are chooks cost effective?

[ckfe]

i don't actually have any but was just wondering if ppl have chickens purely because they like them or because of the eggs?

what i mean is, is it cheaper to buy the chooks and feed and whatever else ya need or would it be a lot cheaper just to go to the supermarket and buy eggs.. also what do you do with all the eggs?? (and how many do they lay each?)

would really love some btw

[RichmondHens]

Ha ha, no it's not cost effective, although I try to sell enough eggs to cover feed costs. Buying hens is expensive (£20 + for pure breeds pol), a little cheaper for hybrids or cross breeds. I raise my own, but occasionally get in hatching eggs from other sources and the odd cock that is unrelated. Hen housing is expensive - even if you build your own there is still the outlay for wood etc.

I guess we all do it for the LOVE of it. Chickens clucking in the garden is something I've had all my life, and can't really imagine not having any.

The eggs are far superior to those from any supermarket though, but during the spring and summer months I guess we are all struggling to find new ways of cooking eggs (I bake loads of cakes and the children eat them boiled/scrambled/fried several days a week). Who wants to start up a Recipes using lots of eggs thread?

[pdblake]

We spent about £100 buying four brown hens, building the run and house, feeder and bits and bobs, the first bag of organic layers pellets and a bag of grit. The feed lasts five weeks or so when supllemented by greens and costs £7.85 for 20kg. The grit will last about another month by my reckoning so has lasted three months altogether and cost about 50p ish.

The hens are bog standard brown hens, £5.50 each, and bred specifically for egg laying. These are the hens they use in battery farms I believe.

You may need to take things like worming and de-lousing into account at some time but we've not needed to do either yet. I'm a big believer in not treating them until they need it (you wouldn't take a paracetemol just in case you might get a headache).

Call it £100 a year altogether-ish. (sounds a lot put together like that )

What I get in return is, on average, one egg each a day, that's two dozen large/very large organic eggs a week, which cost, in our local Tesco, £2 for half a dozen. There's £416 a year for a start.

I also get a black bin of chicken manure roughly once every few months. This will probably rot down to be a bucket full, but a bucket sized container of chicken manure pellets costs a fiver a throw, and it's good stuff too. So, another £20 quid's worth a year maybe.

You'll also get the best tasting eggs you've ever had. I made an omellet the other night and I can't remember ever seeing an omellete quite so yellow

[Hilary B]

On average, taking into consideration ALL costs, and only 'pricing' the eggs (supermarket standard free-range prices) it probably just breaks even for those who don't get carried away with cost of housing and such (that was what we found when I kept chooks mainly for eggs).
Some will do better than that, some worse.
Extra advantages are
better, fresher eggs
manure for the garden
all the fun of owning chooks.

[ckfe]

have you all got them on allotments etc or has anyone got any in their back garden?

[ckfe]

oh and here's a really dumb question.. why do you call them chooks (ie chickens) when they're really hens? are hens female chickens? cos the males are cocks aren't they? (no pun intended......... or was there?)

[Two_Sheds]

are hens female chickens?

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yep
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[pdblake]

Ours are in the back garden. And yes the females are hens and the males cockerals.

Not sure why people call them chooks though, too many Aussie soaps on the telly?

[janeyo]

Our hens cost £10 each (I have 3), the run etc was built by OH and cost about £60. Then we had to fox proof it all which cost a lot more in chicken wire etc. The we had to get some onduline as the lid leaked.
The feed costs about £7 every 4 weeks.
We also had to buy the feeder, drinker, grit, oystershell, bedding, wormer, mite powder... (but still got the originals of all of these 15 months on)

Mine laid one a day each for a year and now slightly less in their second year, so about 20 eggs a week. I don't sell mine unless people at school ask for some (£1 for 6)

So no they are not cost effective - but they will be if I still have the same hens in about 50 years lol. They are great fun though

[Nicos]

I think if you eat any males you breed then you'd be certainly making a profit- a free range chook over here starts at about 12 Euro- so from a clutch of say 10 chicks you'd get 5 cocks (ish) which would cost about £50.
Mother hen won't lay for about 10 weeks- so averaging 6 eggs a week that's 60 eggs - 5 dozen- at £2 a dozen (ish)???? =£10 ish loss from lack of eggs

Tis a bit tricky to work out for me cos mine free range- which must be much cheaper on food.

If you'd really love some- then go for it- they're lots of fun and quite like pets which actually reward you with more than a cuddle ( remember you get the droppings too for the fruit and veg!!!)

Go for it!!!!!

[ckfe]

Ours are in the back garden. And yes the females are hens and the males cockerals.

Not sure why people call them chooks though, too many Aussie soaps on the telly?

yeah and now it's driving me mad that i can't think of the aussie soap that i was watching when i first heard the chook word.. there were some ppl (especially the woman) who was doing the self suffiency thing

think there was a busybody called esme in it.. any ideas?

[ckfe]

Ours are in the back garden. And yes the females are hens and the males cockerals.

how big is your back garden? ours isn't huge

[Nicos]

origin of the word chook......

World Wide Words: Chook

[Nicos]

I have had a mixture of chicks,pullets,hens ,cockerels...no idea when they grow up from one phase to another...tis easier to say chook!!!

[ckfe]

origin of the word chook......

World Wide Words: Chook

ohhhhhhh i just read that and it mentions that they're called chuckies too... i remember when i was little (about 35 years ago) my mum used to ask me if i wanted a chucky egg!!.. maybe it's not such a new word after all