Is raising chickens for eggs cost effective?

[Adam Zapple]

My brother just bought a chicken coup (sp?) and is raising chickens for eggs.  I have thought about doing this myself, since I average eating about 3 eggs a day.  The upfront costs have scared me away.  I also don't need anything else to take care of at the moment.  I was wondering if it was cost effective, or if anyone has tips on how to make it cost effective?  It seems fun to me but I will probably put it off for a few years.

[Bracken_Joy]

For one, don't buy a coup, build one. They're super easy- fancy boxes =) Good time to work your DIY. It's a no brainer- $20 in lumber vs $150-300 pre made.

Ways to make it cost effective- feed your scraps to supplement their feed. Chickens can have an extremely varied diet, so there's lots you eat that they can eat. Garden leftovers work well for this, too.

Is it cost effective? Depends on what you're comparing it to. Cheapest eggs possible? Probably not. Local or farm eggs? Absolutely.

[Raenia]

I haven't raised chickens myself, but I've done a lot of research on it in advance of future plans.  The short answer is, probably not.

It depends in part how you feed your chickens.  If you're feeding mostly bought grain, that's going to be more expensive than letting them free-range and forage, and supplementing with table scraps, worms from a worm compost system, and occasional grain when needed.  If you're in an urban/suburban area, they probably will not be able to forage enough and will need regular feed.  Compared to the cheapest grocery store eggs, it will probably not be cost effective.  If you're currently buying fancy organic free-range, the math gets closer.  There definitely seem to be economies of scale for larger flocks, too.

I recommend the book The Small-Scale Poultry Flock by Harvey Ussery for a lot of interesting info.  Probably more info than you need! :)

[fuzzy math]

It can be. In my first situation we inherited the chickens and their home when we bought the house. Cost = $0

In our second (current situation) we raised them from chicks. Encountered multiple issues (heat lamp running in our basement for 6 weeks cost about $50 and we developed mold we had to mediate, pullets that were roosters, birds dying, birds getting sick, birds getting parasites). Google helped a lot for lots of those situations. Most recently 2 of our hens got bumble foot and we spent $140 at the vet. Those costs eat through the benefit of eggs pretty quickly (as well as antibiotics meaning you have to throw eggs away for a period of time).

My biggest advice is you have to be willing to deal with the bad stuff: what to do if your chicks end up being male (kill or rehome them to be killed), what to do if you find a chick / chicken in deep distress (kill them or watch them slowly suffer and die) and decide how much $$ you're willing to put into care for them / what things you would get care for. 

We currently have 5 hens and get about 4 eggs a day. That number goes down in the winter. The quality of the eggs is way above and beyond what you could buy at the store unless you're buying "Vital" brand eggs at about $6 a dozen. The actual month to month costs for us are a 40 lb bag of feed $8 and a portion of a bag of straw and a bag of pine shavings $4. They eat all of our scraps and since we have kids we generate a lot of scraps. Its those "oh shit" moments that cost a lot.

[monte0930]

My uncle does this in Florida for his family of 9. They have about 20 chickens and get around one dozen eggs per day. So in that case I think it is worth it. I go through about a dozen eggs every two weeks myself, and that costs me around $1 per week, so not worth it for me to do it.

[GuitarStv]

If you're OK with butchering the chickens every five years when they stop laying, your prices will be much lower.  If you aren't OK with doing that, your prices will skyrocket as you maintain your growing collection of pet birds via feed, pest control, land use, heating/shelter repairs.

[FIRE@50]

This reminds me of a coworker that tried to raise chickens for eggs a few years ago. Her husband bought some baby chickens at a fair or something and built a coup in the yard for them to live in. I don't remember how long it took, maybe a couple weeks, but eventually they realized that their chickens were actually roosters and they would not be getting any eggs.

My only other thought for you would be to make sure that it is legal for you to have farm animals on your property. When I was in college, one of my fraternity brothers tried to store a rooster in our backyard. Turns out it wasn't even on our property, but actually on school property. When someone did an annual inspection, it was discovered and the inspector told the school that they didn't have a permit for their rooster or whatever. The dean that lived next door called me and told me all about this. He said that something had to be done immediately. I didn't have any options, but he said that he knew some friends that could come and pick up the rooster. I said fine and met them outside a little while later. Two guys show up in a pickup truck and take the rooster. The one guy said something like, 'well I don't know how he will do.' I had no idea what he meant by that, but after they left, the dean looked at me and said, "Those guys are cock fighters."

[frugalnacho]

How much do eggs cost around you? They are less than a dollar per dozen here.  3 eggs per day is 1095 eggs annual, or about 91 dozen per year.  91 dozen eggs would be less than $90/yr.  Even if I got a coup, and chickens, and the feed all for free there is no way it's even worth my time to take care of them to save less than $90/yr.

[aladystash]

The eggs we buy are pasture raised and here they’re minimum $4.99 for a dozen. That’s if we go out of our way. Easy access to pasture raised here in Fairfield County, CT (we’re moving to Oregon soon) usually cost $8.00 for a dozen. We have lots of friends who care about the quality of their eggs and raise their own chickens, so it seems like in our area at least, if you build your own coop and stuff it is definitely cost effective

[Bracken_Joy]

The eggs we buy are pasture raised and here they’re minimum $4.99 for a dozen. That’s if we go out of our way. Easy access to pasture raised here in Fairfield County, CT (we’re moving to Oregon soon) usually cost $8.00 for a dozen. We have lots of friends who care about the quality of their eggs and raise their own chickens, so it seems like in our area at least, if you build your own coop and stuff it is definitely cost effective

Ooooh where in Oregon? Feel free to PM me if you don't want to post in general chat. I can hook you up with the MMM potluck groups out here if there's one in your area =)

[The Guru]

For the record, a shelter for chickens is a coop. If the chickens rise up, overthrow their human masters and take over their house, that is a chicken coup.

[PDXTabs]

As others have said, your eggs will be of incredibly high quality and will be less expensive than eggs of the same quality. They are social creatures and fun to take care of, in my experience. They will eat a lot of your table scraps. Do not get exactly three hens, get either two or more than three. With exactly three, two will be best friends and pick on the remaining hen mercilessly. Old hens taste good as stew once they stop laying.

Chicken coup artwork.

[Eowyn_MI]

I'm in the process of building a chicken coop in my backyard.  It is a 4' x 8' coop and my plan is to keep 4 hens in it.  I estimate that the materials will end up costing about $300 but that's including hardware cloth for the run, plus trim wood and barn red and white paint to make everything look nice.

As others have noted, the cost effectiveness depends on how much you currently pay for eggs.  I'm one of those people who will pay 6 dollars for "fancy" eggs at the farmer's market.  It's easy to see the difference between these eggs and the cheap store eggs so the cost is worth it to me.  I haven't done the math but I imagine that I will eventually break even or come out ahead if I value the eggs at $6/dozen.

[Bracken_Joy]

For the record, a shelter for chickens is a coop. If the chickens rise up, overthrow their human masters and take over their house, that is a chicken coup.

Well, they rise up and take over your heart =P It still works.

(I'm not always so good with the homophones. Thanks).

[GuitarStv]

For those of you with chickens, what happens when you go on vacation somewhere?

[Bracken_Joy]

For those of you with chickens, what happens when you go on vacation somewhere?

If you let them out daily, someone needs to come by morning and evening. If you don't, then coming by every 1-2 days to check feed and water is fine. Basically cat care schedule.

[The Guru]

For the record, a shelter for chickens is a coop. If the chickens rise up, overthrow their human masters and take over their house, that is a chicken coup.

Well, they rise up and take over your heart =P It still works. .

If they drive off with it in a stolen car, that's a chicken coupe. (but only if it's a two-door).

I'll quit now.

[Bracken_Joy]

For the record, a shelter for chickens is a coop. If the chickens rise up, overthrow their human masters and take over their house, that is a chicken coup.

Well, they rise up and take over your heart =P It still works. .

If they drive off with it in a stolen car, that's a chicken coupe. (but only if it's a two-door).

I'll quit now.

And this, friends, is why I am not a newspaper editor. I'd have spelled them *all* as "coup" I think!

[PhilB]

For those of you with chickens, what happens when you go on vacation somewhere?

We don't keep chickens, but we do end up looking after our neighbours' chickens when they go away.  Lock them up at night or, round here at least, the fox WILL get them.  After 20 minutes of frantic chicken and goose wrangling it gets very tempting to leave them for the fox.  Let them out again in the morning and give them some food.

[FIRE@50]

Do you play music from Rocky while chasing the chickens around the yard?

[Hedge_87]

For those of you with chickens, what happens when you go on vacation somewhere?

If you let them out daily, someone needs to come by morning and evening. If you don't, then coming by every 1-2 days to check feed and water is fine. Basically cat care schedule.

Yep we have a secure pen for them and feeders and waterers made out of 5 gallon buckets that you can fill from outside the co-op. We just get somebody stop by every couple of days to top up food and water and collect eggs as payment. We normally tell them to pick whatever is ready out of the garden as well. It's a win win. I also made a cheap chicken tractor that I'll put them in when I'm home to let them go crazy and help weed and fertilize parts of the yard. This is more labor intensive cause you have to move them almost every day

[pantherchams]

It has not been cost effective for us.  It is kind of fun, and the eggs are great, but the production rate is poor during temp extremes in summer and winter, and it has not penciled out.  I guess it might if you had enough property or enough kitchen scraps such that you didn't need supplemental food.  I'd do it again, but not to save money.

[HPstache]

We have had chickens for 5 years now, we are just about to hit the reset button with a new flock as they are really starting to slow down in production.  We have had up to 10 of them, but are down to 6 since we have lost a few due to what we think was just natural causes.  I don't really like the chickens, but my wife does so we keep doing it.  During the non-winter months we average about 0.625 eggs/chicken-day, or in other words about 44 eggs per week or about 15 dozen per month when we had 10.  Feed cost was about 0.250 lbs/chicken-day or about 75 lbs/month which is about 2 40lb feed bags which are about $16-$18 a bag (nothing fancy).  Considering the cost of shavings for the coup, anti-peck lotion, etc., they cost us about $40/month. So we were getting backyard fresh eggs for about $2.67 per dozen.  We easily sold excess eggs for $4.00/dozen, so there is a small amount of profits to be had and decently cheap eggs for backyard fresh eggs.  Another way to look at it is you could sell 10 dozen and have a free 5 dozen per month.

HOWEVER, there are negatives.  Firstly, they are loud.  Like, really loud.  Be prepared to have them out singing their egg song starting at 5:30 in the morning during the summer... if you don't know what the egg song sounds like, youtube it, it's not a soothing melody... you don't sleep though it, neighbors hate it even more than you do.  What we started doing was locking them in the coup at night time and not letting them out until 9:00 or so, that way it stays dark and so they think it's night time.  And if they do start singing, it's at least muffled.

Secondly, they stink.  Staying up on cleaning their run helps, so do shavings and diacromatious-earth, but they still stink, especially in the summer.

Finally, the eggs take some time and effort to clean (the tend to get covered in crap on occasion), so it's not just gathering the eggs every day... it's a fair amount of work.  People often don't realize that.  Not a huge deal, just to be noted.

Not sure what else to say, but just wanted to lay out the math and the pro's / con's.

[bognish]

I have 6 chickens. You can't beat the price of the cheapest eggs at the grocery store with backyard chickens. Our eggs probably average $2-3 per dozen. If you have the right set up it can be very low maintenance. We let them out to part of the yard in the morning, lock them up and collect eggs in the evening. Fill the food & water about once a week. Ours don't smell (the poop dries or freezes quick in the high desert). They are quieter then the neighborhood dogs, about the same as the wild birds. We have 3 neighbors who fight to chicken sit for us when we are out of town. They like the eggs. Other upside: they are great for my garden, eat all of our scraps and are fun to watch. Downside the coop/run tends to attract mice & rats. The eggs are really good.

[fuzzy math]

For those of you with chickens, what happens when you go on vacation somewhere?

We don't keep chickens, but we do end up looking after our neighbours' chickens when they go away.  Lock them up at night or, round here at least, the fox WILL get them.  After 20 minutes of frantic chicken and goose wrangling it gets very tempting to leave them for the fox.  Let them out again in the morning and give them some food.

They go to bed when it gets dark... Just wait til a bit later and they will put themselves to bed and save you the hassle.

Sent from my H1623 using Tapatalk

[Bracken_Joy]

For those of you with chickens, what happens when you go on vacation somewhere?

We don't keep chickens, but we do end up looking after our neighbours' chickens when they go away.  Lock them up at night or, round here at least, the fox WILL get them.  After 20 minutes of frantic chicken and goose wrangling it gets very tempting to leave them for the fox.  Let them out again in the morning and give them some food.

They go to bed when it gets dark... Just wait til a bit later and they will put themselves to bed and save you the hassle.

Sent from my H1623 using Tapatalk

Yep. And if you have to chase them, you're doing it wrong. They're a prey animal, *of course* they will flee. Wait til it's dark and count them- some might roost out, but it's easier to grab them then. If you absolutely can't wait til after dark, then gently herd them like you're doing a cattle drive. Slow, calm, using your arms and finger wiggles to direct them.

Chickens aren't easy, but they sure are fun. They can have big personalities. They're like feathery cats a lot of the time. If you like cats, chances are you'll enjoy chicken personalities. (So long as you aren't raising the white leghorns- they're so overbred they only have neuroses, not personality. The more heritage the breed, the more self sufficient and the more personality they'll have).

[Mississippi Mudstache]

Dear god no. We bought a property that included a pre-built coop and 10 hens, and the cost of feed alone is far in excess of what we would have ever spent on eggs.

Part of the problem is that we used to buy maybe a dozen eggs a week. Now we have hens that give us 6-10 eggs/day. We couldn't possibly use all of the eggs, so we give away the excess. We can't sell them around here, because nearly everyone we know has a few hens, and the ones that don't just aren't interested in buying eggs from any place besides the supermarket.

Our cost/benefit ratio would be much more aligned if we had 3 hens, but hell, I don't mind them as pets. And we probably earn an equitable amount of "social capital" by giving the eggs to our friends and family.

[lentil]

I've looked into it a couple of times, and always come away with the "definitely not cost effective" answer. Though from what I have observed, you will probably be able to score a good deal on a coop by waiting a few years until your brother gives it up ;-)

In my area, the most cost-effective solution would be a cooperative endeavor (for those tracking spelling, both "chicken coop" or "chicken co-op" would be correct), where a group of people share the costs & eggs of a larger flock. But in practice, it's actually a pretty hard thing to set up. A few of our CSAs offer egg shares though, which might be worth looking in to.

[JoJo]

Based on my sister's family experience, not cost effective.  It doesn't help that they live in MN and need to keep them heated.  As a result of poor ventilation that had to completely rebuild their coop.

[begood]

There's a lot of death in the chicken world. We had hens for about three years - not the same ones, mind you. We kept getting new ones to replace the ones that died by: fox, hawk, injury, illness, another fox... and between those, my husband had to fortify the coop like some medieval castle to keep out whatever was trying to tunnel in at night - raccoon, probably. Something that could move FIVE POUND rocks.

We decided after the last catastrophic fox attack that we would not replace the hens, and now we are chickenless.

The fresh eggs are nice. The infestations of mites the chickens get are not. The chickens have way more personality than you might imagine, but good lord the chicken area stinks in warm weather.

Having said all that, when the wild strawberries appear in the yard in the spring, I miss the chickens, because they loved those strawberries and would eat them from my hand. *sigh*

[mudstache]

We live in Seattle, and have had backyard chickens for just over 6 years now.  We built a big coop using plans from thegardencoop.com (which was a blast, and we had never built anything before), and we drive North to a feed store that sells shavings and food for waaaay cheaper than the boutique shops in the city limits.  My quick math out of mint and a low guesstimate of eggs/year get me to about $6.75/dozen (more expensive than store eggs, but cheaper than farmers market eggs), but we enjoy having the weird animals for the kids to take care of and chase, and the eggs are SOOOOO good.  It's worth it to our family, but I suppose it's not exactly Mustachian. ;)

[FallenTimber]

It's cost effective (profitable, even) for my wife and I, but the caveat to making it cost effective is the ability to sell extra eggs. For example, my wife and I have 30 chickens at the moment (this number fluctuates between 20-40). Our breakdown looks like this:

Expenses for 30 Chickens:
Chicken Feed is $40 per month
(50lb bag is $10, we buy four per month)
Plus you can throw them dinner scraps, which will slightly cut down on the feed expense.

Income for 30 Chickens:
If we didn't eat any of our eggs, we would make $300 per month.
We get about 24 eggs per day. We sell eggs at $5/dozen.
Of course, we eat a couple dozen per month, so it's more like $200-$250 per month.

So even with eating eggs, we're still making $160-$210 per month profit. And we get the best eggs around!

This of course ignores the up-front costs. But a simple coop / nesting boxes / feeders / waterers can all be built for less than $200.

As for the vacation question, chickens are some of the most self sufficient animals around in the summer months. For our flock of 30, we can get them setup for 5 days with no human intervention. When our vacations are longer than 5 days, we have a caretaker come over once every 5 days ($20 per day) and she gets them setup. If you only have 4-6 hens (like we did at one point), it's easy to get them setup for 7-10 days at a time.

Edited to add: In the winter, they require our attention every day because of freezing water. But not everyone will have that issue.

[HPstache]

It's cost effective (profitable, even) for my wife and I, but the caveat to making it cost effective is the ability to sell extra eggs. For example, my wife and I have 30 chickens at the moment (this number fluctuates between 20-40). Our breakdown looks like this:

Expenses for 30 Chickens:
Chicken Feed is $40 per month
(50lb bag is $10, we buy four per month)
Plus you can throw them dinner scraps, which will slightly cut down on the feed expense.

Income for 30 Chickens:
If we didn't eat any of our eggs, we would make $300 per month.
We get about 24 eggs per day. We sell eggs at $5/dozen.
Of course, we eat a couple dozen per month, so it's more like $200-$250 per month.

So even with eating eggs, we're still making $160-$210 per month profit. And we get the best eggs around!

This of course ignores the up-front costs. But a simple coop / nesting boxes / feeders / waterers can all be built for less than $200.

As for the vacation question, chickens are some of the most self sufficient animals around in the summer months. For our flock of 30, we can get them setup for 5 days with no human intervention. When our vacations are longer than 5 days, we have a caretaker come over once every 5 days ($20 per day) and she gets them setup. If you only have 4-6 hens (like we did at one point), it's easy to get them setup for 7-10 days at a time.

Edited to add: In the winter, they require our attention every day because of freezing water. But not everyone will have that issue.

Your numbers are very close to ours:

0.22 lb/chicken-day vs. 0.25 lb/chicken-day
0.80 eggs/chicken-day vs. 0.63 eggs/chicken-day

$4 per dozen is the going rate around here... you are competing against people selling for $3 per dozen so you really can't go much higher.  Duck eggs get up into the $5 per dozen range.

[JoJo]

Forgot to add my tip about when the chickens get too old for laying.  My sister's kids didn't want to kill and eat them so we came up with the idea to donate them to a local place that takes care of injured bald eagles for food. 

[GuitarStv]

Forgot to add my tip about when the chickens get too old for laying.  My sister's kids didn't want to kill and eat them so we came up with the idea to donate them to a local place that takes care of injured bald eagles for food.

You've chosen to kill them, but don't want to be bothered with killing them?  Seems kinda lazy.  :P

[PDXTabs]

Forgot to add my tip about when the chickens get too old for laying.  My sister's kids didn't want to kill and eat them so we came up with the idea to donate them to a local place that takes care of injured bald eagles for food.

You've chosen to kill them, but don't want to be bothered with killing them?  Seems kinda lazy.  :P

Bald Eagles need to eat too. It really is a lot of work for some tough meat. I do it, but it sure does take a lot of time if you only ever do it once every three years.

[leighb]

We've had chickens for the past 10 years in an urban environment. Regulations here are that you can only have 3 and no roosters. If you buy a pullet you'll know the sex.  Food runs about 30/month and we get 1-2 eggs per day. On average our flock has one old hen who's not laying anymore, but she's paid her dues. One thing that you can't easily buy is that rich dark orange yoke from a well fed happy chicken, they are nothing like the store bought even the humanely raised store bought egg. At least not that I've found.
As for killing, being a vegetarian I thought I might have more of a problem putting a chicken down that was in distress. But as is turns out, it's not that big of deal.
And I agree with others, build your own coop and build it well. Raccoon and most others think chickens taste good.

[Trifle]

We've had chickens for six years and currently have a flock of 13.  We sell our extra eggs and turn a small profit of about $50 per month.  We regard them as pets more than livestock, so we let the old ladies hang out on our "retirement farm" after they stop laying. 

We have no problem going on vacation.  We have a large secure run (hardware cloth buried 18 inches deep all around) attached to the coop, and large feeders/waterers.  They can go 4-5 days with no attention.  For longer trips we have a neighbor come by and take care of them.

For freezing water issues in the winter, you can buy a water heater or build your own for not too much trouble or expense.  There are even DIY plans on line for those that have no access to electricity.   The best design depends a lot on exactly how cold your winters get, but wherever you live -- there is someone living further north with chickens that has figured it out. 

+1 on spending some time building your coop and run right.  Use hardware cloth and not chicken wire.  Make sure there are no gaps or holes bigger than your thumb that a predator could get through.  (Weasels have teeny tiny little heads and shoulders).  Eliminate drafts but maximize ventilation.  Keep it clean and dry so your birds are breathing fresh air, and they will be healthy.  A good coop and run will save you a lot of time and trouble down the road.

[PhilB]

From what everyone has said, it sounds as though they aren't really sensible when looked at from a purely financial perspective, but they are extremely mustachian pets.  Cheap to buy, free eggs and the running costs are chicken feed.


Sorry couldn't resist it.

[TheWifeHalf]

Have a plan to kill, and eat, the old ones

When I was little, I lived on my Grandfather's farm, in a house trailer. I just remember one scene in my head of when he killed the chickens. He had a stump, put the chicken's head down, and WHACK. Then he put the chicken on the ground, to do the next one.
The chicken put down ran around for 5 seconds. I don't know if anyone is old enough to know the phrase 'run around like a chicken with its head cut off' but, they do!

[HPstache]

Have a plan to kill, and eat, the old ones

When I was little, I lived on my Grandfather's farm, in a house trailer. I just remember one scene in my head of when he killed the chickens. He had a stump, put the chicken's head down, and WHACK. Then he put the chicken on the ground, to do the next one.
The chicken put down ran around for 5 seconds. I don't know if anyone is old enough to know the phrase 'run around like a chicken with its head cut off' but, they do!

Then there's the ones that don't stop running...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_the_Headless_Chicken

[nessness]

A related question - what's a good price for chicken feed? I've been paying about 40¢/lb at a local feed store, which seems pretty reasonable to me, but I havent shopped around too much so I don't know if it's cheaper at places like Tractor Supply Co.

[Bracken_Joy]

A related question - what's a good price for chicken feed? I've been paying about 40¢/lb at a local feed store, which seems pretty reasonable to me, but I havent shopped around too much so I don't know if it's cheaper at places like Tractor Supply Co.

What I used to buy was (at the time) $9 for a 50lb bag. Just looked up our local feed store, and it looks like its normally now ~$13.50 for 45lbs. Currently on sale for $11.25. So sub-$0.30/lb should be very doable for a general conventional layer feed.

[Hedge_87]

super stoked today. Our four new chickens (bought in march) started laying! no more freeloading!

[nessness]

A related question - what's a good price for chicken feed? I've been paying about 40¢/lb at a local feed store, which seems pretty reasonable to me, but I havent shopped around too much so I don't know if it's cheaper at places like Tractor Supply Co.

What I used to buy was (at the time) $9 for a 50lb bag. Just looked up our local feed store, and it looks like its normally now ~$13.50 for 45lbs. Currently on sale for $11.25. So sub-$0.30/lb should be very doable for a general conventional layer feed.

Thanks, sounds like it would be worthwhile to shop around!

[clarkfan1979]

My uncle does this in Florida for his family of 9. They have about 20 chickens and get around one dozen eggs per day. So in that case I think it is worth it. I go through about a dozen eggs every two weeks myself, and that costs me around $1 per week, so not worth it for me to do it.

It's going to be more cost effective in warmer climates in which the chickens can eat bugs year round. If you live in a cold climate you have to buy them feed in the winter and they also produce less eggs in the winter.

[nancy33]

When we lived on a few acres we had chickens and roosters running free and they ate bugs and weeds and what not and reproduced. Sometimes we forgot to close the coop at night and sometimes some died but over all it was pretty much free after a few years to have eggs. Roosters u don't want u can advertise free young rooster on Craigslist and they will be taken within a day. We never could eat our chickens.  Moved to town and now we have 6 laying hens penned up. Feed them some chicken food but lots and lots of scraps and weeds from the garden. Get two of the chicken water buckets that hangs and have the water nipples and you will be all set. Fill the water every couple of weeks and feed them your scraps. Great eggs. Store bought cannot compare.

[Villanelle]

For the record, a shelter for chickens is a coop. If the chickens rise up, overthrow their human masters and take over their house, that is a chicken coup.

A MMM musical interlude
https://youtu.be/FQMbXvn2RNI

[Laura Ingalls]

For those of you with chickens, what happens when you go on vacation somewhere?

We don't keep chickens, but we do end up looking after our neighbours' chickens when they go away.  Lock them up at night or, round here at least, the fox WILL get them.  After 20 minutes of frantic chicken and goose wrangling it gets very tempting to leave them for the fox.  Let them out again in the morning and give them some food.

They go to bed when it gets dark... Just wait til a bit later and they will put themselves to bed and save you the hassle.

Sent from my H1623 using Tapatalk

Yep. And if you have to chase them, you're doing it wrong. They're a prey animal, *of course* they will flee. Wait til it's dark and count them- some might roost out, but it's easier to grab them then. If you absolutely can't wait til after dark, then gently herd them like you're doing a cattle drive. Slow, calm, using your arms and finger wiggles to direct them.

Chickens aren't easy, but they sure are fun. They can have big personalities. They're like feathery cats a lot of the time. If you like cats, chances are you'll enjoy chicken personalities. (So long as you aren't raising the white leghorns- they're so overbred they only have neuroses, not personality. The more heritage the breed, the more self sufficient and the more personality they'll have).

Mixed poultry is much harder in this regard.  We had chickens, turkeys and Ginnes(I know I spelled that wrong) they had a specific order they had to go in and the giennies always resisted going first even though the turkeys thought they should go in first. 

Whenever I have been asked about the cost effectiveness of laying hens I always ask people how many eggs they get from their cats.  We loved our “chicken TV” and miss them as they are not legal in our present location

[PhilB]

For those of you with chickens, what happens when you go on vacation somewhere?

We don't keep chickens, but we do end up looking after our neighbours' chickens when they go away.  Lock them up at night or, round here at least, the fox WILL get them.  After 20 minutes of frantic chicken and goose wrangling it gets very tempting to leave them for the fox.  Let them out again in the morning and give them some food.

They go to bed when it gets dark... Just wait til a bit later and they will put themselves to bed and save you the hassle.

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Yep. And if you have to chase them, you're doing it wrong. They're a prey animal, *of course* they will flee. Wait til it's dark and count them- some might roost out, but it's easier to grab them then. If you absolutely can't wait til after dark, then gently herd them like you're doing a cattle drive. Slow, calm, using your arms and finger wiggles to direct them.

Chickens aren't easy, but they sure are fun. They can have big personalities. They're like feathery cats a lot of the time. If you like cats, chances are you'll enjoy chicken personalities. (So long as you aren't raising the white leghorns- they're so overbred they only have neuroses, not personality. The more heritage the breed, the more self sufficient and the more personality they'll have).

Mixed poultry is much harder in this regard.  We had chickens, turkeys and Ginnes(I know I spelled that wrong) they had a specific order they had to go in and the giennies always resisted going first even though the turkeys thought they should go in first. 

Whenever I have been asked about the cost effectiveness of laying hens I always ask people how many eggs they get from their cats.  We loved our “chicken TV” and miss them as they are not legal in our present location

That's re-assuring as the ones giving me problems were a mixture of chickens and geese.  In particular trying to get the chickens out of the goose shed and into their own sheds!