Why aren't chicken economical?

[Mac in Wisco]

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While the government spends billions and billions on crop subsidies, it is still only a few dimes a bushel, not a few dollars a bushel. The subsidies involved with the 4 lbs of feed it takes to produce a dozen eggs is probably only a few cents. It's the sheer volume of U.S. production that adds up to a large taxpayer bill for those subsidies.

i pay $30 for 50 lbs of feed. it's organic and soy free and all the ingredients come from small farmers. the company that makes and sells it is a small business run by passionate individuals, not a giant corporation.

I think I'd be pretty passionate too if I was selling chicken feed at $1200 a ton. Organic grain prices are pretty reasonable right now. I'm paying just under $400 a ton for an organic corn, wheat, field pea, and soy ration. It's made from locally grown ingredients milled by a privately owned, organic mill. About $75 of that is milling and delivery charges.​

 

[bibliophile birds]

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i think it really depends on where you are. unfortunately, here in the SE, organic feeds are super hard to come by, especially if you want to buy as locally as possible. the only organic mills remotely close to Tennessee are in Virginia and Texas. that's it. because there are no organic mills, farmers haven't been able to easily find markets for organic crops. so, extremely low availability equals higher prices, for producers as well as consumers. we're like the Bermuda Triangle of organic feed options.

things will get better... one day. but for now, i'm ok paying high prices. especially since i can recoup them.

 

[redhen]

Cause they eat like pigs...

 

[briteday]

I agree with a previous post...there are many different ways to approach raising chickens. Some are profitable, others are not. I also choose to re-home my birds during the summer following their first winter. They are rarely productive enough during the second winter. And I can still sell them for a few $ each. Since I charge $4 for my hatched pullets (sex links so I can sell them as "pullets") and $1 for the cockerals, a dozen 50/50 ratio nets $30 vs the $2/dozen that my area will bear for eating eggs. Selling hatched birds requires feeding a few roos to produce the fertile eggs. But sell 6-8 dozen chicks and it seems to make up for the roos' food for the year. Having the roos also allows me to hatch replacement birds for my flock. Every few years I need to bring in a few new birds for breeding stock but otherwise I hope to provide my own flock replacements.

On the other hand I have friends that keep their birds for life. They are pretty to look at and make nice pets. I just don't have the time, money, space to do so.

And my focus is egglaying. I like to play with the genetics of the whole thing. And you can't keep reproducing to refine the experiment unless you have an outlet for all of those birds. Luckily there are plenty of people in our area that require a yearly supply of new egglayers. Seems like the coyotes and raccoons in our area are getting some pricey meals on a regular basis!

We live in the desert so it's not likely that I'm going to find cheap feed at a feed mill any time soon. I'm stuck with the price charged at the feed store. We still make a profit on eggs for eating. The egglayers more than cover their cost of feed and my teenager gets to keep the leftover for gas money that month. The hatched chicks that I sell help to pay for the annual expenses such as bedding, coop supplies, brooding the babies, upgrades to the system. This year I am buying leg bandettes for the flock (better flock management as I can no longer tell some of my birds apart), building a new watering system, building a new feeder, and needing a few more supplies for raising chicks.

And I have been lucky to find almost all of my major investments such as coops for virtually free on CL. We have a regular wooden garden shed (8 x 10) for a coop, bought 3 sets of chainlink dog runs last year pretty cheap when so many houses were being foreclosed in our area, ...

 

[dawg53]

Quote:
Good point here. And it's not just dogs and cats - lots of people keep rats, guinea pigs, birds, snakes, horses, and a host of other pets which they feed and expect nothing from. If one is going to keep chickens as pets, then one should give them the same considerations of being uneconomical pets (who happen to give eggs on the side).

Quote:
I think they can be, but most backyard flock owners don't manage their birds for high production. Bagged feed is expensive, is it overpriced though? Probably not. There are too many feed suppliers in competition with each other for anyone to overprice the feed. The extra cost comes from processing it into pellets or crumbles (vs a fresh ground mash), bagging, storage, marketing, and transportation.

Here is a breakdown I did in another thread about whether or not it is possible to make a profit selling eggs:
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Let's take a look at a flock of 15 production hens, Leghorns or Red Sex Links, not a mix of dual purpose breeds.

Production 365 dozen / year

15 hens @ an average 80% lay rate will lay 1 dozen eggs a day.

365 days = 365 dozen eggs

Cost of Hens $150
Without going into the costs of raising them, lets say a point-of-lay hen (20 weeks) costs $10, that's a bit on the high side and you could even raise them yourself for cheaper.

Cost of Feed $434
4 lb hen eats around .25 lbs per hen @ 68 degs. Let's assume you don't heat the henhouse and they eat ad libitum @.33 lbs per day.

Bagged layer ration @ $12 a bag = $0.24 a lb

.33 lbs x 15 x 365 days = 1806 lbs per year

1806 @ $0.24 = $434

Electricity $13
Production hens need supplemental light. These 15 hens in a small coop will need a 60 incandescent lamp or the equivalent CFL at 14 watts. We'll assume that it burns 16 hours a day, even though it could be turned off during daylight hours.

14 watt CFL x 16 hours per day x 365 days = 82 kWH

At a high rate of $0.15 per kWH (I only pay $.10), then that's $12.30

Housing $120 per year
I built an 8x8 coop with wood floors, windows, and a shingled roof for around $800. This was using high quality materials purchased from the local DIY store. Covered run cost another $200 and I probably had around $200 in additional fencing, waterers, feeders, and supplies. So around $1200. This is just under $20 per square foot, which is in line with costs for most ag production structures, such as a large layer barn, or a hog barn, give or take a little.

Depreciating that over 10 years (IRS calls this a Single Purpose Agricultural Structure and allows a 10 year depreciation schedule), then that is $120 a year.

Total Cost $717

Cost per Dozen $1.96

Sell these eggs @ $3 / dozen and you've made a profit of ~ $1 a day or $365 for the year.

If your time caring for these hens is 20 minutes per day to feed, water, collect eggs, then you've made $3.00 an hour.

Caveats
You can't eat all of your profits. On the other hand, if you sell at $3 / dozen and keep every third dozen for personal consumption, the enterprise pays for itself and supplies you with eggs. Your share of the eggs would be your profit.

This was using fairly conservative numbers. Costs could be tightened up a little.

Does not include any losses. If you use an industry standard of 5% loss you'd need a extra hen to meet that production.

Expenses are tax deductible. If you deduct these expenses and any sales tax paid as business expenses, the cost of production is actually less because you are not paying income taxes on that money. That can cut costs from by 15% or more, depending upon your tax bracket.

I'm in agreement with these concepts. I posted something similar in another post a few weeks back. Our cost here works out to $1.25/dz on an annualized basis (better in Summer with higher production, higher in Winter with slower laying.)

I also think it's quite relavent to compare them to the cost of premium, all natural commercial eggs. If one is willing to pay for backyard eggs to have them - then it's legitimate to compare them to a similar commercial (albeit inferior) product.

We also do several other things to keep cost down which other backyard flock owners are not willing to do. We hatch chicks, feed-out and eat the excess roos. We cull poor layers, and do not keep layers past 2 1/2 yrs. Etc.

One other caveat we get - in addition to the profit on our egg production, the eggs also draw business for our other products like produce, pastured beef, chicken (broilers) and pork.

SooOOOooo...in my mind it still boils down to whether one's expectations are reasonable or not. If we expect to raise and keep pets while eating eggs, then accept the cost like we would any pet. If we expect it to be economical, then treat it like a business and raise premium eggs at a profit.

 

[dawg53]

How much does it cost to hire a lawn care company, pest control tech,bathe a dog at a groomer, a security system (mine cluck and bock at something/someone that isnt right)? For an animal that literally lives on chicken feed compared to the price of dog/cat food, a chicken sure is a bargain.

 

[josh]

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Because we have a store here where you can buy eggs for 50 to 60 cents a dozen. i have chickens but never get enough eggs for the money they cost.