I pushed off the fruits on the employees, so I could take the basket.....thats my egg basket.