With all the new kids in the house and the cold winter still upon us, we are craving something that says "spring is coming" so I have finally decided on getting 20 new laying hens. Since they won't lay until they are about 5 months old, if we get them mid February, they should start to lay mid summer. With 25 hens, we should have all the eggs we need, so I decided to start looking at the numbers again.
With 7 of us currently in the house, kids ages 12,10,7,4,9 months, baby chicks are the best thing to keep us in good spirits. We will keep them in the house brooder for 3 weeks, then move into the shed in a small insulated pen until warmer weather. Keeping chicks in the winter costs a bit more and is more time consuming, as we need to go outside to check on them after brooding is over. On the up side of this, we will have a full summer and fall of laying before the egg production slows down. With 25 laying, we should have enough eggs even in the winter and an abundance in the summer to sell, give, or trade off.
A full size layer eats about 1/4 lb of feed daily. Some of this is free, with ranging and bugs and such, but for the sake of argument we just say that amount is used daily. So, Suzy Chicken eats 90# of feed a year, costing about $19.00 annually. Let's add in the cost of the chick and other supplies and call it $22.00 year. A layer that is not stressed out should lay for 2 years regularly and then in later seasons start laying larger eggs but less often.
With 6 months laying this year(July-December) we should get about 120 eggs or 10 dozen this year from her. 10 dozen eggs is worth $30 for our free range eggs. So, this bird cost us $22 all in and made us $30, for a profit of $8 this year. Next year, she should easily lay 14 dozen eggs worth $42 for a profit next year of $20 per chicken. After another year, we drop off production and she pays for herself and becomes a stew bird when she molts the second time (maybe third, depending on how things go)
We then have a chicken to eat and hopefully raise her own replacements. This is the plan for subsequent years, but this year buying chicks is going to work out better for me.
Back to the accounting. If a chicken costs $22 yearly, including feed, replacement, and other unspecified costs, we have 25 layers that profit us a huge profit of $200 yearly, for the trouble of having to tend to them, change bedding, care for sick ones, etc. Not exactly a profitable venture when you figure in time and labor. But, the kids do all the work, we get free manure, and the joy of having little cluckers wandering around eating bugs and they are so fun to watch. The kids learn a lot about nature and how to care for animals.
The meat birds are a whole different picture. They make a profit in a much shorter time. From hatch to table(or sale bag) they eat $5 in feed, $1 per chick, $3 to butcher, and $1 in gas and misc costs. We raise 100 at a time, and require little work. We have sold our birds for $4 lb whole, averaging a profit of $8 per bird including losses and misc. costs. This takes 10-12 weeks and makes about $800 for 30 hours of labor. Not a bad profit on backyard chickens, and again the kids do most of the work and learn a lot, enjoying themselves all the while and learning critical life skills.
I will go deeper into the business later for those who would like to raise some meat birds or eggers. For now, I have a shed to clean out to make room for more chickens. Have a great day.
Mark
