Frugal Chickens

[pmk]

I recently decided to go for adding chickens to our "homestead" and was shocked how much you can spend on the start up. Here is what I did instead:

Asking paid off. I just posted on facebook if anyone had a coop for sale. A friend had two too many and we snagged the one that fit on our truck for free (is a recycled crate with chicken wire covering, we had to add a roof and more chicken wire spent ~$60 on materials)

Got 2 chicks for $3 ea from a friend

Asked my meat CSA farmers if he had any extra chicks and they gave me 4 1 year old hens for FREE as they had too many at the time and were just going to slaughter some.

Part of the fencing was picket and posts we picked up from a neighbors pile, and some new purchased chicken wire.

All in all between the food, materials, bedding and waterer, we spent under $200 for 4 hens and 2 chicks! Not free, but considering coops can cost 3 times as much, I feel pretty good about it!

[cdttmm]

Nicely done!

I would really like to have chickens, but between the foxes, coyotes, bobcats, and fisher cats, I don't think they would last too long. Unless we built the Fort Knox equivalent of a chicken coop.

[Rosy]

Kudos!
Good to remember sometimes just asking will do the trick - a la - "Ask and you shall receive:)"

My son just got some chicks - so hopefully I will have fresh eggs one day soon. They all have names already, so I'm sure there will be no slaughtering any time soon.

[deterra_k]

I wish we had done a better job at reducing the start up costs of keeping chickens. We have had them for a few years now. I use ruff-cut lumber to reduce the cost now and even recycle parts. One coop I made was from an old rear-projection TV. I used the back as a roof. Works great!

Anyway, I can share some data on egg laying production. --i.e., what are the chickens really worth to you is proportional to the amount of eggs they produce. Data from our chickens is at my web site. https://sites.google.com/site/deterrak/back-yard-chickens

I've got some pictures of our chickens and the coops on-line.

Maybe the data will help you right size your flock for your families consumption.

[wienerdog]

Are those relatively new chicks?  The egg production seems a little down but I suppose your data is in the cold season.  What type of chicks are they?  I had 5 hens and I was getting either 4 or 5 a day.  I have lost 1 to a fox and 1 to a hawk.  Now I get 2 a day as one is broody and sitting on an egg.  She has cracked or damaged the others she started with and only has 1 egg left.  Hoping she will hatch a chick to get the numbers back up. 

[Turnbull]

Nicely done!

I would really like to have chickens, but between the foxes, coyotes, bobcats, and fisher cats, I don't think they would last too long. Unless we built the Fort Knox equivalent of a chicken coop.

Same problem here. We used to free range ours but lost them constantly to predators. We decided we'd rather have them in a coop than not at all so we built a good enclosure and haven't had much problem since.

Another way to make keeping chickens more frugal (if they're not free range) is to rake up your grass clippings after they dry. Bag them and store them for the winter. I pull one out of a storage building every once in a while and throw the hay into the pen. The chickens love scratching around in the pile and eating the seeds and the grass. Not sure it saves a whole lot on the feed bill but every little bit helps, they like it, and it's good healthy food for them.

[Miss Prim]

We have had a few batches of layers for quite a while now.  Yesterday I visited my old work place (retired) and had breakfast with the group.  They had no scrambled eggs in the cafeteria!  I asked why they didn't have any.  They said egg shortage.  I knew that avian 'flu was a problem, but I haven't had to buy eggs for years so was totally surprised by this!

Guess I should start selling my organic free range eggs for big bucks!

                                                                                               Miss Prim

[Penny Lane]

I haven't really added up the start up; we have a small barn they partially occupy.  I split the eggs with a family who cares for them when I'm out of town.  They free range during the day, and I've built little fortresses around garden things I'd rather they not eat ( I grow kale for the in their "kale forest" but they insist on getting into MY kale), all using various scraps of other things.  However, I discovered this week that they have chicken lice, first time in 10 years, so I will have to get something spendy to deal with that.  I haven't had to buy compost in years so that's a savings.

[mrsggrowsveg]

Nicely done!  One frugal thing we do that you can think of in the future is hatch your own eggs.  We like to keep around 20 chickens.  We hatch out at least 20 eggs and then sell our hens at around 1 1/2 years old on Craigslist.  We even have repeat customers who like our healthy mixed birds.  This way our production is always high and we don't have the big startup cost of chickens every few years.

[Erica/NWEdible]

The real bounty of chickens isn't the eggs, it's the compost. (Relevant blog post.) I no longer believe it's even really possible to have a healthy, moderately self sustaining agricultural or garden system without productive help from animals, and chickens are just awesome for this.