Layers eat about 1.5 pounds of feed per week. $13.83 including tax for a 50-pound bag or $0.28 per pound. Pause: Before my bird starts laying, I have spent $13.12 to procure the chick and feed it for 22 weeks.Ĭost of feed for the next 30 weeks of the year. At 11 weeks the birds start eating 1.5 pounds per week at the same price per bag. Multiply by 10.įeed for the next 12 weeks before the bird starts to lay. A 50-pound bag of feed at my local feed store is $17.02 including 6.5 percent tax. Consumption for 10 weeks is about 10 pounds. How much does it cost to raise a chicken?Ĭost of a heritage breed chick purchased online and shipped to my local post office.įeed for the first 10 weeks while chick is eating high protein, high cost, chick feed. If you’re going to raise cage free or free range chickens we need to compare prices of eggs with the same credentials.Ģ. I realize this might not be what you pay for eggs but we want to compare apples to apples. If I go to my local grocery store or farmers market and select brown, free-range eggs I will pay about $5/dozen. This varies WIDELY across the country by the current dozen eggs price. Neither you nor I are wrong about our experiences.ġ. I am using recommendations based on my experience.You do not live on a farm and will not be buying feed or chicks in bulk, forgoing those types of discounts.You’re going to take the path of least resistance and get your feed at the most convenient location, which is probably not the grain elevator.I also rounded my numbers to the nearest 1/10th of a cent.įURTHER ASSUMPTIONS WHEN DETERMINING HOW MUCH DO CHICKENS COST You can get hybrids that start laying at 17 weeks so you can adjust your numbers for them if you’d like. For my bird I selected a heritage variety that will commence laying at 22 weeks. That way you can add up how many birds you need to get how many eggs you want. (I don’t think you can even buy just one chicken). I will show you the math for one chicken, even though no one actually raises one chicken. I will give you the math and you can do the research for how much do chickens cost in your area, and then enter your own numbers into the formulas.ĪSSUMPTIONS: When figuring costs to determine how much do chickens cost, you need to make assumptions. But how much do chickens cost, and does having your own backyard chickens actually save you any money? Let’s do some chicken math and find out.ĭISCLAIMER: Before everyone gets all up in arms about the numbers, let us be clear. Everyone is looking for a bargain, and raising chickens for eggs is the second rung on the homesteading ladder.
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