When money won't work to buy groceries, will you still work for money? GROw GROceries, 🤓 That makes cents in my head. Not tricking my brothers anD sisters.
We have one older hen who was lone survivor to a fox attack. She was able to teach the next batch of chicks the proverbial ropes (staying inside our fenced yard, where to go for shade and cover, and who provides the treats) and has been the stand-in protector of the newer hens, alerting them to nearby hawks and other dangers. ROI ... priceless. 🐔
1) Chickens live for 5 -10 years 2) My chickens laid almost everyday the first year of adulthood. After the second year they laid about 4-5 eggs each week (I had too many and had to give them to the neighbors) 3) feed your chickens using food scraps. It's better for them and will cut the cost of grain (put gain in a home made feeder not just on the floor.) if you are sharing eggs with family or neighbors ask them to collect food waste too. You can feed chickens almost anything. (look it up first though if you are unsure) 4) free range in your back yard with a movable pen and they will eat bugs/weeds and fertilize the grass (you can teach them to go in at night) 5) build the chicken house with scraps (you can get everything you need from Craig's list.) Added benefit: delicious rich orange yolk, humane animal husbandry, lower chances of disease and you know they aren't packed full of antibiotics. (Can't get that from a store) Side note: you avoided GMO feed? Really? You know Chickens ARE GMOs right? The hype about GMOs is all wrong. They aren't bad for people. they are bad for small time farmers. Look it up some time!
@@goodman854 (genetically modified organism) name me one food that has not been genetically modified either by extreme selective breeding or genetic replication? Honestly. What are you scared of? There is zero evidence that "GMOs" are any different than any other produce. (Except that they can be copyrighted and used to sue little family farms off the face of the earth, look up the seed rush. That's why GMOs are bad)
@@goodman854 you should thank GMOs for the vitamin A in rice. Those brohs are saving lives, and the vision of children in third world countries (and the US) so don't get your panties in a bunch.
Before we winter the hens in the coop we start putting deep bedding over compost in the run in the fall. The bugs crawl under it to eat the compost and escape the coming cold, the chickens spend all winter digging up their own feed. Costs me two bails of hay, i just check them over periodically to make sure they aren't loosing any weight under their feathers. They usually end up gaining weight from the easy pickings.
I tried to talk my wife out of getting new chicks using math. Her response was "I like them, I want them, so we are getting them." Honestly, that's about the best argument for backyard chickens you will get.
It’s actually not about whether this move is financially advantageous. It’s about whether you will even be able to buy eggs within a few months. If we still can, at least ours will be very fresh, healthy, and delicious. And expensive.
I answered a craigslist ad for 1 year old chickens. Didn't know they were factory chickens until I went and picked a few up. After seeing the condition these birds were in I can absolutely say I never want to eat a grocery store egg again. We have had them about a month now and are nursing them back to health. Their eggs are almost the color quality of our free range hens. Their feathers are coming back too. They are now free range and doing what chickens do. Very rewarding experience. So, I conclude that backyard chickens are worth the expense. Plus, its a lot easier for me to pick up a load of feed at the feed store than it is to pick up carton of eggs at the grocery store.
I don't have "backyard" chickens for profit, as I suspect most people who have them don't either. It's about teaching my children where food comes from. Showing them how to tend for an animal. Showing them life and death. Their poop value towards a garden. And then of coarse enjoying organic eggs. I know I'm missing a few other reasons but my point is, how do you put a dollar sign on that? Very difficult because it's subjective. For my family and I, it's incalculable.
Well if the world goes to crap your family will have a chance. Extra work can go a long way. People that cant get of the couch cuz of TV or xbox or movie or on the phone or computer . They will be the family's that's suffer and by suffering I mean starve. A big garden and some animals could save everyone. 99% of people are so lazy they cant drop a seed in dirt.
@@48956l I'm here because I have backyard chickens and commenting with knowledge in the subject. So actually it does appy to me. Did you even read the title? Why are you replying to me with absolutely nothing useful to contribute?
My main reason is for when I could barely find eggs during that "trial apocalypse" in the Spring due to Covid freak out. You're gonna need food, any food.
Totally agree. If you asked "Is it worth it to have a dog?" and all you look at is that it costs money, you've missed the entire point of having a dog. Bonus question: "Is it worth it to have a child?" Do you base that on cost at all?
You'd save a lot if you can free range. Been raising chickens for over 10 years and I only buy two bags of feed per dozen chicks once in the spring (if we have chicks). They live off of bugs, grass, ground egg shells and kitchen scraps the rest of their lives and the eggs are super delicious.
My chickens completely free range all summer long. I rarely feed them unless they start following me around when I go outside ;) (however they do get all our kitchen scraps!) We have some 4 year old chickens who still lay approximately 5 eggs a week, we don't do artificial lights in the winter and in my experience that has allowed their summer production to stay high. We also freeze (cracked and beaten) eggs in the summer in 2 & 6 groupings for baking & scrambled eggs in the winter. In my experience it's well worth it!! We go to other ppl's yards and my kids come home covered in chiggers and ticks, I never have that problem in our own yard. They are also so funny. With the free ranging we have plenty of girls who hide their nests and surprise us with replacement chicks throughout the summer. I love your videos, thank you so much for sharing all your tips!
Yep. No need to feed them Loads of scraps and critters for them to eat. And lay loads of eggs. I think she's talking battery hens? Which proves the point that modern mass farming is not sustainable? And compost for the veg lol!
If you feed chickens household scraps, the cost of feed goes down. If you have good forage for chickens, your cost of feed goes down. If you use chickens to do the work of producing high value compost with your scraps that you feed the chickens and then use it to grow food for yourself and the chickens AND furth grow the soil, your cost of feed goes down over time as the chickens improve your soil for you to grow their and your food. If you look at chickens as parts of larger productive systems, long lived chickens starts making a lot of sense.
Build housing (brooder and coop) from scrap material (I built one out of a shipping crate for a computer server cabinet headed for the trash, and a chicken tractor from leftovers from a kitchen demolition) Free range/pasture raise chickens from about 8 weeks onward to dramatically reduce feed cost. Also feed kitchen scraps, weeds from the garden, trimmings, and over-abundance from the garden....GIve them access to the compost heap and so on. Consider that actual pasture raised chicken eggs with large, dark orange yolks with measurably healthier nutrition facts by every measure fetch as much as $6/dozen at the grocery store. I think if you raise chickens like pets you won't have a great result. Treat chickens like chickens and allow them to express that chickenness and the rewards are amazing and the costs minuscule.
My buddy's dad works at a hotel with a restaurant. From that comes a lot of food waste. He'd take the food waste home and put it in a slop bin and the chickens loved it. The slop was free, so the chickens were still profitable into their old age. Knowing the uneaten food isn't wasted, people don't feel so guilty about it, and more people feel comfortable eating there and trying new things that they aren't sure if they'll like or not. That's the power of 12 chickens.
My dad has raised true free range chickens for years. They have to forage for most of their own food in the summer, and he only gives them plenty of food during the winter months.
My chickens are the hardest workers on the place. They live in a coop that fits inside my raised beds. I move the coop every month or so onto the next bed over. Sometimes i sow deer forage in the next bed a couple of weeks before i move the coop onto it. The chickens will eat every bit of green in three days and in another three days they will scratch up and eat every bit of the roots. They are wonderful gardeners. They love to fertilize and turn over the soil. Every other week or so i dump a bag of leaves or a bucket of rabbit poop into the coop for the girls to scratch around in. They pick out all of the tiny bugs in The organic material and scratch and break up the material and work it into the soil. I used to do that work myself but it's more fun watching the chickens do it. The eggs are a bonus. When they turned five years old i gave the girls away to a nice lady who runs a retirement home for unwanted farm animals. Then i got new chicks. They are learning how to walk down the ramp in the morning to get to the food and water and to walk up the ramp in the evening to the henhouse and the roosting pole. Chickens are my favorite animals i wouldnt be without them. John Davis jax fl
I love my chickens. I don't care what they cost me. We feed dogs and cats and they don't give us eggs every day. Chickens are so pleasant to have around. They will come and assist you with any type of yard work your doing. Mine walk along side the lawn mower to catch the jumping bugs. Not to mention the mouse control. I haven't had a mouse in years. Or moles for that matter. They also kill snakes.
There is absolutely no discussion after you try an egg of a free strutting chicken and an "egg" from corporate chicken. I realize it all comes to the fact if you even have a back yard but i'm saying about someone who has land and makes these calculations to get an answer - that's not what shows that it's worth it - what shows that it's worth it is when you do some digging and your chickens go crazy on the worms, when they eat fresh grass, when you give them all kind of different foods, big collard green leaves, all kinds of different insects, etc... - and then when you see the color of the egg - you will never ever try to calculate if it's worth it, you will simply know. I have free range chickens and i have never seen a person who uses market eggs not being confused when they crack a couple of free range ones being amazed with colour and texture. The spectar of nutrients is also scientificaly proven and it's way richer and almost different than the corporate eggs.
Free range eggs are also SO much better in baking and cooking. Meringue that's so fluffy and soft it almost melts on your tongue. The perfect macrons. It gives better texture to cake and cookies and brownies because of the variations in fat and protein content too. A healthy chicken lays eggs full of gratitude and carefree bliss. A factory farm chicken lays eggs full of sadness and longing.
We help bring the food cost down by letting our chicken free range in a 1 acre pasture. They help keep the weed and bugs down. Plus they have fun. It's hard to make money off back yard chickens. After you consider the cost of the coop, fence, feed, etc... We really do it just so we can have truly organic free range, nutrient packed eggs.
I have 8 chickens. By the time I was done with their coup and fenced area plus feed, I could have bought 10,000 eggs. But that doesn't matter cause I have these chickens so I don't have to worry about eggs for a few years when the food supply chain goes down. Which its pretty much down right now.
If cost is your only deciding factor, then it’s not worth it at all. If a fresh reliable source of eggs is important than it’s totally worth it. I love eating eggs that are 3hrs old instead of 3 months old.
Three things you can put in the equation to make chickens more profitable 1. You can supplement what chickens eat with food scraps from the house, lawn clippings and weeds (among other things). 2. More than one chicken = the profitability equation goes up, because the costs get amortized over the number of chickens. You can sell the eggs you don't eat 3. Just as you calculated the cost of feed going up, the cost for a dozen eggs in the store goes up every year as well. The $3.50 organic eggs we used to buy are now nearly $9 a dozen One other thing to consider is that in today's day and age, supply chains are strained more than ever and the more self-reliant you can be, the better.
I saw a news report saying that raising your own eggs now can run you $20 a dozen when you calculate the electric, chicken coop, run, feed and your time. My question is, what about the time it takes you to run to Walmart (not to mention the gas), and stand in line for who knows how long since they only open like three registers? Is that price calculated in the price of store bought eggs? So why is our time calculated into home grown eggs. Plus, people seem to think chickens need electricity! When did that happen? How did chickens live back in the day? Also, you don't need a three thousand dollar chicken coop from a Tractor Supply! A discarded dog house would work for a small flock (do they still make dog houses?).
Buy cheap, go free range... real free range, meaning no enclosure of any kind except a coup to sleep in. I was paying, on average, less than $1.00 per chicken, and had little in feed costs because of the space I had. I bartered with the Amish who butchered my older birds, and I would sell meat and eggs. Because of the volume I was dealing with and how I operate, predators were an issue at times... they became targets and were left for the birds to eat. After 4 years of leasing 40 acres, in the end I did the math... including all aspects of the farming I was involved with and how I chose to utilize the land: a barn, 2 cabins, and a house, 3 pastures, 20 acres of woods, and a usable river... with 4 horses, hundreds of chickens, a couple dozen ducks, a few turkeys, a few dozen guineas, and over 100 bantams... my cost of living was $400.00 a month after I accounted for all purchases, maintenance, losses, and profit... even the feed and the tractor. If you live in the City and have a small yard, get no more than 4 hens... definitely no roosters. If they are happy and healthy, you should start to see eggs, based on the breed, between 4 and 6 months. If I lived in the city I would go with Bantams, they are much smaller and are able escape potential predators with a greater degree of ease. Bantams lay less eggs and their eggs are smaller, however just as edible. The associated cost are less and there is less product waste overall. From experience, the happier your birds are, the more they produce, and, being that I hand raise most of my birds, they behave differently than birds coming from commercial sources. Enough so, that those who purchased said birds for 4-H or for pets openly stated such, thus inspiring others to inquire about said birds; once they started breeding, it was a non stop flow of eggs and chicks. With that said, understand that this was what I did full-time, I was always moving around on the property day and night, and the birds immediately sought me out when a threat was perceived... if you can't be in the field working in-plain sight, the type of free range I practiced isn't plausible... you'll just be feeding the local wildlife at every level. One of the biggest benefits of how I chose to operate was knowing where your food comes from, how it was maintained, and how it was butchered. My birds weren't subject to the guidelines imposed on the United States by the World Trade Organization... meaning, the meat isn't being processed with meats from various other nations to lower cost, which also limits a plethora of health related and quality control problems. While you can purchase cheap meat at various places and said meat has a USDA stamp, it has no bearing on where said meat comes from. Notice that the quality of meat has diminished in recent years in direct correlation with the USDA amending the COOL Act (Country of Origin Labeling Requirements); do the research! Look at their standards and practices as compared to that of the US... it explains a lot. As for interaction... I have a Black East Indie Duck sitting on my knee at the moment and my Daughter had a Bantam that literally traveled the United States, we have picks of it on the beach in the Florida Keys. Often, her Bantam would find me, force it's way behind where ever I was sitting, and drop an egg. Happy birds lay tasty eggs! As with most things, what you get out of something is often in direct correlation to what you put into that something. My birds come to me immediately when they see me and make noises which are obviously a sign of affection... they tolerate other people, often behaving in a manor that reflects indifference and or a lack of trust. When I had horses, they behaved in a similar manner... as was routinely commented on by others. Animal husbandry is a job, so, if you don't like work and aren't proficient with regard to personal maintenance, birds probably aren't for you.
@@Heartofitall9691 Nice. Wasn't aware it had a formal name. Every time I mentioned how I did thinks to the locals, they thought I was goofy. But they kept buying.
My older chickens have WAY more Wisdom about predators, (They grew old for a reason) and they teach the youngsters when to take cover. Young chickens are stupid. My elders help lower that predation curve loss in the first year and that saves me from raising a baby chick up only to have it get killed when it starts laying. They've earned their place in my flock.
We inherited eight chickens & kept them for four years before giving them away. We turned our well shed into a roost (no cost) and let them free range, only cost was 60$ for feed. The grandkids enjoyed turning them into pets and grandpas garden had a lot less bugs. Plus we had eggs, 4 or 5 every day.
We had some chickens a few years ago (had to get rid of them due to a change in zoning laws). We have a large fenced in property. We got some free scrap lumber and built a chicken coop and then let the chickens free range. We never bought feed. We crushed up the eggs shells and sprinkled them around their coop to aid them when not getting enough calcium. They were definitely profitable for us as we sold the excess eggs to the neighbors for $2/dozen.
My chickens are more of pets that a cost/profit chart. The stress relief, how surprising affectionate they are and the sense of responsibility they have thought my kids is worth every penny. 😁
None of my hobbies make me money, oh i might sell a few eggs and a woodworking project once in a while but over all, they all cost me money, my spare money. Thats why I call them hobbies.
Some of those overhead costs remain flat (such as fencing, etc), as you increase the number of chickens. Raising your own chickens/eggs isn’t about cost. It’s about independence.
Shana Banana well, there’s also cost with keeping brooder stock. The one figure the poster quoted that caught my attention was the $4/chick investment cost. We can buy fully processed whole fryers for that price - no they aren’t pastured nor organic, but they are local. So purchasing chicks to raise for meat birds is going to be more expensive than buying them already processed. That would be where brooding stock might make more sense. But for eggs I’m not sure. I think you’d be having to do eggs on a large scale and then you’ve got to have a way to winter all those hens when production goes down.
Im getting a couple chickens next year and tbh I don't care if it's profitable cause seeing chickens clucking around my back yard in the run and coop I built myself will make me so fucking happy!!!!
Look on line, next door, Craigslist, etc for building material scraps. You can get a lot of decent wood to build a a coop for free. Feed them dinner scraps and garden extras. Almost zero cost for us
Chickens are like pets you don’t worry about how much you spend on food the joy and love and relaxation you get back is priceless eggs are just a bonus
I think that's the difference between a hybrid chicken and a normal breed. Hybrids lay early, lay more but also stop laying early and die a bit faster. Non hybrids typically lay 200eggs a year while hybrids day about 300 or more. Non hybrids are also normally dual purpose so they eat more to gain some muscle and weight. So purely for egg laying numbers hybrids are superior, but you can't breed them reliably. A pure line would be able to breed and you can raise the males for slaughter and the hens for eggs. So it's a different approach all together.
Guys. When you get your feed, GO TO LOCAL FEEDMILLS/FEED STORES....Not big box stores like TSC, Walmart, Theisens. I have saved thousands the past 2 years in feed and I have never had a bad bag from the local feedmill/feedstore. When I got the bags from other places, literally 1 out of every 3 bags was either moldy, stale, or had bugs in it and the stores did not accept returns or exchanges on it. Edit: I pay an average of $9 per 52lb bag (they usually put a little extra of high quality feed in it) and I used to pay $17 for 50lb bags (was weighed out to be 47lbs...yeah....I have weighed the bags too)
i think my husband would cry if i stewed his chicken... however older chickens get broody and then i don't have to use electric to run the incubator or the brooder so, sure after a point they cost money, but i'm willing to pay that to not have a marital meltdown over whose pet is in the crockpot.
I would modify the production math a little. First, you buy the chick, feed it for six months. This much is spot on. Second the chicken begins to lay eggs. This is where the math changes. Once chickens begin laying eggs you will get about a full 12 months of lay then they molt and go again for another 12-ish months. It is after this point that egg per day production declines faster. So for your egg totals you can say two full years of laying. Then process the chicken at 2.5 years old before they molt the second time. Year one of an american or english class duel purpose should be between 225 and 300 eggs a year on full feed and 150 to 225 on foraging and some feed. Year two is 80 % of that so 180 to 240 and 120 to 180 respectively. You would be loosing egg production value of six months of good lay, by processing on the chickens second anniversary versus the second anniversary of it starting to lay. Thanks for reading.
Guys this coronaSh*t is serious, Italy is collapsing, cut all the time you spend outside and you’ll be good... the hard truth is that no one is safe, you can even get reinfected after you “heal up”; it’s just a thing our societies have to adapt too, the earlier you change your life habits the better. Don’t be afraid to ask things about “quarantine life” (‘cuz we’r starting to master this crap) and take care ♥️
Chickens fed themselves from seed on the ground and plenty of bugs. Had to hunt down the nests once in a while because they would change locations now and again. Food only needed during winter. Fertilizer is great in the garden, and the earthworms worked great for fishing. Tasted great when they quit laying eggs, low and slow, tender and tasty. Don't know about all around fun but the food was great. It helped us get through the tough times when the money was low. We ate better than most.
Not sure if this is the reason, but we add thorvin sea kelp to our non gmo feed and our 4-5yr old hens are still laying almost every day. Plus, they're not over crowded and we rotate them around using a solar powered electric netting. Here's a suggestion for ya........In the process of teaching our kids how to run a business, we picked up some really nice, much sought after breeds and recently started selling hatching eggs online. Being photographers, you know pictures are everything. ;-) We sold out of everything we offered and it really got the kids excited about farming.
Chickens get fed the same commercial feed . The only different in home raised they get to graze if thier lucky but they still get commercial raised feed. Most likely you really never get eat graze chickens. Organic raised doesn't mean free range chickens. The only difference is the organic food doesn't have chemicals supposedly. It's very hard for me to believe no chemicals were used to grow the animal feed . Try to raise a garden without chemicals not and easy task. I had fruit trees every year Japanese beetles ate the fruit before I got the first bite .I sprayed sure did but if you dont keep a close eye on your fruit those dam beetles would devour every thing. I got pissed after planting the tree's taking care of them 4 years I started to see fruit then beetles. I just cut the sobs down I mean the whole point was organic to start with. Might as well just by what's available.
I love my chickens. We’re making a new coop from found materials, they’ve been great for a compost bin, their manure has helped our yard finally start to grow, they’ve been great for bug control, and their eggs have been great for bartering. Raising chickens can be as cheap or expensive as you want to make it.
When mine drop off in production, usually after the 2nd year, I butcher them for baking/stewing hens. A new group is timed so they're coming into production about the same time. Nice thing about small livestock like chickens is they can be stored live and butchered as needed, instead of taking up freezer space like a hog or calf.
Even if your backyard chickens cost more than if you bought at the supermarket, then get a guided tour of a chicken or egg processing factory and then decide whether your backyard chickens are worth it
Good rough estimate of costs. When you consider cost in fuel, wear and tear on car/truck, environmental costs and time of going to grocery store to buy food, the income taxes you paid on the money used to buy those food items and the fact you have more control over your own food production, raising as much food at home is a more reliable way to feed your family in the long run. This really hits home when you consider the Covid19 epidemic that is not nearly as bad as the 1918 Spanish flu was, made many apparently abundant food items nearly unobtainable. When all things are considered, I think its a win/win keeping chickens for eggs and meat!
my 5 year old ladies are still laying 5 eggs a week. They did take 3 mo vacation so that's 180 eggs a year each. Not sure what kind of chicken stops laying at 2 years. but I hate math anyway. I just like them as pets.
Don't think she said any chicken stops laying at 2 years. She did say that egg production drops 20% per year. I think it's safe to assume that's a rough estimate and subject to variability.
Industrial chicken breeds get way more eggs out of the chooks than the numbers in video. They also start laying around 16 weeks not 6 months. Most people don't keep them past 2 years as they take a small break in the winter and it's more profitable to get new chickens in. Mine didn't stop laying but we might have only got about 4 eggs a week. You can also trick them with a light timer to keep them laying over winter. For backyard chook feed can be super cheap if you free range and feed kitchen scraps.. a bag of feed lasted me 6 months with 3 chooks. For free ranging backyard chickens only real costs are housing and fencing for predators. We had crows pinching eggs and problems with dogs getting chickens. Without free ranging feed costs are probably the same as buying eggs for us in Australia. Feed is expensive in the suburbs and eggs are super cheap in supermarkets.
Delightfully humorous video ! Whether intentional or not, this video cleverly portrays the economic lunacy of attempting to compare an off grid lifestyle to that of a 9 to 5 consumer driven lifestyle. Economically, they're not equivalents, (apples to oranges comes to mind). What are the hard facts about off grid economics. In a genuine off grid economic scenario, the profit and loss equation is much different than in comparison to a conventional consumer driven business or lifestyle. In an off grid lifestyle, everything you do is considered as working for yourself. Like any business the goal is to not go bust. If you're able to continuely maintain the necessities of life and keep yourself vibrantly interacting and contributing to your local community, then your off grid life is a viable business. The real profit is your freedom!
Chicken math is the best math. You can always make it add up if you are amused by chickens. But in reality, nothing makes sense to DIY when it's production has been industrialized. But chicken math isn't about saving money. It's about lifestyle, Quality, and having a laugh because you like DIY.
In my humble opinion, for the average person or family with a couple of chickens, if youre worried about analysis of the cost then you probably should just go to the market. Chickens pay you not only in eggs but laughs and smiles, garden work and manure. If you see them only as eggmachines then you are probably not going to think they are worth it on a small scale. If you view them as an integral part of your garden and your lifestyle, and happiness then they are worth it.
Among other things, I view our future chickens as black-widow-eating machines. I hate black widows, but chickens love them AND they don't get hurt by eating them. It's a total win-win. A lot better to have a few chickens around than to spray pest control potions around or risk getting bitten. ;-)
It's worth it to live and eat clean. I don't actually trust the whole organic racket especially when you look up the kinds of exceptions they allow. Or the kinds of practices that can slide or sneak by.
I would like to note that keeping the older chicken in the flock actually reduces the odds of predator loss. Combine that with the egg production and it’s valuable to keep the old hens around. My chickens free range year round and that significantly reduces the cost of feed although the do require more feed in the winter.
I would have to add the garden benefit of chickens to the list... my old girls go into a chicken tractor system that gets moved around the garden. They get on fresh ground ever 2-3 days... this boosts egg production slightly in those golden retirement years, and they do all the gsrden work for me... they fertilize, till, provide weed and pest control, and I still get to just enjoy them. The young girls also work compost for me, and that saves on soil for gsrden beds and containers quite a bit. So there is added cost benefit factors to add to the list. 👍
This is why I want chickens someday! My partner has a lot of land since he's in the country and I've always wanted to eat eggs that I knew were humane and good quality. The price isn't what appeals to me, but instead it's the care that goes into it.
The real value is the quality of eggs for a small chicken farmer. The most I have had at one time was 23 birds....and one loud cock. Once you eat your own eggs, you will NEVER want store bought. If you really want to make some spread, grow your own feed and let them range a bit. Sell the chicks to your community. Birds are an economy of scale. Also, now eggs that are free range organic are going for over 6 dollars a dozen! A decent side hustle now that we got this depression on.
Ahh but the utilitarian features of free range chickens. I owned 75 of them all layers. Free range, no roosters. Every day is an Easter egg hunt. Got roughly 48 eggs a day. They mostly fed themselves on what the found. The pest bugs outside greatly reduced. Sold the eggs $2 a dozen at the roadside. Little work involved. Worth it to me.
The problem is, you get to 5 years and love your chicken so much, that you can't bring yourself to wring its neck. So you just think, 'sod it', and just keep the damn thing, even though it's costing you money lol.
I don't concern myself with the mathematics of raising chickens. There are intangibles that come with raising chickens that just cannot be measured. The enjoyment the family gets from having the birds. The children learning to care for another creature and the responsibility that goes along with that. The eggs themselves have been proven to be much healthier than a store bought egg. We have the different colored eggs which people get a kick out of. The fact that chickens will make sure you don't have many bugs on your property, if any at all. Of course there is the benefits of basically having a "pet". Depending on the breeds you have, there are many breeds that truly are like dogs and cats. They will sit with you and be petted and watch the game. More and more people are keeping chickens as pets.
I get an egg per chicken a day. If you have a nice garden you don’t have to buy feed and they love certain scraps. Yes it’s a great investment. You also don’t need a crazy chicken coop either. Craigslist always have free wood. You also don’t need bowls... For water? I use a low quality glass lasagna tray They can eat from the ground. I love chickens
I was scanning for ideas how to build chicken coop and end up watching this clip. Regardless of the pros and cons, I will build the coop and get me some chicken. I'm very sure the kids will be happy with the chicken and its eggs.
3 years later Walmart grocery is selling a dozen eggs for $.72 (yes, 72 cents). Today, they aren't even close to profitable. However, my eggs taste 10 times better, and I never run out, so cost is not a consideration. Oh, and I never cook my chickens. They die of old age (or some dang critter breaks in and steals em).
My friend has dozens of chickens totally free range on her couple acres in Agro/suburban neighborhood. They have a barn that’s open and a fenced area under stairs for protection but mostly fend for themselves roosting in various places. She just gives them scratch and scraps mostly as they have pastures, gardens, front lawn and stable areas to roam at will. The chickens and doves have a great relationship where they watch for hawks etc and warn each other and the roosters run around gathering the hens to cover. The roosters seem to divide jobs and mostly are very peaceful (exceptions for occasional arguments regarding breeding) all her chickens are fat and happy and seldom get killed by predators. We are out west so egg production doesn’t drop a whole lot except if we have a bunch of overcast dark rainy days. Most of her chickens lay pretty much daily. The problem is finding the eggs. There are some tried and true spots that the chickens take turns laying in, and she doesn’t mind if she misses a spot and has babies now and then, It’s year round out here. So she has all the eggs and more than she wants and could certainly cull annually 10-20 chickens. If any roosters are mean or abuse the hens or fight with others they get “donated” to the guy down the street, he comes and catches the problem roosters. Many people in the neighborhood have chickens free range and occasionally chickens will go back and forth between houses. Nobody really minds as they really help keep bugs down and chicken poop is awesome fertilizer. She bought some chicks awhile back but mostly mixed breeds and she has a silly silky rooster that occasionally convinces a hen he is worth her time so she has some unusual and beautiful chickens. I’m sure it’s different everywhere, and there is certainly pros and cons for any system you use. But think of the satisfaction and better nutrition from your own hens and it seems worth it. I would let some hens live out their lives, they are the best moms and help the younger chickens avoid predators. If you always start with just babies I feel that contributes to predation. Also I would let more than one rooster mature before slaughter just like us they have different personalities and some are mean, some more protective, some less ect...
There are other costs associated, though likely not calculable. Water is one of them, but if you have a rainwater catch system you can save on costs, but, you have to build it. Lighting, or more specifically, heat lamps for new chicks, as well as an enclosed area to keep them. The coop, with laying and roosting shelves, depending on the size and type, need to be built and maintained. Then, if you live in colder climates, there's the issue of heating, during the winter months...sometimes up to 8 months long. Another thing to consider is providing water in the winter. Unless it's inside a warm place, the water will freeze, along with any scraps you may feed them. Just a few things to consider. I'm not trying to be negative, this was a good video. I do enjoy watching you videos. I think, when it come to keeping chickens, that where you live, regarding weather, will have more of an impact on the cost.
To be honest there aren't many animals I can keep in my garden that can actively turn a profit in any year of their entire life - so the fact a chicken manages 5 is impressive. My cat is only net outgoings.
My chickens make more chickens for free. I also feed them from free. I get food scraps from a couple local restaurants that put leftovers in a bucket that i pick up everyday. They get those scraps plus free range all day. In the winter i give them said scraps and get free hay that my neighbor grows. I dont heat them or put lights in the coop in the winter either yet they still lay.
Importantly, if you happen to have a large backyard and live in a region were plants grow well (high primary production), you could just let the forest (or whatever the biome is) grow back. This will increase the number of animals living there, including worms for instance. Chickens love hunting for insects and worms, which are high in protein and this may decrease feed cost and may even increase egg production. Just take care to avoid predators, if that is the case.
I think you are missing the main point. It's not about savings, it's about being self sufficient. Not depending on anyone else. Not to mention the entertainment of chicken life.
This video is about the cost of chickens. And if financially, they are worth it. I think you missed the point of the video. I love chickens too but that isn’t the point of this video.
If it was actually about that, then the video would be filled with all the ways we chicken ppl provide food for the hens without buying factory food. Lol
Inner City Day Dreamer that was a very small portion of the video and the cost of the feed mentioned is not that expensive. If you’re feeding your chickens kitchen scraps then you can substitute for that cost... obviously. But she has to mention food.
Ours laid about every other day, and they were free range, and very aggressive when it came to food. They will steal food right out of your hands! And they will chase the cats off their food bowl.
half of their food is food scraps... grass and garden scraps. thats half feed cost cut just that alone. They free range not cooped up and only eating bought food. Thats a big advantage!
Yeah but she's also not accounting for the money spent building the stuff for them which, although the other aspects of things she didn't account for can be considered small, is not going to be trivial. Especially if you don't really know what you're doing.
I like your video, thank you it made me think about how many chickens I have, their cost ratio and profit ratio. I also incubate some of my eggs which keep me in young hens and meat. When all is factored in I do believe chickens are profitable to my homestead. I also pay $15 for 50lbs of feed, they are also free ranged which helps. Also had a beautiful garden thanks to them this year and getting ready for the fall garden. Chicken meat at the grocery store is unreal in price now, $15.00 just to buy 10 chicken wings! Chicken breast runs about $12 for 4 slices of the breast which really equals to just 2 chickens "breast". I also have a chicken that is going on 6 years old, still, an egg a day from her which just amazes me but not common I am sure, she is the only hen I have that lays the white egg so I know it is hers.
Old hens tend to make better mothers. So around year 4, we have our older hens become brood mothers, that's when our flock grows so much that we have a constant supply of meat birds and biddies we sell at the market.
That's how real farmers live. We did the same, and always raised our own chicks, either with a broody hen or an incubator, using the fertilized eggs from our hens and a rooster to protect and produce more babies. Extra roosters hatched are eaten and the hens grow up to produce more eggs.
Chickens are the new toilet paper now because of the virus lol. Mine won't be in for another month and a half. Mom told me they had a new shipment of chicks came in at tractor supply when she was there. I went the next day to get wire and the chicks were already sold out lol people are crazy
Well. I live in Hawaii. Everythings expensive here. Recently I had 3 hens and a rooster just show up. I tossed out scraps and stuff I've had sitting around a long time. Old fish food, a bucket of some mixed grains?? They loved it. I began to notice their hierarchy. The white hen, probably the oldest, made herself a nest under my house. Unfortunately, my neighbors dog and rats enjoyed the majority of them, but I did score @ a dozen other eggs from another younger hen. I ended up with 2 baby chicks, so far anyway.. Soon I will build them a henhouse and roost to protect them from predators. They do make an awesome alarm warning system.. once you get to know their noises, you know what's going on just by listening. Plus my yard is virtually bug free, except for flies and skeeters.. I have no issues butchering my own food. I can clean any kind of fish. I grew up hunting rabbits and squirrels and butchering them. One of these days I will be set up to raise meat rabbits too.. Has nothing to do with costs vs profit.. Knowing where my food came from is nice, but raising most of your own food, chickens, eggs, rabbit meat, fish, and everything in the gardens along with numerous avocado trees, about every citrus imaginable, several kinds of passionfruit vines, and a few other fruiting trees... Priceless.. Delicious too... Saves a shitload of gas driving to grocery stores all the time too.. Sometimes I dont leave the property for weeks at a time. Grow my own herb too...
A few points you left out; Inflation that is likely to occur in the price of feed is also likely to occur in the price of eggs. There are also lots of free things you can feed chickens, maybe not entirely, but quite often, and cut down, way down, on the the purchased chicken feed. i.e. stale bread, most leftovers, yard time for bugs grass etc., garden byproduct, (carrot tops, culls, overproduction like zucchini, and even things you plant extra of just to share with your chickens), and if you see cabbage loopers, you can herd chickens to the cabbage, potato bugs, squash bugs, etc. while you are guarding the tomatoes and strawberries. Older hens make good mamas. Some better than others, but you'll figure out who wants to brood. So future chicks can come from a hen that already earned her keep, nearly free if you figure raising a rooster, but you can also purchase fertilized eggs for her, or better yet, swap eggs with other poultry enthusiast so all your bird friends can try many varieties without purchasing new breeds -- in the world I grew up in, every aunt, granny, cousin, and mom's chicken lady friends came and went to gatherings, especially Easter dinners, with eggs to trade and hens sitting on wooden eggs at home ready for what they came back with. Just remember, you can put ducks and geese, or anything, peacocks, guinea, whatever under a good hen, but you can only put ducks and geese under ducks and geese, they're good mamas too, but think all their babies will be good swimmers, (and/or won't get chills from cold water) even if they have to wait for a rainstorm to find a mud puddle.
Not to mention that right now, my chickens gave me eggs while the stores were running out. You do not need much room for chickens and you could just let them forage, we don’t though because we have dogs, I pull grass, weeds, stuff from our garden and put it in their coop for them to eat. Have raised chickens for probably 25 years. Love it!
Yea, we kept a couple for fresh eggs plus they love left over kitchen scraps, but still mainly just a minor hobby. With COVID-19 and possibility of major food disruptions, nice knowing we have a high quality source of protein available every day.
Your leave out the biggest benefit and the main reason most people raise chickens taxes. You are eligible for an agricultural tax exemption if you raise live stock chickens are the cheapest easiest thing to raise even if you loose money on the chickens it doesn’t matter if your tax exempt status saves you thousands on a tractor or fence or riding lawnmower, chainsaw, fuel etc. most people raise chickens on there 5 acre plot so they can get the exemption not because they want be profitable raising chickens.
I would add that chickens fed on grass, clover, veggies and things like that produce amazing tasting eggs...for meat I have no idea. My friend could not kill them. They were essentially pets at that point.
Don’t forget bugs and seeds. Chickens are omnivores. As Joel Sallatin says, “bugs, not drugs.” And it’s more the nutrition that comes from the chickens’ natural diet than the flavor. And don’t forget vitamin D3 from the sun.
Mine almost don't need feed because they eat bugs and stuff they find, so they profitable for me even after 5 years. All I have to do is protect them from predators.
Some people (who are allowed to have roosters) can also add chicks to the profit side...selling $4ish per chick instead of $4 per dozen eggs. We have been able to buy a couple of bags of feed from chick profits (as long as Momma hatches them, no expense for electricity, etc). Loved your animated video! 👍
