Chickens: A Cost/Benefit Analysis

Let's begin by acknowledging that one does not ask a dog or cat to pay for itself.  Pets provide entertainment and affection in ways that we don't attempt to quantify.  With chickens, you get the unquantifiable stuff and you also get a valuable commodity: eggs. 

So, I'm not asking my birds to actually pay for themselves. However, like any responsible person, I must calculate cost before bringing any new pet home, to make sure I can afford to care for my animals in the manner they deserve.  For my dog, the calculation is pure subtraction: the cost of food, toys, vet visits, etc.  With chickens, the math actually involves adding the tangible value of eggs.   

First, let's look at the costs.  Here's a breakdown of what my chickens, purchased last fall, have cost me so far: 

-- Renovations to existing coop and run $300

-- 4 Chickens (purchased as pullets, not chicks) $80

-- Feeder and Waterer $30

-- Chick light for cold weather $20

-- Pine shavings $70

-- Feed $70

-- Grain, oyster shell and grit $20 

Total: $590 

I have calculated that my hens go through a fifty pound bag of organic feed about every 5 weeks (each bag costs about $25.00), adding to that the ongoing costs of pine shavings and scratch grain etc, I think my ongoing costs will be about $30/month.   

Now, let's look at egg value.  Organic eggs run about $4.20 a dozen.  Once all of my girls are in lay, I'll be averaging about 90 eggs per month. 

So, if I start with my $590 investment and add $30 per month, I can divide the amount I've invested by the number of eggs produced to get my cost per egg.  At the end of this month, my cost per egg will be about $6.55.  If I keep charting in this manner the cost per egg will level out at about 70 cents around August of next year.  Of course, my birds are unlikely to lay 90 eggs a month throughout the entire year, they will stop laying during molting, and production will drop during the winter, but you get the idea.

Now, I would never pay $8.40 for a dozen eggs at the grocery store.  Or maybe I would, if they were the most delicious eggs I'd ever had, I knew exactly what the chickens had eaten under what conditions and that the store had gotten them fresh from the chickens a few hours ago.

Then there are the contributions chickens make that are harder to calculate.  Chickens turn my table scraps into manure I can compost and use in the garden.  They eat garden pests and weeds.  They are great entertainers, and yes, companions.  Last weekend, I had four hens watching my every move as I weeded my flower beds, they were waiting for me to unearth worms for them.  Best of all, my daughter is living a sustainability lesson.  As my father-in-law put it, instead of watching Big Bird feed chickens, she feeds her own chickens and collects her own eggs. 

There are plenty of ways to raise chickens more cheaply than I do.  We chose to renovate an existing outbuilding into a chicken coop.  It's a large structure, so it was a bit expensive.  Great deals on chicken tractors are on Craigslist all the time, a smaller coop also means less money in pine shavings.  Instead of buying pullets in the city at $20 a pop, you can buy them in the country for less.  Or buy chicks for between two and five dollars.  And, of course, you can feed your chickens non-organic feed, which is about half the price. 

Chickenkeeping is a great balm to our too fast culture.  If you really want to save some money in the process, I recommend cancelling your subscription to cable television as a way to finance your flock.  When you want entertainment, just slice open a melon and watch your delighted birds peck it to pieces.

For a Q & A with SueCinPDX, please click here.  Thank you Sue!!!!

Tags

chickens, eggs, chicken coops, Urban Gardening