value for money????

[Nicos]

Just being thinking....

My bantams weigh about 1/4 of that of the Marans- and yet the eggs are half their size- and they lay more often.

Does that make them twice as good value for money when you think of how much feed they're getting.
Also I can fit 2 banties on the perch where a Marans sits- so does that make them 4x more value for money????

I know it's not really about value for money but it's certainly something to think about!!

[chris]

I worked mine out in terms of monetary gain/loss. I didn't get them for that, but if you asked anyone about me in work - they'd probably mention I'm batty about finance/money. I constantly work things out, and for example, to give you an idea of how "odd" I am, I constantly email/phone my mortgage provider and ask to increase payments by �x (even say �30 for 1 month (or whatever it works out to on the term re-adjustment) - great provider - can change my term at any time, as often as I like OT, but if I have spare money at the end of a month, I'll phone and alter the term to take that out my bank, then as soon as it's gone - phone back and re-adjust the term to take the payments back to what they are. Doing this, I've so far saved 9 years off my mortgage !

So, my birds churn eggs out at 5p each - which I work out as saving me �1.20/week if I were to buy decent quality eggs (although I get a lot more eggs tahn I used to buy now!)... so if I took that into consideration it'd save me... *works it out* �4.20 a week -- assuming I'd have been buying 21 eggs a week. I once even went as far as working out the average egg laid per day, to take into consideration the 3 days when one missed laying, and the length of time the broody hen went without laying . I need help.

So... how much did you coop cost? How much is your feed? How many chooks do you have? Pass the pen and paper love!

[Nicos]

Ha ha!!!...you'd have a field day with my finances!!!

Tis OK- no need to do the maths

...it was just the thought of size of hen to egg weigh/production ratio!!

[Mikey]

I can't remember when I was first looking at getting chickens, there was a bantam that produced an egg about two thirds the size of it full sized hen equivalent. what was it called........

Oh and Chirs, you need to get out more.

Are you sure you're not welsh!!, I think you are from Cardiganshire personally.

[squibbs]

We have costed most things - the coops were the major outlay - even the ones I build myself were expensive enough.We even costed the boxes we sell our eggs in - (8p - though I can't work out the cost of the ink just the boxes and labels)

Although bantams may need less food per egg, the eggs are smaller and we sell about 75% of our eggs laid - and I doubt we would have as many buyers with small eggs, so for us it wouldn't make economical sense.

[RichmondHens]

I've never costed anything up as such, but over the years my bantams have outperformed my large fowl big time. They work hard all year round, when not brooding they are laying, irrespective of season, although brooding is mainly done spring and summer and then they all return to lay come the autumn and this winter have surpassed themselves with the eggs produced despite the awful weather. The LF do their usual thing of laying Jan/Feb through to August/September then moult then "rest" till the following Jan.

I've had bantam eggs for sale all year round so I can honestly say that for me they are much better value than the LF. But I love both so will always keep little and large and the range of egg sizes and colours looks great.

[VirginVegGrower]

But Marans hens lay such gorgeous eggs. It's quality over quantity for me I'm afraid and if James Bond was real he would tell you - they are his favourite egg apparently.