Hey.... Lets keep Chickens..!

rachbc

my hubby said no for 4 years. Til I pointed out I ould just get them anyway without his 'permission'. Then I nagged for 3 more months, then he bought me a hen house!! The 0 eggs we've had so far haven't been very money saving - reck they need to start laying golden eggs before I get payback for the house, fencing, food, bedding etc etc

silverleaf79

Mojisola wrote: »

I wouldn't push the saving money angle. I'm sure it would be cheaper for us to buy eggs in the shops but we enjoy having our chooks and look on the cost as well spend.

Thanks - has anyone worked out the financial side of things? Organic eggs are so expensive in the supermarket...

I reckon if I could make a coop cheap enough, there has to be some kind of saving even over 2 years. We spend around £150 a year on eggs from the supermarket.

kayl

Funnily enough I was just working out the maths of this, and definitely reckon that my 2 girls have already nearly paid for themselves. I got them at the end of September last year, at a cost of £50, Since then, they have eaten 3 sacks of layer pellets at a total cost of £30.
Even taking account of slightly fewer eggs over the winter months, I reckon that they are averaging 10 eggs a week. For the past 4 weeks, they are giving me 13 eggs a week (they seem to take it in turns to have 1 egg a fortnight off!). That means I have so far had approx 350 eggs. Given that in the shops, you generally pay £1 for 6 free range eggs, that would have cost me approx £60. By the end of the summer I will be making a profit, as well as having had a huge amount of fun!!

spirit

silverleaf79 wrote: »

Whew, it's taken a while to read this whole thread!!

I would love some ex-batts but Him Indoors has vetoed it. His reasons?

* Set-up, etc, is too expensive
* Too much work (which he think's he'll end up doing)
* "It's another one of your obsessions which you'll lose enthusiasm for,"

Today he says he's sick of hearing about chickens. I admit I've been semi-seriously spamming him with battery-farming-is-mean-to-chickens-and-they-deserve-a-nice-life comments along with wouldn't-it-be-nice-to-have-lovely-fresh-eggs-and-hens-to-cuddle-and-save-money-at-the-same-time comments for the last 3 days.

This is not a spur of the moment thing though, I've wanted them for years. I just shut up about it when he said no the first few times. Really not sure what direction to go in now. There's no compromise there at all.

Since I've been divorced I've thoroughly enjoyed the freedom to make my own decisions and am answerable to no one. If I want chickens, I'll have em

Not recommending that you take that drastic a move, but do you have to ask permission?

silverleaf79

kayl wrote: »

Funnily enough I was just working out the maths of this, and definitely reckon that my 2 girls have already nearly paid for themselves. I got them at the end of September last year, at a cost of £50, Since then, they have eaten 3 sacks of layer pellets at a total cost of £30.
Even taking account of slightly fewer eggs over the winter months, I reckon that they are averaging 10 eggs a week. For the past 4 weeks, they are giving me 13 eggs a week (they seem to take it in turns to have 1 egg a fortnight off!). That means I have so far had approx 350 eggs. Given that in the shops, you generally pay £1 for 6 free range eggs, that would have cost me approx £60. By the end of the summer I will be making a profit, as well as having had a huge amount of fun!!

Thank you, that's really helpful, especially in terms of how much chook food is - having never had hens before I don't know how much they eat so my research into how much a sack costs isn't that helpful!

My rough numbers so far show a net loss but I'm basing them on what I think are conservative-ish estimates of how many eggs I'll get, over 4 years and the coop should last longer than that. (4 ex-batts joined in year 3 by two more, initially laying 200/year with 20% reduction in subsequent years, us using 600 eggs a year and selling the surplus.) I'm probably way overthinking the whole thing to be honest, and I'd be happy if they didn't "pay their way" as long as they were happy and I got yummy eggs occasionally, but if they didn't cost us much or even made a little money that'd maybe sweeten things for HI a little.

spirit wrote: »

Since I've been divorced I've thoroughly enjoyed the freedom to make my own decisions and am answerable to no one. If I want chickens, I'll have em

Not recommending that you take that drastic a move, but do you have to ask permission?

No, it's not about permission. I'm aware that I do sound a bit downtrodden (I'm honestly not) but we discuss everything and decide stuff together. He's much more inclined to frugality than I am (although I am trying and enjoying the challenge of budgeting, etc) and also much more resistant to change. Irritatingly, this combined with the fact that he's the one with the money and thus pays for almost everything, plus the fact that I'm very easy-going generally, means that I tend to agree with everything he wants while he semi-often vetos stuff I want.

It would be easy to just go out and get chooks despite his protests, but I'm not convinced it'd be worth it to be honest. He wouldn't allow himself to get to like them, and I'd feel bad that I'd pushed him into a situation with no regard to his thoughts on the subject. The confrontational approach is probably not the best one...

mardatha

I know, you have to be subtle and let them think they're soo magnamious and kind to the little wwoman, and that way they feel like a hero and you get your own way. if it comes to a nose-to-nose standoff then every tinyy thing that goes wrong is your fault for getting them etc etc.

spirit

What you might be able to do silverleaf is to compare it with other pets like cats or dogs perhaps and the relative cost. Hens are like pets with benefits.

There are some great people/advice over on the downthelane forum http://www.downthelane.net/forum/index.php?sid=2697d1a7afa6398b0eb27246bf3c239e

rachbc

kayl wrote: »

Funnily enough I was just working out the maths of this, and definitely reckon that my 2 girls have already nearly paid for themselves. I got them at the end of September last year, at a cost of £50, Since then, they have eaten 3 sacks of layer pellets at a total cost of £30.
Even taking account of slightly fewer eggs over the winter months, I reckon that they are averaging 10 eggs a week. For the past 4 weeks, they are giving me 13 eggs a week (they seem to take it in turns to have 1 egg a fortnight off!). That means I have so far had approx 350 eggs. Given that in the shops, you generally pay £1 for 6 free range eggs, that would have cost me approx £60. By the end of the summer I will be making a profit, as well as having had a huge amount of fun!!

Mine are clearly pampered - they have a house, run, woodchips bedding, feeders, drinkers, grit, corn, diathingy earth, cleaning sprays, worming etc that all up the cost. I definately see them more as a pet/ hobby than money saving venture!

Gigervamp

Another thing to consider, is that, even though you can buy free range eggs in the supermarket, they don't taste as good as home grown ones.

Hubby's elderly uncle told us that they tasted like eggs used to and my friend has just taken some down to London for her DD, who doesn't really like eggs, but loves ours.

Mojisola

Gigervamp wrote: »

Another thing to consider, is that, even though you can buy free range eggs in the supermarket, they don't taste as good as home grown ones.

Hubby's elderly uncle told us that they tasted like eggs used to and my friend has just taken some down to London for her DD, who doesn't really like eggs, but loves ours.

That's so true! We've got used to the extra good taste as "normal" but we've had that experience when other people have had some of our eggs.