4 ms·

I'm a huge proponent of backyard chickens and had them for years, but they are, generally speaking, not a "more cost effective" way to get eggs, at least in nor

I'm a huge proponent of backyard chickens and had them for years, but they are, generally speaking, not a "more cost effective" way to get eggs, at least in north america if you are feeding them mostly store-bought feed. Then again, this change in egg prices may change that. But they're great for redundancy (more & varied egg supply reduces the impact of supply chain shocks), to get the best quality eggs you can, and because it's just fun & rewarding.

peteradio 4y ago
They are probably not "worth it" when accounting for the care required, but I get feed for about $20 a bag and a scratch block for $20 every 3 months or so for 4 chickens who generally give me an egg/day each. 4x30x3=360 => 360/12=30 dozen eggs so that works out to less than a dollar per dozen which is below market cost 5 years ago.
- wolfprogramming 4y ago
  He did the math
eftychis 4y ago
I am curious about that statement. Feeding chickens store bought food that is. I grew up with chickens being the garbage disposal. They will eat anything and everything. They are the cheapest animal to raise for food. (Except maybe cattle on the old west when you could parasite off the public land.) The argument against backyard chickens would be health considerations i'd say, not cost. Curious.
- joenot443 4y ago
  Eggs are very, very cheap. Building materials and time are not. Obviously the upkeep costs for laying hens is super low, but it's the startup cost that turns most people off the idea. Eggs are about $3/dozen where I am. You have to eat a _lot_ of eggs before it's actually a net positive endeavor, probably many, many years worth. My parents have a coup on their hobby farm which my dad built on the weekends. It looks great and the eggs taste even better. That said, they were never under the impression this was a way to _save_ money, the math just doesn't make any sense.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - IgorPartola 4y ago
    Can confirm. I am in New England. The startup cost was about $1000 for me, including coop, coop reinforcements, chickens, feed, and various misc equipment. I have 8 hens and basically if I sold a year’s worth of eggs I could break even. That’s sold, not eaten, because I could sell for roughly double the grocery store price. So realistically the difference is that I get fresh eggs every day, I never run out, and they are fun.
    - apexalpha 4y ago
      What did you spend $1000 on? I just bought some wooden beams and wire mesh. The chickens eat whatever we didn't finish the night before. Though I usually scoop in some extra rice or pasta knowing we have chickens. They lay their eggs in basically anything. Mine sit in a Aldi crate on it's side.
      - IgorPartola 4y ago
        Spent $150 on 8 chickens from a reputable farm, which included their starter kit (heater, feed, feeder, water, etc.). Was overkill but they made it super easy. Could have saved some money on Tractor Supply chickens but also got cool breeds and all great layers. $600 on the largest coop Tractor Supply sold. It is just barely big enough for all the chickens but it does work. The rest on reinforcement hardware since I have hawks and foxes all over my property. Metal mesh and wood to reinforce all around the coop. Also things like sand to fill the bottom of the coop, anchors to keep it down, etc. Over time I spent a bit more to replace some bullshit hardware of the coop. I could have saved some by building the coop from scratch but also this one has a nice design that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own without seeing how the chickens actually behave.
- everdrive 4y ago
  At least in my experience, we don't produce enough food alone for the chickens. They certainly get 100% of our food waste, but they would starve if we didn't supplement them with store-bought food.
  - voisin 4y ago
    Depends on size of family and size of flock, and amount of land available to graze.
- sequoia 4y ago
  Most "back yard" chicken operations do not have adequate area to graze more than a bit. Even if you do, you'd probably need feed to get eggs regularly. I've never heard of anyone raising layers without feeding them.
wincy 4y ago
Couldn’t you just not mow your lawn and let the chickens eat all the bugs?
- artificialLimbs 4y ago
  Not in the winter.
- IgorPartola 4y ago
  They eat so much that I don’t think you could. In the wild, a chicken lays an egg every few months to once a year. Domesticated laying hens lay an egg a day or so. Imagine how much energy it takes to convert bugs into a 60 gram egg.
- voisin 4y ago
  Yes. It is always a good idea to rotate them over different areas to give the land a chance to repopulate (and their excrement helps attract bugs in the meantime). A lot of people have a coop that has two doors on opposite sides to different runs for this purpose.
poulsbohemian 4y ago
I just did some very casual back of the envelope math for my backyard flock. Assuming worst possible outputs and highest monthly costs, it works out to the equivalent of $5/dozen. In my area, roadside stands and/or grocery store “free-range, organic” eggs have been more than $7/dozen for years now. My gut tells me that over the time we’ve had these chickens, our actual break even would be closer to $4/dozen once our startup costs (coop, feeders) were repaid. We eat them, we don’t sell them, and we have fun with the chickens so I haven’t tracked any of it very closely.
- voisin 4y ago
  These numbers are very close to what we’ve found with our flock.
  - poulsbohemian 4y ago
    I'm sure you recognize the same dynamics we have in our small flock - we had 7 birds, then later went up to 10. There is a down time for the molt, and production is slower in the winter. These birds are now essentially three year olds, so I expect there to be a drop in production. Yet all that said - we're still conservatively averaging 3 eggs a day. So you extrapolate out an average of 100 eggs / mo (again - even that is really conservative) and $50/mo on feed/supplies (and let's be real - that's generous, it's probably more like $30/mo typically) and the numbers play really well for backyard chickens. That said - we have had a lot more coop expenses than expected, because our neighbors wanted to be jerks about it and I wanted to keep the peace. So realistically the "savings" we would have had in egg costs have likely been eaten up or significantly reduced by having to rebuild / move our coop.
dsfyu404ed 4y ago
They're only cost effective if you raise them cheaply, like free rotten pop up camper with plywood tacked on as a coop and letting them get a proportion of their calories from your yard that you also don't mow. And that's why they're not allowed everywhere "upscale".

peteradio 4y ago

They are probably not "worth it" when accounting for the care required, but I get feed for about $20 a bag and a scratch block for $20 every 3 months or so for 4 chickens who generally give me an egg/day each. 4x30x3=360 => 360/12=30 dozen eggs so that works out to less than a dollar per dozen which is below market cost 5 years ago.

wolfprogramming 4y ago
He did the math

eftychis 4y ago

I am curious about that statement. Feeding chickens store bought food that is. I grew up with chickens being the garbage disposal. They will eat anything and everything. They are the cheapest animal to raise for food. (Except maybe cattle on the old west when you could parasite off the public land.) The argument against backyard chickens would be health considerations i'd say, not cost. Curious.

joenot443 4y ago
Eggs are very, very cheap. Building materials and time are not. Obviously the upkeep costs for laying hens is super low, but it's the startup cost that turns most people off the idea. Eggs are about $3/dozen where I am. You have to eat a _lot_ of eggs before it's actually a net positive endeavor, probably many, many years worth. My parents have a coup on their hobby farm which my dad built on the weekends. It looks great and the eggs taste even better. That said, they were never under the impression this was a way to _save_ money, the math just doesn't make any sense.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- IgorPartola 4y ago
  Can confirm. I am in New England. The startup cost was about $1000 for me, including coop, coop reinforcements, chickens, feed, and various misc equipment. I have 8 hens and basically if I sold a year’s worth of eggs I could break even. That’s sold, not eaten, because I could sell for roughly double the grocery store price. So realistically the difference is that I get fresh eggs every day, I never run out, and they are fun.
  - apexalpha 4y ago
    What did you spend $1000 on? I just bought some wooden beams and wire mesh. The chickens eat whatever we didn't finish the night before. Though I usually scoop in some extra rice or pasta knowing we have chickens. They lay their eggs in basically anything. Mine sit in a Aldi crate on it's side.
    - IgorPartola 4y ago
      Spent $150 on 8 chickens from a reputable farm, which included their starter kit (heater, feed, feeder, water, etc.). Was overkill but they made it super easy. Could have saved some money on Tractor Supply chickens but also got cool breeds and all great layers. $600 on the largest coop Tractor Supply sold. It is just barely big enough for all the chickens but it does work. The rest on reinforcement hardware since I have hawks and foxes all over my property. Metal mesh and wood to reinforce all around the coop. Also things like sand to fill the bottom of the coop, anchors to keep it down, etc. Over time I spent a bit more to replace some bullshit hardware of the coop. I could have saved some by building the coop from scratch but also this one has a nice design that I wouldn’t have come up with on my own without seeing how the chickens actually behave.
everdrive 4y ago
At least in my experience, we don't produce enough food alone for the chickens. They certainly get 100% of our food waste, but they would starve if we didn't supplement them with store-bought food.
- voisin 4y ago
  Depends on size of family and size of flock, and amount of land available to graze.
sequoia 4y ago
Most "back yard" chicken operations do not have adequate area to graze more than a bit. Even if you do, you'd probably need feed to get eggs regularly. I've never heard of anyone raising layers without feeding them.

wincy 4y ago

Couldn’t you just not mow your lawn and let the chickens eat all the bugs?

artificialLimbs 4y ago
Not in the winter.
IgorPartola 4y ago
They eat so much that I don’t think you could. In the wild, a chicken lays an egg every few months to once a year. Domesticated laying hens lay an egg a day or so. Imagine how much energy it takes to convert bugs into a 60 gram egg.
voisin 4y ago
Yes. It is always a good idea to rotate them over different areas to give the land a chance to repopulate (and their excrement helps attract bugs in the meantime). A lot of people have a coop that has two doors on opposite sides to different runs for this purpose.

poulsbohemian 4y ago

I just did some very casual back of the envelope math for my backyard flock. Assuming worst possible outputs and highest monthly costs, it works out to the equivalent of $5/dozen. In my area, roadside stands and/or grocery store “free-range, organic” eggs have been more than $7/dozen for years now. My gut tells me that over the time we’ve had these chickens, our actual break even would be closer to $4/dozen once our startup costs (coop, feeders) were repaid. We eat them, we don’t sell them, and we have fun with the chickens so I haven’t tracked any of it very closely.

voisin 4y ago
These numbers are very close to what we’ve found with our flock.
- poulsbohemian 4y ago
  I'm sure you recognize the same dynamics we have in our small flock - we had 7 birds, then later went up to 10. There is a down time for the molt, and production is slower in the winter. These birds are now essentially three year olds, so I expect there to be a drop in production. Yet all that said - we're still conservatively averaging 3 eggs a day. So you extrapolate out an average of 100 eggs / mo (again - even that is really conservative) and $50/mo on feed/supplies (and let's be real - that's generous, it's probably more like $30/mo typically) and the numbers play really well for backyard chickens. That said - we have had a lot more coop expenses than expected, because our neighbors wanted to be jerks about it and I wanted to keep the peace. So realistically the "savings" we would have had in egg costs have likely been eaten up or significantly reduced by having to rebuild / move our coop.

dsfyu404ed 4y ago

They're only cost effective if you raise them cheaply, like free rotten pop up camper with plywood tacked on as a coop and letting them get a proportion of their calories from your yard that you also don't mow. And that's why they're not allowed everywhere "upscale".