Cost of a dozen eggs

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Calman

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Last may (2008) I bought 6 baby chicks.Black Austrolap.
Fed them chick starter until they were big enough for regular food and started feeding layanna pellets.
I also have one rooster. They eat about a 50lb bag every month.
I just can't believe 7 chickens can eat that much food.I have an automatic feeder which hangs from the ceiling and is about 4in from the floor.
The chicken house is built where nothing bigger than a rat can get in,and the door is shut every night.
Also a pen 20x30 inclosed top and sides with chicken wire.
Just got my first dozen eggs yesterday.(Took them 9mos to start laying)
Just figuring from the top of my head that dozen eggs cost me about $120.
Only thing I can come up with is,there must be a lot of fat rats around the barn and I need to fire the barn cats.

What say you? Expensive eggs or not?

Cal
 
In a shot time I suspect you will have eggs coming out your ears. When this happens the cost per dozen is going to get cheaper.

Speaking of eggs, I heard as of Tuesday, one man in Florida now controls all the egg houses in the state of Florida. This is a first. Wonder what his feed bill is?
 
Jogeephus":2zk2jtwi said:
In a shot time I suspect you will have eggs coming out your ears. When this happens the cost per dozen is going to get cheaper.

Speaking of eggs, I heard as of Tuesday, one man in Florida now controls all the egg houses in the state of Florida. This is a first. Wonder what his feed bill is?

I'll bet it's a lot more than mine.

Cal
 
What kind of chickens do you have? I'm planning on putting in a house too. (Well a shack actually since I'm planning on building it.)
 
I've been thinking about getting a few too .

Here we are typical farmers, Cal just told us what a bad financial deal this is, and Jogee and I can't wait to get in on it :lol2: .

Larry
 
larryshoat":34yiocyq said:
I've been thinking about getting a few too .

Here we are typical farmers, Cal just told us what a bad financial deal this is, and Jogee and I can't wait to get in on it :lol2: .

Larry

Funny you should say that. I was at a meeting the other night and the speaker was showing us a USDA budget program that could be used in farming. Quite impressive actually and its free. Anyhow, a good friend of mine made this statement. "The problem with budgets and information like this is that if you see it on paper you would never do anything". Where farming is concerned there is a lot of truth to this.
 
Calman, chickens do eat a lot of feed but rats and mice do too. I had a bag of calf creep pellets left over from feeding a group of heifers. About 2 months later I went to get it and found a near empty bag with a tiny hole in the corner.
 
March 26 08 I bought 6 day old Rhode Island Reds and they started laying in late Aug. They ate and wasted 50lbs. while in the brooder but when I got them on the floor and they got big enough that growth slowed they cut way back. I also gave lots of garden veggies. and wast grain from the farm. They also have a automatic feeder that is always full. Now we get 4-6 eggs every day.
 
Calman":1w1lk60p said:
They eat about a 50lb bag every month.
I just can't believe 7 chickens can eat that much food.

I know how you feel, I am feeding 31 chickens (only 5 are laying right now..the others should start next month)!
But yes they eat that much, I was reading a handout that I got from TSC last year regarding chicken feed. It states that a hen will eat 1/4 lb per day....so .25lb x 7birds =1.75 lbs per day, 1.75 x 30 days = $52.50

50 lb bag of feed around here is about $10...so lets assume your pullets lay 5-6 eggs a week (they lay one ever 26 hours or something like that & it takes awhile for them to get regular)..you get 25-30 eggs a week. From my 5 pullets I got 110 eggs in Jan and have to go get todays eggs...so I will get alittle over 9 dozen eggs. So the eggs cost you at least $1.00 a dozen.

To cut down on feed expense I plan on growing extra in the garden to feed them, let them free range daily and also I feed them alot of kitchen scraps that I use to just throw away. Some people even feed them their own eggs & shells.

Calman":1w1lk60p said:
Just figuring from the top of my head that dozen eggs cost me about $120.

probably alot more than that if you count the cost of the coup and if you use any electricity out there..
 
i bought 25 mixed pullets july 19th.an they eat 50lbs of feed a week.an they have yet to start laying.im hoping they will lay in the spring.
 
Our eggs probably cost $120 an egg!! We purchased chicks last spring-got 50, about the time they were ready to lay the feral dogs killed 30. Got 20 more, have fed them and built 2 mobile hen houses. But they get moved around the pasture behind the cattle and eat all the bugs and things that only chickens like. Also eat all the household garbage and garden left overs. And a lot of egg laying pellets. And the eggs are really good. So what do we do with the extra eggs?? We give them to friends and co workers and have built up a lot of good will with them!! Ever see 2 grown women argue over the last dozen eggs in the employee break room??
 
Yes, as much as I love having my own eggs, it is an expensive proposition. I got rid of a lot of my chickens and turned loose a bunch, so I am not spending nearly the amount of feed I was. I throw scratch every day and keep two feeders loaded, as opposed to the 5 I once had. The chickens can get inside the coup but the donkeys cant. They will destroy a chicken coup. I have started finding eggs in the hay barn and gathering them up. Last year I had so many eggs I was gathering them in a bucket every day and selling them at work for three dollars a dozen, and folks bought them. Farm fresh eggs. I had range eggs and coup eggs. Folks couldn't get enough at work.

I have always given eggs away to family, friends, whoever shows up at the house always walks away with a dozen. I have given eggs to our tow truck driver, (we have a thing about clunkers and he knows us by name. I think he knows my voice on the phone by now.) our mechanic (same thing), and the locksmith.

When I turned the chickens loose and got rid of about a dozen of them, I stopped getting eggs for a while and had to buy my first carton of eggs in nearly ten years. It felt strange. I am glad to be getting my own eggs again.
 
I don't think my chickens are money makers but I do enjoy hearing them comunicate with each other and like to hear the rooster crow,and the hens singing.
He sure is a sly ol bugger.He will cluck to the hens like he found food and when they come running he will mount one. Looks like them hen's would learn sooner or later.
Second thought maby they already have learned. :lol: :lol:

Cal
 
Calman":2j02m0si said:
I don't think my chickens are money makers but I do enjoy hearing them comunicate with each other and like to hear the rooster crow,and the hens singing.
He sure is a sly ol bugger.He will cluck to the hens like he found food and when they come running he will mount one. Looks like them hen's would learn sooner or later.
Second thought maby they already have learned. :lol: :lol:

Cal

:lol2: :lol2: :lol2:
 
Calman":3ds69pfg said:
I don't think my chickens are money makers but I do enjoy hearing them comunicate with each other and like to hear the rooster crow,and the hens singing.
He sure is a sly ol bugger.He will cluck to the hens like he found food and when they come running he will mount one. Looks like them hen's would learn sooner or later.
Second thought maby they already have learned. :lol: :lol:

Cal
:lol: :lol: :lol:
 
We had laying chickens awhile back. At first they ate like little horses then after about 10-11 months the feed consumtion started to drop and for some reason so did the chicken population. ;-) :banana:
 
jka300":12dc5504 said:
We had laying chickens awhile back. At first they ate like little horses then after about 10-11 months the feed consumtion started to drop and for some reason so did the chicken population. ;-) :banana:

That is my attitude, too. If you want chickens, I have no problem. It is your money. I'll give a couple bucks for a dozen "industrial" eggs. They taste good to me. I have no desire to associate with chickens. Geez, I already hang around with cattle. :nod:
 
Raise your feeder. You said it was about 4" from the floor. Get it to where they do not have to stretch, but they can not waste either. You will see a cut in feed, less on the floor for the rodents. Mine were 9" to almost a foot off the ground. If they can not swish the head they can not kick out feed to feed the mice. If you have some wheat and oats and and barley, roll it and mix it. Place it in a separate hanging feeder than the laying supplement. You will see that they will go through the supplement rather quickly at first, but will level off and eat as needed and "fill" on the grain. We also p/u two cheap rubber troughs from Princess Auto. They hold about 12 cups of feed maybe less or more. then we found two - gallon jars, filled them with old flax for weight, set them in the center of these tubs. One was for grit and the other for oyster shells. If you feed your grain whole, keep that grit filled.
Feed while daylight is there. To get eggs and good egg production they need a specific amount of light. In the winter a light helps, we always had ours on a timer. But if the light is on 24/7 or less that 16 hours a day you will get poor production
If they get less than 16 hours, gradually increase. If they get more, cut back to 10 and then increase gradually.
Chicken house needs to be warm. Warm where the water will not freeze, and a bit warmer. I always kept it at about 10 or 12 Celcuis in the winter.
Adequate ventilation will help. With adequate ventilation and light, you will see less picking, or keep picking at bay.
As for rodent problems, seal up the pen. Get some rough lumber and place around the bottom of the fence to deter rodents from crawling under. block all the holes except the door. Around the outside of the coop set up some traps for the mice and rats. You can get the metal kind where they go in but can not get out. You do not need posion, so there is nothing harmful for the dogs, cats, chicken. I have caught the odd garder snake though.
I would buy chicks in July when it was warm here to cut on heat bills, and have them start laying by mid November to mid December. I think it was one of the more profitable ventures on the farm. At $1.75 Canadian, and 150 birds, paid for the groceries and some fun stuff. We have done chickens for near 10 years, and got out last fall. Just no time to look after them proper. Miss the gals. On a side note, some chicken farmers about 20min north of us sell the eggs for $2.25 and have none left.

Good luck and have fun!

RR
 
donnaIL":2ijc4itv said:
Calman":2ijc4itv said:
They eat about a 50lb bag every month.
I just can't believe 7 chickens can eat that much food.

I know how you feel, I am feeding 31 chickens (only 5 are laying right now..the others should start next month)!
But yes they eat that much, I was reading a handout that I got from TSC last year regarding chicken feed. It states that a hen will eat 1/4 lb per day....so .25lb x 7birds =1.75 lbs per day, 1.75 x 30 days = $52.50

50 lb bag of feed around here is about $10...so lets assume your pullets lay 5-6 eggs a week (they lay one ever 26 hours or something like that & it takes awhile for them to get regular)..you get 25-30 eggs a week. From my 5 pullets I got 110 eggs in Jan and have to go get todays eggs...so I will get alittle over 9 dozen eggs. So the eggs cost you at least $1.00 a dozen.

To cut down on feed expense I plan on growing extra in the garden to feed them, let them free range daily and also I feed them alot of kitchen scraps that I use to just throw away. Some people even feed them their own eggs & shells.

Calman":2ijc4itv said:
Just figuring from the top of my head that dozen eggs cost me about $120.

probably alot more than that if you count the cost of the coup and if you use any electricity out there..

Wife raised bannies expensive little devils takes two eggs to make one. Another drawback to the little grain eating hogs it takes longer for the varmits to get them on free range. The best banny around here is a fox,coon,bobcat turd. I finally figured out if I wanted to sleep all night without the wife telling me get up something was after her chickens was to start missing the varmits.
 
........."I'll give a couple bucks for a dozen "industrial" eggs."......

There's no comparison between "industrial" eggs and "homemade" eggs. Chickens are definitely a pain to keep, but for us, the difference in the egg quality is well worth it.

We keep a cross called "production reds" or "red stars". Rhode Island Reds + ?? something else. :tiphat:
 

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