How Much Does it Cost to Raise Chickens?

To offset the rising price of eggs, my family is thinking about raising a few chickens. Raising chickens would save us nearly $150 a year on our grocery bill and keep us supplied with fresh, organic eggs.

Our community, as do many others, allows its residents to raise a few chickens in their back yard under certain conditions. These conditions may include limiting the size of the flock, prohibiting roosters, and protecting neighbors from undesirable noise and odors. As long as these conditions are met, our town doesn't have a problem with us keeping up to three chickens.

While there is no arguing that home grown eggs are better than store bought, our question was how cost effective is would be to raise our own chickens for a steady supply of eggs.

Basic supplies to start with

Our family paid a visit to a local farm store to get some more information and to price the different pieces of equipment we'd need.

Most laying hens are bought as day old chicks. These tiny chicks range in price from $2-$5 each, depending on the breed. While the store guarantees a 90% accuracy in sexing them properly, chances are you could still end up with a rooster or two. Since chicks are only available for a limited season (Mid March to the end of April), it's best to buy a few more than you need in case one either dies, or turns out to be a rooster.
Cost of chicks: $10-$30

Baby chicks need the warmth of a heat lamp for their first 6 weeks of life.
A heat lamp with reflector guard and clamp runs about $18. While the chicks are young, they can be kept in a cardboard box, but have to be moved to a larger container at 2 weeks. It was recommended that a 2 week old needs at least one square feet of space; for the four or five chicks we were looking at buying, a container measuring 5 square feet is necessary. Fresh bedding material is a must, bales of straw or bundles of pine shavings cost about $10 for a 6 week supply.
Cost of brooding supplies: $28 plus a supply of big boxes

In addition to a lamp, feeders and waterers are also necessary, and of course, chick feed. An 8 week supply of chick feed runs $7.
Cost of a basic feeder, waterer and feed $17-27

The bottom line as we saw it, that just to bring home some tiny chicks with all the things they need to stay alive, a backyard chicken farmer can expect to pony up at least $55 in upfront costs.

First year supplies

By the time chicks reach 6-8 weeks of age, they will have developed feathers and the weather will be warmer.

At this point they will need a coop that contains at least one 18" nesting box for each hen, plus 8 square feet of fenced run. For 3 chickens, a run of 24 square feet is about the minimum size requirement.

We priced a no frills chicken coop and prefabricated run at a livestock farm store for a cost of $189.00. The local pet store also offers a chicken coop for the whopping price of $300 with the fenced run costing more. We decided to convert the back end of our horse stable into a coop instead, and will build our own run using scrap wood and chicken wire. 150 running feed of 72" chicken wire costs about $50.
Total cost for coop and other stuff: $50-$400.

Food

According to my neighbors who raise chickens, they let their chickens "graze" in the yard by day, and by night, they coax them into the run with some chicken feed. Chicken feed runs about $15 for a 40# bag, and I would expect that over the course of a year, we'd probably buy at least two bags of the stuff. In addition to the feed, there's other supplements that will be necessary to keep the chickens healthy and the eggs strong. These supplements are found in every price point.
Total cost: $40-50

The bottom line

So, is it worth the cost? Chickens lay on average about 18 to 20 dozen eggs a year. With three laying chickens, that's a grocery savings of approximately $144 to $160; more, if a person is buying organic range eggs from the store.

But, even if you can get by with cobbling together a coop out of found materials, you still can expect to spend a minimum up front cost of $140 for the first year. Since chickens won't start laying eggs until 5 months of age, and stop laying when there's less than 12 hours of daylight, those start up costs won't be recovered via grocery savings until the beginning of the third year. If you sprung for a manufactured coop, it will take even longer.

There's no arguing that raising chickens is a wonderful experience for children and gathering those fresh, organic, free range eggs is really quite satisfying. But, when it comes to saving money, a back yard farmer won't see any real savings for at least two or three years.