Keeping chickens costs more than they are worth

[JUSTIFIED]

Right now I've got 13 teenager barred rocks and 10 older adult buff orpingtons. The adults are under alot of stress due to the summer heat and mosquitoes, so they aren't producing many eggs (normal summer results for Florida). The teenagers aren't laying yet. A 50# bag of feed lasts me about 2 weeks. At this point, I wish I would have chosen a breed of chicken that was more feed efficient, instead of my general purpose birds. At any rate, eggs are selling at the store for far cheaper than I can produce them. It was the same thing for tomatoes from my garden last season. It just seem like those who mass produce will always be able to do it cheaper than I. Like I said earlier, the chickens and garden are good for an all out SHTF where the stores aren't open, but if the stores working, they aren't worth the trouble.

So you're spending about $32 per month. How many eggs, on average, do they lay in a month in a decent year? If they lay more than you can eat could you sell the excess to neighbors, friends, work associates, etc...to make up the feed cost?

[JUSTIFIED]

You only have to do this is the eggs are washed, get wet or are from the store. If they are fresh from the chicken then they already have a coating. The only minor issue with them being fresh from the chicken is well, chickens tend to poop on everything so the eggs would be stored dirty and would need to be washed upon use so as not to transfer anything to your food.

Matt, I may neglected to mention that. Yes, this would pertain to store bought eggs only.

[JUSTIFIED]

I know I have posted this before, but Mother Earth News has a great study about storing eggs. http://www.motherearthnews.com/Susta...resh-Eggs.aspx

That is a good article. Multiple ways to preserve eggs! If the shtf what do you do about chicken feed since you won't be buying it in the store? Do you grow enough in the garden to feed them?

[MustangGal]

I have some stored. Working on it. Never enough. Never enough. lol

[WILL]

So you're spending about $32 per month. How many eggs, on average, do they lay in a month in a decent year? If they lay more than you can eat could you sell the excess to neighbors, friends, work associates, etc...to make up the feed cost?

I believe I’m spending closer to $50 a month for feed, so I guess they’re going through roughly a 50# bag every week and a half or so. I have sold eggs in the past. Long story short, I could and have made a full time out of the chickens to soften the financial aspects. I could farm my own corn and dry it for feed, sell the eggs we don’t eat, feed them table scraps, build a chicken tractor and move it around my yard every day or have my young son become a chicken shepherd for free ranging, ect. These things would make the eggs cheaper over the long haul. Each one of those tasks is a PITA for someone who already has a full time job and just has the chickens as a hobby. And that didn’t even take into account the costs for building the coop or buying the chicken tractor, buying the chickens to begin with, the gas to go to the feed store, ect. I’m not posting this thread looking for solutions, because I’ve done it all. I’m posting it more as a heads-up for folks who are thinking about getting chickens as a money savings trick for tough times. For most people, its way cheaper and easier to just buy the eggs. The only real benefits to owning the chickens is a total SHTF or if you get a kick out of the homesteading lifestyle.

[JUSTIFIED]

I believe I’m spending closer to $50 a month for feed, so I guess they’re going through roughly a 50# bag every week and a half or so. I have sold eggs in the past. Long story short, I could and have made a full time out of the chickens to soften the financial aspects. I could farm my own corn and dry it for feed, sell the eggs we don’t eat, feed them table scraps, build a chicken tractor and move it around my yard every day or have my young son become a chicken shepherd for free ranging, ect. These things would make the eggs cheaper over the long haul. Each one of those tasks is a PITA for someone who already has a full time job and just has the chickens as a hobby. And that didn’t even take into account the costs for building the coop or buying the chicken tractor, buying the chickens to begin with, the gas to go to the feed store, ect. I’m not posting this thread looking for solutions, because I’ve done it all. I’m posting it more as a heads-up for folks who are thinking about getting chickens as a money savings trick for tough times. For most people, its way cheaper and easier to just buy the eggs. The only real benefits to owning the chickens is a total SHTF or if you get a kick out of the homesteading lifestyle.

I would agree with that, with what I know of equipment and feed costs in general. If someone does enjoy it though it would be a good shtf investment.

[WILL]

And I do enjoy it at the level I'm doing it now. Maybe when I retire, I'll have the time to make a full time job out of gardening and running a homestead. Until then, I'm OK with losing money on it as a hobby and TEOTWAWKI insurance plan.

[JUSTIFIED]

And I do enjoy it at the level I'm doing it now. Maybe when I retire, I'll have the time to make a full time job out of gardening and running a homestead. Until then, I'm OK with losing money on it as a hobby and TEOTWAWKI insurance plan.

Best insurance one can have these days. We're working toward becomming more self sufficient in every way we can and enjoying the learning.

[SeldomSeenSlim]

The good thing about keeping some chickens, is that you can always increase your flock down the road. I typically have more eggs than I know what to do with out of just the few chickens I have. Not a lot of mouths to feed here.

I buy my chicks. I have bred chickens just to see what it entails and to know I can do it. I think it's a similar thing. If I had the time and no other options, then I'd increase the amount of chickens I have.

For me, the cost savings is a low priority. I do save money raising my own, but I haven't even started to think about what I've saved versus the expenses of getting everything set up. I'm sure it's a loss. But I enjoyed it and now have a setup that takes care of itself for the most part. For me it's a long term investment. The cost of eggs will go up. The cost of feed will go up. So unless I plan to stop eating chickens and eggs my costs will increase. Whereas with what I have going the costs pretty much stay the same from year to year. I've already spent the money. And beyond that, I know what to do with chickens. The knowledge is worth more than anything.

[JUSTIFIED]

The good thing about keeping some chickens, is that you can always increase your flock down the road. I typically have more eggs than I know what to do with out of just the few chickens I have. Not a lot of mouths to feed here.

I buy my chicks. I have bred chickens just to see what it entails and to know I can do it. I think it's a similar thing. If I had the time and no other options, then I'd increase the amount of chickens I have.

For me, the cost savings is a low priority. I do save money raising my own, but I haven't even started to think about what I've saved versus the expenses of getting everything set up. I'm sure it's a loss. But I enjoyed it and now have a setup that takes care of itself for the most part. For me it's a long term investment. The cost of eggs will go up. The cost of feed will go up. So unless I plan to stop eating chickens and eggs my costs will increase. Whereas with what I have going the costs pretty much stay the same from year to year. I've already spent the money. And beyond that, I know what to do with chickens. The knowledge is worth more than anything.

I agree with you Seldom. Putting the knowledge to work is important so you know you can actually do everything you're learning about, if need be.

[Karen]

I feed some bagged feed, but my chickens eat a lot of grasshoppers and other insects which keeps my feed cost low. Here in OK, grasshoppers, crickets, and beetles are usually plentiful in a drought year :-) My chickens also eat any leftover kitchen scraps.
The eggs I get from my hens taste so much better and are healthier than store bought. And I learned a new and usefull skill that will be priceless when TSHTF.

[Bama]

My wife and I just started a small flock, to try to get back to basics and be self sufficient. Its a learning curve right now. we have raised ours from bitties and havent had eggs yet. I believe that learning all you can about homesteading will be worth the initial expence and learning curve

[becky3086]

You said chickens would be good to have in a SHTF situation. Ok, how would you feed them then? Think about it because if you don't know, you won't know if and when the SHTF. Am I right? So do what you would do then. Find a way to free range them or get a breed that will free range. Even if you get some bantam chickens that can fend for themselves (trust me), you will still have meat and eggs. If you just want to keep the ones you have, try what I do, let them out for a little while (when you can watch them) or find other alternative feed, grow squash for them, collect seeds and grass, start a mealworm tub. Do what you would do in a SHTF situation or you aren't really preparing yourself.

[Karen]

I have 15 chickens. (3 roosters and 12 hens.) The last time I bought bagged feed I spent about $35. That was about 5 weeks ago and I still have enough feed for about two more weeks. (The reason my bagged feed lasts so long is that we feed lots of kitchen scraps as well as fruit from our trees that the bugs have ruined and we free range our chickens as much as possible.) That means I'm spenging an average of $5 per week to feed my chickens.
Farm raised free range eggs sell for an average of $2.50 per dozen around here. So I would need to get two dozen per week to break even. My chickens are still pretty young so only about half of them are laying right now. in a few more weeks, they will all be laying and I should get about 8 eggs per day. That's over four dozen per week. I will definitely be saving money. And I already have a couple of friends who want to buy my extra eggs, so that will help pay for the feed.
The point is that each person will have to figure out what will work for them. My goal is to be as self sufficient as possible and still at least break even with anything I do. So far I have been able to do that with my cattle, honey bees, garden, fruit trees, and now chickens.
It CAN be done by selecting appropriate breeds, figuring out how to keep the expenses down and understanding how you will be able to continue to feed the animals in a PAW situation. Do your research, and start learning how to do it now before it's too late. Your mistakes can be easily fixed right now, but those same mistakes will probably have devistating consequenses later.

[All Talk]

Our 8 hens, our first, acquired this spring, have just started laying (only four smallish eggs so far). SHTF resource, education (esp. for our kids), and just satisfaction make it worth the extra cost over store-bought.