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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).
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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.
