Cost of feeding chooks...........

[Snadger]

With the price of layers pellets seemingly rising every week (tied in with the price of wheat) I'm beginning to think I may have to cut down on the amount of chooks I have.

This should be achievable through natural wastage through a period of time as I have a selection of varying ages.

My feed bill has now went up from the approximate �10 a week I was paying three years ago to my present outlay of about �15 a week.

It doesn't help when you have one cockerel to every two hens though. Those eight cockerels need whittling down to two or three methinks!

[ladylottie]

Two of the blokes on my allotment site have been keeping chickens between them now for a lot of years and I've been buying some lovely eggs from them for ages. About a couple of months ago they suddenly told everyone that there wouldn't be any more eggs as they couldn't justify the cost of keeping the hens cos the price of feed had gone up too much.

The hens went, the full plot has been re-let and the new bloke has working very hard to get the ground ready for planting.

That said, I really miss hearing the chooks when I go up the lottie and going in to the run to collect my eggs. They were such characters.

Try not to give up your chooks Snadge, just get rid of a few of those cockerels!

[Snadger]

Not getting rid of my hens ladyl.............I'll always have chooks til the day I die! (Just in moderation)

[baldrick]

ive got a lovely old reprint of a wartime book called keeping rabbits and poultry on scraps. its in waterstones and is very entertaining and quite informative.....may cut your food bill a bit!

[Snadger]

ive got a lovely old reprint of a wartime book called keeping rabbits and poultry on scraps. its in waterstones and is very entertaining and quite informative.....may cut your food bill a bit!

Not allowed these days...EU carp an all that!!! At one time chooks could be fed on scraps alone, including meat (they are omnivores and worms are meat ain't they?) Not now though..........now they have to be fed on over the counter chook food which is getting dearer by the day!

[VirginVegGrower]

More than the cost of eggs for sure but shop bought eggs are nothing like fresh plus I love my ladies and they love the slugs and snails. They are also going to save me in compost and manure feeds. At least that's what I keep telling myself. We only have four though. It's bedding and worming and all the other bits that tot up too.

[Glutton4...]

As another Chook owner said on here a while back; She chucks out the scraps for the wild birds, she can't help it if the Chooks get some!

[chris]

Bloke up my plot gives them wheat to scratch at, and thats doubled in price for �2/bag to �4 direct from the farm :/

I just bought a different brand, from petsathome and itw as �10.49 for a sack of layers pellets, compared to farmgate, �6 - that was quite a jump. They seem to prefer the farmgate ones though. Probably as that's what they had before me, not sure.

... but if you break it down to the cost per egg, it's still pence and much better than buying them from the shop, as you know the conditions and what they're fed. There are the other costs as VVG says, but I factored them in my calculations anyway.

[Suechooks]

Mine are my retirement hobby so I expect them to cost me to keep them. However the extra aggs we have do actually pay for their feed so its only extras that have to be paid for. Much cheaper than when I bred and showed dogs!

[BUFFS]

do you just feed your chooks the pellets/mash ?,i know they say fat chooks dont lay eggs but ours get any leftover pasta,cooked tattie peelings,all the dandelion leaves from flower garden etc,they get some cabbage leaves and a big carrot hung up in their area after i clean them out each day and in the cold winters days they get cheapo rice just before they retire,all these things costs pennies(i grow 30 swiss chard on veg plot so they get that july onwards)and so they dont make such an impact on the pellets,but they only get pellets til 2 pm,and they always give us max eggs the day after the potato peelings.i wonder just how high the prices of pellets/corn will go before we will all have to look at our numbers of chooks,it seems the banks are now moving into the futures markets,driving the prices up even more,i dont want to eat chickens etc that tesco has shipped all the way from peru, because thats where they buy them, and i couldnt go back to eating their eggs,tasteless,at worst ,i will not replace any that i lose until i am getting just enough for us,no sales or gifts, so why is it that its nearly 40% dearer to just survive here than anywhere else in europe?, and even cheaper to live in the states....

[Mikey]

Of course you also have to factor into your equations waste. Chicken poop is a valuable commodity, and if you are able to keep them on the plot they are also very good at clearing ground, which is time consuming to do yourself.

My ladies are definately not cost effective if I just factor in the eggs to feed, but when you add in the soil improver, grass clipping, and entertainment they are worth it I believe.

[BUFFS]

can you imagine now being without their daft antics,when you feel down,just a trip outside to see the looney tunes does the trick for me..

[chris]

Yup, my wife said to me, we'll probably have chickens "forever" now. I should hope so too, the bloomin run cost me enough to build

[polo]

More than the cost of eggs for sure but shop bought eggs are nothing like fresh plus I love my ladies and they love the slugs and snails. They are also going to save me in compost and manure feeds. At least that's what I keep telling myself. We only have four though. It's bedding and worming and all the other bits that tot up too.

That's exactly how I look at it too - free manure for the lottie, the garden gets de-slugged, great eggs and the amusement I get from them.

[VirginVegGrower]

I believe we are all agreed, our little feathered friends are worth their weight in golden eggs. I always wanted them and I am so pleased we took the plunge. Look at the wo-man hours I am saved in scraping weed out of the gravel - they do it for me.
They had nicey boiled ricey which they love to wear up their beaks and in their feathers. They make my day...wot recession?!
;-)