Elevating your personal chickens shouldn’t be cheaper than shopping for eggs
Individuals who elevate egg-laying chickens in Maine achieve this for lots of causes. A return on funding shouldn’t be one in every of them.
With eggs averaging round $5.50 a dozen — and nearer to $10 for a dozen natural eggs — in Maine, individuals are on the lookout for methods to save lots of on prices on the grocery retailer. However in case you’re contemplating whether or not it could be cheaper to start out your personal yard flock of egg-laying hens, those that do warn that it not solely received’t prevent cash in the long term, however will seemingly find yourself costing you far more.
Based mostly on some comparative pricing arithmetic and opinions of skilled rooster keepers within the state, the choice is not going to lower down your prices. However for some, the additional bills of home-raised eggs is value realizing the place your meals is coming from.
However, that price can’t be ignored.
Kelly Russell has performed the egg math primarily based on her household’s three dozen-eggs-a-month behavior, fed by between 20 and 25 laying-hens.
“On the retailer [the eggs] would price me $18 a month,” she mentioned. “They eat about 8 kilos of grain a day so it’s costing me $3.52 a day to feed the chickens.”
It could take a whole lot, even 1000’s of {dollars} to start out a flock of egg-laying chickens. .
“The price of elevating them will differ, however my 40 hens price me $200 per week with 10 hours of labor,” mentioned Christy Fletcher of Corinth.
The price of 2-day-old egg-laying hens is $4.76 every from one of many nation’s high producers Murray McMurray. Based mostly in Iowa, the corporate straight mails reside chicks starting in Could and there’s a minimal of six chicks per order.
Statewide, the prices per chick can vary from that quantity. The advantages of shopping for native means you get to select your personal chicks and there may be typically no minimal quantity to purchase. Make sure to ask earlier than shopping for if these chicks arrived by means of the mail from producers in different states in case your aim is supporting native rooster breeders.
Additionally, you will must verify that there aren’t any native ordinances prohibiting you from preserving poultry in your municipality.
When you get the chicks residence, they’ll must be housed in a brooder with fixed warmth. A brooder could be so simple as a toddler’s wading pool or perhaps a sturdy cardboard field that may preserve the chicks contained and safe.
For a warmth supply, a regular brood lamp is round $12.
No matter what your brooder is made from, it must be lined with a bedding of wooden chips or straw at present costing between $5 and $10 per sq. bale and $7.19 per cubic yard, respectively, across the state. That bedding will must be cleaned out and adjusted each few days.
Most likely the one largest rise in price on the subject of chickens is feed. It has greater than doubled over the previous a number of years.
The value of chick feed in Maine is averaging round 44 cents per pound for normal feed and double for natural feed. Every chick wants about 17 kilos of meals earlier than they attain egg-laying age. From that time on, every chook goes to eat round one-quarter pound of grownup rooster feed a day.
Common rooster feed is working round 60 cents per pound, with natural round 70 cents per pound.
Grownup chickens want a coop. The quantity you spend constructing a coop is determined by how a lot or little work you wish to put in. Pre-built coops can run $1,000 or extra. However you may also construct your personal out of scrap lumber and boards. You too can repurpose issues like a toddler’s playhouse, an previous backyard shed and even an previous swing-set for a coop.
When establishing your coop, understand that you want 10 sq. ft per chook of ground area and 10 to 12 inches of perch area per chook.
For a dependable dozen eggs per week, it’ll take at the least three chickens, as every hen can lay between 4 and 5 eggs per week.
None of this takes into consideration your price in time establishing a flock and the year-round care it wants.
Provided that an egg-laying hen will solely produce its first egg at round 5 months previous, your first dozen could possibly be far costlier than in case you merely bought the eggs from the shop or a neighborhood farmer. And overlook about making any of that cash again in egg gross sales.
“To promote an egg off the farm for revenue, I determine I’d want $30 a dozen, [so] it’s clearly cheaper to purchase them,” Fletcher mentioned. “But it surely’s not about price for me — it’s about not leaving residence and the care they get.”
Russell sells her extra eggs, however even at $4 a dozen asking value, she doesn’t start to interrupt even. Particularly since all these chickens must be fed throughout winter months after they cease laying.
“I believe for a lot of, having a cleaner meals supply [and] realizing your animals are properly taken care of outweighs the fee,” Bell mentioned.
“While you think about the price of the chicks, the feed whereas not producing and the time wanted to get to manufacturing, it’s a no brainer that even now store-bought eggs are cheaper.”
