Keeping chickens costs more than they are worth

[cpwhip]

I feed everything to my girls so I do have to spend too much on feed I also trade eggs for fresh corn on the cob
from a local farm and freeze it for them so the eat corn all winter long = less laying mash.

[bethcbee]

I know you're not wanting to spend MORE money on feed, but I've done research into animals that protect chickens. You could easily have a couple geese with the flock to help protect them when free-ranging or pasturing. A friend of mine has chickens that go out only into her yard and surrounding field during the day, are followed by the geese (sometimes they like to chase the chickens around but never hurt them) and at night all of them line up to get into the pen she has for the chickens. The geese will attack any animals that try to come in and snatch a chicken since they were raised with them. Might be something to research more. Once you got them big enough, you'd actually be saving in feed since they'd be free-ranging mostly. Might have to supplement in the winter months, or grow a special patch of something they like to eat to let them go nuts on.