re: Anyone planning on getting chickens with the current price of eggs?

I think it would be cool.


But, we have 3 farmers within 2 miles of our house who have boxes out by the road and they put dozens of eggs out daily and ask $4. They have a lock box to put the money in. They keep doing it, so I guess people are paying.
They have duck eggs too, but I never bought any.

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Chickens will always pay for themselves, with a little leftover. Buying the coop, feeders, watered, etc is where you run into problems if you don’t have a bunch of hens. Throw a secure shelter together with scrap lumber, buy some wire and sit back and enjoy their antics. Any kitchen scraps you can give them will cut down on your feed costs.

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Agreed, this is my take as well. I have a small operation of 8 hens and a blue ribbon Roo. The initial setup put me in the hole for a spell but now I think I profit, eggs anyway. I buy a 50 pound bag of layer feed from Outpost in Walker for about $16. it will feed them for about a month or longer. I get the same deal on "scratch" that they get each morning. I have a hen house I got from Tractor Supply about 4 years ago. I think it ran about 300 bucks then but like everything they went up during knuckle heads term.
The coop is connected to a completely enclosed "run" that they are free from at dawn. From there they go into a chicken yard to spend the day. Every afternoon I let them out and into my back yard for about an hour.
They get some "free range" time then, eating bugs, worms etc. They WILL destroy some (most?) plants if left to.
All things considered, for us it's a joy. We have probably 6 or 7 dozen eggs in the kitchen right now. We use very few and give the rest away, free, to neighbors, family and friends.

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We’ve been keeping chickens for 5 years, up to about 25 laying hens and 5 useless roosters the kids won’t let me kill. I’m looking for any excuse to get rid of them honestly. They’re a push on eggs vs feed costs but the rats are relentless unless I keep poison out constantly.

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I often wonder if the eggs are with the cost of feed. I let them free range from about 10:00am until dusk and have had great luck against hawks, because they are completely protected in their run until 10:00 and the hawk should have caught a mouse or something by that point and shouldn’t be hungry. Our outside cats make short work of any mouse or rat (or squirrel). I just don’t understand someone complaining about rats in the hen house but they ain’t figured out they can get cats.

I have 10 right now. They free range during the day and I keep them penned up at night and most of the time when I’m at work. Once you get the coop and run set up they’re pretty easy to take care of. I enjoy the fresh eggs and don’t pay much mind to if I have or will ever break even. I enjoy it.

I’ll probably get a couple more this spring. I usually have 12-14 but lose one every 6 months or so to some type of predator.

frick that. You won’t save any money and they’re nasty little frickers. Not to mention they attract predators. I grew up on a chicken farm, I hate them so much.