Chicken Economics: The Cost of Keeping Chickens

Reader Contribution by Victoria Gazeley
article image

Let’s face it – raising chickens for your own fresh eggs is like a gateway drug to a full-fledged addiction to all things ‘rural’.

At least it seems that way, with practically every second magazine having anything to do with ‘home’ talking about backyard chickens in some way, shape or form. There’s a reason why chickens are the first thing most people think about when they think ‘rural’. I mean, what household didn’t have chickens back in the day?  Mansions, shacks and everything in between – everyone had a few birds out back for eggs and meat.

We brought our first batch of ISA Brown girlies home on May 31, 2011. It was step number 4 on our journey to a more self-reliant lifestyle (steps 1 through 3 involved moving just outside of a small town, transitioning to full time self-employment, and getting the raised beds set up and organized for veggies). The goal was to be able to eliminate the need to buy eggs for us or fertilizer for our new veggie gardens. The second goal was that the birds pay for themselves. And that’s where things get interesting.

I asked this question on our Facebook page recently: “Do you track your costs and benefits of keeping chickens for eggs?”  Or something like that. Anyway, the answers ranged from, “Always – they have to pay for themselves” to “Never – my husband would never let me keep them if he knew what it actually cost!” and a whole bunch of humorous answers in between.

Comments (0) Join others in the discussion!
    Online Store Logo
    Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368