Chickens

thejames

Hi, would love to keep chickens but with no money I don't see how we can, my son and I eat eggs every morning, I bake and we have omelettes etc a lot and plus I think they would be great for the kids, I've looked on free cycle for a few years but never get anywhere, any other advice would be great fully received. Also what other animals can you keep that work for the family?

Thanks.

Mojisola

I've never done the sums but I don't think our chickens save us any money. Chickens only lay for part of the year. Are you going to slaughter your birds as soon as they go off lay and buy new ones?

Get a few if you want as pets but don't expect them to save you money.

meg72

Mojisola wrote: »

I've never done the sums but I don't think our chickens save us any money. Chickens only lay for part of the year. Are you going to slaughter your birds as soon as they go off lay and buy new ones?

Get a few if you want as pets but don't expect them to save you money.

This was the conclusion I came to when I was offered some free chooks.

What worried me most was that I could not afford vet fees if one of them became ill

lostinrates

I think the key is to decide whether they are primarily pets/hobby or money making.


The main costs of chooks are not obtaining them but feeding, worming, bedding, housing. We keep our chooks primarily because I like breeding them. They save no money at all the way I keep them, though the costs can be off set.

As birds get older they lay less frequently, so in. Backyard egg obtaining situation you do need to cull and replace if you are looking at them for egg production. This obviously needs to be done humanely, and I recommend any one who hasn't done it goes on a course, gets someone experienced to show them and be with them the first time at the very least. Chickens are wonderful to have about, they are fun little creatures, and surprisingly sociable if you spend time with them, but they have all sorts of 'learning curves' too. Preventing and treating things like mites and worms, being able to kill them swiftly in the case of illness or injury....or take them to the vet which is lovely for a pet, but economically unsound for cheap egg production.

Steel_2

In terms of saving money by having the eggs they don't, unless you have friends and family willing to buy some off you which would help you recoup some of what you spend.

However, I've found the chickens very useful in other ways and they earn their keep in my garden.

Their manure and bedding has boosted my vegetable beds no end over the last few years, and has helped me produce quite sizeable quantities of compost for my large garden. This has helped me reduce the amount of compost I buy.

They also scratch over certain areas of my garden when I need them to which helps me combat weeds etc, which has cut down on the amount of maintainance I have to do.

Add that to the eggs and meals I can produce with them (there really is nothing nicer than a fried egg sandwich on a Sunday morning using an egg that is still warm!) and they have a lot of value to me. Plus they're very sociable, funny to watch and occassionally inspire me to paint them for homemade birthday cards.

But as others have said they can get expensive when you factor in feed (layers pellets and miced corn), worming, mites and lice treatments, any vets bills, bedding and housing. Plus any fresh veggies if they are penned and can't gather their own (but I find growing their food plus the clearance department in the veg section very useful for this!).

I spent a lot of money in the early days, but now I'm more experienced and know what my animals need and can deal with a lot of things myself the costs have come down.

thejames

maybe i'll wait until ive read up a bit and have some cash for vets etc.... thanks for the advice. Shame was looking forward to a fresh egg!

3v3

thejames wrote: »

maybe i'll wait until ive read up a bit and have some cash for vets etc.... thanks for the advice. Shame was looking forward to a fresh egg!

The more knowledgable you are about chickens, their ailments and husbandry the less you would need cash for vets.

Recently there was a big drive for rehoming ex-batts due to the changes in EU law. There are still some chicken farms who are yet to comply and so there could be some more out there needing re-homing.

By re-homing an ex-batt would give you the opportunity to see their value and to find out if chicken keeping is really for you. At the same time, you are giving an ex-batt an opportunity it would not have experienced.

You may find this thread in the Old Style Money Saving forum very useful for information: "Hey ... let's keep chickens!"

Sally_A

Just spent £2.89 today for 10 free range eggs in Tesco :eek:.

Last week, I stopped at a petrol station on the A36 just outside of Bath, and they had trays of 30 local Free Range eggs for £3.95 (I think)........as I had to keep the petrol payment separate as it was for work, I had no spare cash, I must learn to always keep a fiver on me for just such an occasion.

Fresh are so different to shop bought, the yolk is yellower, and the white doesn't run as much if you crack it into a pan.

It's always worth looking for signs at gates if you are travelling around.

(Am still kicking myself - in deepest darkest Wales, there was a sign for home reared pork joints at a really cheap £ per lb; next time I'll take a freezer bag and about £30 cash with me to fill up the freezer).

Have been umming and aahing about keeping chooks for about 3 years now...maybe one day, when I know I can give them the time they deserve.

Herbyme

http://luckyhensrescuewigan.weebly.com/for-sale.html
Link to battery hen rescue centre - or try CIWF, that's where the link came from, if you do want to do it, they're bound to know somewhere in your area

Davesnave

Most points have been made, but I would add that not all back yard hens have a great life, even if they're not in battery cages or deep litter houses. Many I see in gardens are penned into an area so small there is nothing left but soil, and unsavoury looking soil at that.

Given those conditions, I wonder if their eggs are as special as those where chickens truly free-range.

Even though you are in London, you may also have to take (expensive) precautions against foxes.

We wouldn't be without our hens, and we can sell our eggs easily when they're laying well, but that just offsets the fairly substantial costs involved in keeping them properly.

[Deleted User]

we used to keep chickens in a large garden. We bought a good strong fox-proof hen house with an attached run but that wasn`t really enough room, so we let them roam. They scratched up a lot of young plants so we built them a large run, which cost quite a lot. Then there were layers pellets and medication, feeders and so on. Broody periods when one or other hen didn`t lay and also being at home twice a day, every single day, in order to lock them up and let them out again in the morning. A neighbours hens were all killed by a fox so being fox proof is a must

Hens are lovely but definitely not money saving. Our garden was big enough to cope but confined hens need a lot of cleaning too

Real free range eggs are readily available locally anyway as we live in a country village