Can you save money raising chickens?

Can raising chickens save you money?

Backyard chicken farming is taking off like wildfire across the nation, but the question is do you really save any money on your grocery bill with raising chickens that produce eggs?

I have raised chickens myself in my backyard, what I found was that I was giving away more eggs than what we could really eat in a week. The cost of raising chickens is really pretty cheap. Most people will go out and purchase a chicken coop to house their chickens in, but if you are on a shoestring budget then do what I did

and use recycled materials. I had taken some old lumber I had laying around and some chicken wire fencing to make my chicken coop, by doing this I saved about $300.00  Since living in Florida I had to build it in the shade to keep the coop cooler, but I did not have to worry about heat or insulation to keep the chickens warm in the winter. The cost of the baby chicks were extremely cheap, the cost we paid was in the neighborhood of $3.00 each. The baby chicks we bought were only a couple days old. The downside is that you will have to wait from four to six months before receiving eggs from them.

If you purchase chicks that are only a few days old you will need a brooder to keep them in until they are old enough to be in the chicken coop. As you will see in this post I am a very frugal person. I used an old rubbermaid tub and some pine straw from my backyard and made my own makeshift brooder. It was just a few weeks before they could be left alone in the coop.

For the chicken coop you will need to purchase a bail of straw about every 6 months or so and that would cost me about $10.00. Then the chicken feed would cost me about $10 to $15 dollars a month. There are a few incidental items you may want to purchase for your mini egg farm, but overall the cost of raising chickens is very inexpensive if you shop around for your feed and supplies. Also if you build your coop out of recycled products you can save money there also. The cost of feed and straw was about the only cost that was after building the chicken coop and purchasing the baby chicks.

On our mini chicken farm we had six hens, and they pretty much laid one egg a day, once in a while we would be surprised and receive two to three eggs from one of our hens.

The nice thing about raising your own chicken eggs is that you know that the eggs are fresh and are organic. No telling how long the eggs have been sitting around in storage that you purchase from a grocery store.

We loved raising chickens and loved helping out friends and family with eggs. We also would donate a lot of the eggs to feeding groups that fed the homeless in our area. People really love getting farm fresh eggs. It is fun raising chickens and children love seeing and being around them also. This is a great family hobby that all will get a benefit from.

We would love to hear your thoughts, comments, and experiences on raising farm fresh eggs.