How much does it cost to keep chickens? (2024)

If you're considering keeping chickens in your backyard, you're probably wondering: How much will it cost and is it worth it? Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to the question of “worth it,” because it really depends on your WHY. Do you want fresh eggs? Do you want to know where your food comes from? Do you want to sell eggs? OR Do you want to save money on buying eggs? Depending on your WHY, it may or may not be worth it to you. However, I will give you a quick answer about the cost you came here for. Keep in mind that the price tag for raising chickens will vary for everyone (depending on so many factors). But for us,it costs $1900 to raise 4 chickens the first year, so$35/month($420/year) thereafter.It took us approx$1500 for one-time costs to get started 4 chickensin a modest but large outdoor habitat (I discuss all the start-up costs for raising chickens and details about our habitat setup later in this blog post).

Below is a breakdown of all the first year expenses to raise our 4 sea chickens (so far, and a full year cost projection). The items** are ongoing costs:

Is it financially worth keeping chickens?

The short answer is thatIt may take 2 to 4 years for your investment to pay off financiallyfor the average person who keeps chickens in the backyard, but then it is financially worth it. If you have enough chickens, you can also sell eggs at places like the local farmer's market and make lasting profits.

It costs between $0.50 and $0.85 per egg at the grocery store, depending on where you buy your eggs, what type, are they organic, free range, etc. So if your household4 eggs/day x 365 days= 1460 eggs/year; in the supermarket, those eggswould cost on the low end of $730/year ($0.50/egg) or $890/year ($0.61/egg) for an average price.

You can also take into account the gas consumption to go to the supermarket in your calculations. We live in the middle of nowhere and it takes 25 minutes to get to the nearest small market that sells eggs, so gas is a bigger factor for us than most. We also grow a lot of our vegetables and order our frozen and pantry foods online, so we don't go to the grocery store much these days. This means that if we just went for things like eggs, gas costs would rise quickly.

Most chickens start laying and producing around 5-7 months (20-28 weeks old).up to 250 eggs per year(about 1 egg per day in warmer months and less in winter and when they molt). When they start laying will largely depend on the type of chicken and in what season you get them as chickens. So if you have chicks in late summer that reach laying age in winter, it can delay when they start laying as they need to conserve energy to stay warm. Either way, you won't get much return on your investment in the first year.

For reference, 2 Buff Orpingtons both started laying at 6 months old (in winter). They typically lay one egg per day (or every other day). But our 2 Easter Egger chickens didn't start laying until about 8 months, and now they typically lay one egg per day.

As you can see, depending on your egg consumption, how many chickens/chicks you raise, how old they are when you get them, personal preferences for their habitat, whether you plan to sell eggs (in which case you can make money), and geography, the time it takes for backyard chickens to pay off financially, varies greatly.

Start-up costs for raising chickens

Chickens

First of all, you want chickens or chickens.Day old chicks cost $3-$30/chickand they usually have a minimum quantity you must purchase (usually 3-5 chicks). You can get them from Tractor Supply, other agricultural stores, or directly from hatcheries.

You can also buy day-old chicks online on various websites such asChickens for backyards. You can alsobuy 15-20 week old hens (chicks due to lay eggs soon) for $30 per chick.Here isa websitewho sells hatched chickens.

We personally purchased four-day-old chicks (because that was the minimum you could buy) from Tractor Supply for about $20 (~$5 per chick) in June 2022.

Habitat for chicken

Chicks (0-6 weeks old) need 7 things for their habitat:

• incubator($0-200) you can buy this or make it from household items such as a cardboard box or plastic container
• hot plateOFheat lamp($15-$75)
• feeder(5-20 USD)
• starter/breed chicken feedfrom 0-18 weeks ($10-$50/bag)
• water container(5-20 USD)
• water
• bedding($5-50/bag depending on material, more info below)

We spent less than $100 to set up our coop/habitat for our chickens.We used a cardboard box in a dog kennel (to protect them from our dogs and fledged ones as they grew) and placed their incubators in our laundry room in our house until the chicks were six weeks old. We boughtthis hob with anti-sleep coneinstead of a heat lamp as it is less dangerous (less chance of fire) and requires less energy/power (since we don't have an electric grid and run all our electricity on solar energy, this is important to us).

When your chicks have feathers and can better regulate their body temperature (about 6 weeks old), it is usually safe to place them in their outdoor habitat.

Your adult chickens need a house and a run.Coop is where they sleep, lay eggs and hang out when the weather is bad. It is generally recommended that a chicken coop have at least one4 square meters of space/bird. A chicken coop should also include nest boxes, above-ground perches, good ventilation and protection from invading predators. A run is a space separate from where they sleep, where they can run around, take mud baths, etc.A chicken coop should ideally have that 8 square meters of space/bird.

A chicken coop will probably be the most expensive part of raising chickens. But the good news is that it is only a one-time expense and a good home will last for many years.You can get prefab chicken coops from $150-$5000+ dollarsdepending on size and quality. You can also save money by making your own. You can be great tooprefab metal chickens cost less than $200. You can buy an attached chicken coop, place a small coop in a prefab chicken coop or make it attached.

We bought a small one ourselveschicken coop/run online for $240(on Amazon) which required assembly. It's okay (and it works even if you're just starting out), but we had to make a LOT of changes to make it more suitable. We are planning to convert a barn into a shed this spring and honestly feel like we would have been better off making our own from the start. It claims to hold 3-5 chickens, but I certainly wouldn't put more than 4 in there (it's more suitable for maybe 2 chickens). The garden itself is approximately 2 x 3 feet and the area underneath is 5 feet long and 3 feet wide. We added more secure latches, grab bars, metal roofing (from scrap metal we had), insulation, and we built a 10' x 5' extension out of 2×4″ lumber andhardware cloth. We also build a 20'x25' fenced habitat around their coop/run with plenty of trees for protection from hawks. If you let your chickens free-range during the day, it's important to research the predators they will have, no matter where you live, and do your best to protect them from them.

They sell *slightly* more practical, ready-made and prefab chicken coops at farm stores like Tractor Supply, but they can be expensive, e.g.$2K+ for a 5×6 ft. chicken coop(that you can't stand in) OR you can buy large 8x10ft (or larger) wooden sheds at Home Depot or Lowe's starting at $1,500, which can be converted into chicken coops with relative ease. In my opinion, these are the cheapest and most practical option for cleaning and maintenance, as they are already made high enough for people to stand in them, which will make your life so much easier when it comes to cleaning.

Automatic chicken feeders and water dispensers

You want a solid feeder for chick(s) that is easy to maintain and preferably one that does not require you to add feed every day. You can also make your own if you want to save money (some make them from PVC pipes and/or buckets). Please note that baby chicks require a different diet than fully grown adult chicks for safety and logistical reasons. This just means a feeder with smaller holes/entry point so they don't get stuck.

For chickens you can getsmall plastic chicken water/feed dispensers for under $10each. Adultchicken feeders and water dispensers will range from $20-100depending on size and material. My favorites are pictured above. Keep in mind that chickens will kick their litter into the water and roost (on anything you add to their habitat), so a food/water bowl that prevents nesting and is easy to clean is highly recommended to make your life easier.

As a reference:a fully grown chicken uses 0.5-1 liter of water/day. How much water they drink varies depending on the temperature/season. Our four chickens consume approximately 7.5 liters per week in winter. I really loveRent ACoop vanddispenser($49) because it's super easy to refill, the summer dispenser cups are easy to clean, and it comes with frost-resistant winter nipples that REALLY work! If you buyCombination food/water dispenserit's a little cheaper.

If you live in a cold place, you need something to keep your chickens' water from freezing in the winter. We chat in one30W small aquarium heater($20) into the chicken water dispenser and wrap it with somethingreflects isolationand black duct tape, which keeps the water from freezing and prevents algae growth (since the dispenser is white and allows some sunlight through).

Automatic chicken coop door

Aautomatic doorin your chicken coop is a completely optional expense, but it makes raising chickens SO much easier! If you do not install an automatic door on your chicken coop, you will have to manually let your chickens out every morning and close the chicken coop door in the evening.

We have two automatic doors in our loft. Acar throughso that they can leave the yard while running, and anotherautomatic roller doorto get from their run to their free range but fenced area (it is fenced to separate them from our dogs).

Remark:Run-Chicken automatic door with AA batteriesis the only one that seems to hold up well in cold weather. Our other garage-style roller door, whose design we actually like better, runs on a small solar panel that doesn't charge in the cold and therefore doesn't work in freezing temperatures.

Ongoing expenses for chickens

Chicken food

Chicken feed costs vary widely from $0.25/lb to $3.00+/lbdepending on the quantity, quality and where you buy it. We use approx$25/month of organic feed for 4 adult chickens. Please note: it is cheaper for non-organic food. You can also create your own feed. But it will only be truly cost-effective if you can get the ingredients cheaply in bulk.

For reference when comparing feed costs, chickens/chicks typically consume the following amounts:

• 1-2 ounces of food/day (3/4 to one pound per week) per baby chicken (up to 8 weeks old)
• 1/4 pound of food per day/mature chicken

In other words: 1 pound of feed per day for 4 adult chickens (30 pounds per month for 4 chickens).

We currently feed our chickens Dumor Organic Layer Pellets from Tractor Supply ($25 for a 40 pound bag). But we also supplement with mealworms and fruit and vegetables and our compost/food scraps. We fed our chickensit starter/growth feeduntil they were about 20 weeks old. In general, starter/growth feed for chickens usually consists of easily digestible crumbs, contains more protein than feed for adult chickens and contains antioxidants and probiotics.

Bedding

You can use many things for chicken bedding, but most people use straw,wooden curls, ofham. Personally, we use a combination of wood chips and hemp and spend about $10 a month on bedding. Wood shavings are probably easiest and cheapest to obtain from most farm stores or online (just avoid less dusty wood shavings as they cause breathing problems in chickens). Hemp is the more expensive option, but lasts the longest, absorbs the most moisture, is the easiest to clean and is the most sustainable to grow.

• Straw ($5-15/bale)
• Wood curls(~$4/cubic foot)
• Ham($1,5-5/pond)

Earn your money back while raising chickens

Eggs cost $5 per dozen (at the time of writing), and cage-free, organic, and free-range eggs cost $6-10 per dozen. So you can sell eggs to recoup some of the start-up and maintenance costs.

You can also use the droppings (manure) of your chickens together with the litter for compost/manure in your garden.

Plus, chickens are really therapeutic and can bring you a lot of joy that you can't really put a price tag on 🙂

The moral of the story is that how much it costs to raise chickens depends on many factorsyou can easily raise a flock of 3-5 chickens in your backyard for less than $500/year, with less than $1500 in start-up costs,and the costs of raising chickens can pay for themselves as early as the second year.

You can also set up a habitat for much less than $1,500, especially if you build your own chicken coop/run and/or water and food dispensers! In my opinion, you can make a high-quality chicken habitat for less than $500.