what are you doing to offset feed costs??

[onthespot]

Cull your flock down to what you "need" only.
Worm them regularly and treat for mites and lice
Free range if possible
Get rid of extra roos ASAP. Even day olds if you can.
Sell off lesser qualty pullets ASAP. (wrong color, wrong comb, spurred, scrawny, etc...)
Sell off or give away older hens. Do not run a museum of retired livestock.
Sign up for coupons if you haven't already if you buy brand name.
Buy from your local feed mill if you have one. Feed can vary from good quality to barely edible, so don't go whole hog with that until you know your chickens will eat it and can do well on it.
Pick up feed when you are already in town, no special trips just for feed.
Keep feed away from rodents and wild birds.
Feed twice a day what they will eat, then put the feed up or cover it. Make them range for the rest if you can.
Feed kitchen scraps
Fresh lawn clippings can be used in moderation. Too much and you may clog their crops.
Plant winter veggies now, stagger the rows, planting new each week so you have a continual supply
Counterintuitively, hatching chicks and selling them can help offset feed costs. Make sure you SELL THEM ASAP.
Sell fertile hatching eggs.
Cull your flock down to what you "need" only. Wait, wasn't that the first thing I said? LOL

 

[OldChurchEggery1]

Last year I gave mine the leftover milk from our Jersey cow. Since we don't pasteurize, we toss anything more than 5 days old either to the pigs or the chickens. They loved it and got through their moult more quickly. We give ours grubs whenever we work in the garden, though that's not a significant part of their diet. If you do any cover crops in your garden over the winter, you can give them the winter wheat stalks and seed heads in the spring then cut the straw for bedding. We're planning on a massive corn/squash patch next year to help store up some feed for the animals as well.

 

[sashworth]

my oldest son is a headstart/daycare teacher. He brings me all the leftover lunch yummies.......pbj crusts, rice, green beans, pineapple chunks. The chickens see him coming with his white garbage bag and think he is Santa or something. He tells the kids about my chickens and will take some raw eggs to school and cook them for the kids. Those little urban kids think my chickens with their funny brown eggs are great! Everyone wins!

 

[southerndesert]

Quote:
Mighty fine list there....

We have kept around the same number of hens for years and the magic number for us is around 40 give or take a few.

This gives us and other family members all the eggs we want plus eggs to sell, we have had most of the same customers for years as well.

We sell eggs for 2.50 a dozen and sell an average of 2 dozen a day and that comes to around 150.00 a month.

Feed costs are 53.68 per month currently for Layer pellets and other grains for scratch with our girls eating a bit over 100 pounds of pellets a month.

They also get scraps from kitchen, small amount homemade scratch mix, and free range.

We live in Arizona so get pretty good egg production year round with extra lighting in winter months which really helps as well.

Yup we are actually making a small profit monthly, but we do not figure in labor.

We also sell chicks through the cooler months here which adds to the bottom line.

So the key for us is a manageable flock that pays for itself with some profit to manage feed prices....

 

[sunket77]

thanks everyone : ) I have 45 chickens total, but they are not all layers. Our main layer flock is 14. We have a silkie flock that grew recently but I have neglected to cull the extras in a timely manor, I still have chicks from the last hatch. In reality, there should only be I have 13 should be more like 8. We have a Japanese flock which is part of a breeding 4h program my son is doing we are selling the fertile eggs when we can, there are 6 of them. Our final flock is a bantam flock, they don't eat much, nankins and a couple polish, I have 5 pullets that should be laying any day now.

I have been having a problem with egg production, I am starting with the basics and going up to figure it out, worming, dusting, and so on.....I am also going to have to build some roll out nest boxes in the past we have had an egg eating issue, but usually there is evidence left in the nest box that that is happening but doesn't seem to be. A few chickens are molting as well.

Thanks everyone for the sage advice first I am going to search for a local mill.