Costs of Raising Pigs/Chickens

[red]

its difficult to judge ... I have been thinking about this... as we have not really recorded how many eggs we are getting per sack of feed - we got our hens in September and are on our 4th bag of feed.
we dont buy organic.. but do buy gm free and its 6-7 quid a bag 25kg
at the mo we are getting about 3 eggs a day.. from 4 hens and 3 chicks (one hen is being mummy to the chicks and therefore not laying eggs)

then you have to factor in the winter days when you dont get eggs...
soooo if your capital costs are not huge -hen house run etc.. just going on 'running costs' i would think its economic to have your own hens..

[mauzi]

Ok Stonehead - I wondered whether you had the same laws as us. I agree, it simply wouldn't be worth the risk to sell without all the correct procedures. We don't sell meat or made products from home just excess live piglets which does help cover some of the running costs of the farm. :D


Annpan - Organics are bringing high prices here as well and in many ways this is pricing the goods out of the market for many average people struggling to keep up with other raising costs as well. Shame but maybe more incentive to keep chickens :D We often get a shock if we look at prices as we do grow most of our own food and rarely buy outside now.

Still working on growing more of our own animal foods - this years project just in front of the other 1,000 projects Lucky we love what we do.

Cheers
Mauzi

[Stonehead]

We paid 1.89 in Sainsbury's for 6 organic eggs...please tell me that our own hens (when we get them) will cost us less... eggs are being priced out of our budget.

Until feed prices rose again, our flock of 30 hens was breaking even at £1.35 a half dozen eggs (fed on organic feed). That's excluding labour.

[Annpan]

We weren't planning on organic feed - we can't afford it for ourselves so sorry chickens

We buy organic animal products because it is the safest way that I know the animal has had a decent life...we also buy at farmers markets and local farm shop but they sell 'barn eggs' and I can't see any chooks there so I really don't know where they are being kept

Thanks for giving an idea of price, we are struggling with the price of food and can't afford to keep chickens as pets, we can only afford them if they save us money on food (and trips to the shops)

[red]

if you dont pay out a lot on your run etc - then i think you will find they are economic yes. but its a guess.

if you can raise more eggs then you need and sell 'at the gate' or to friends family neighbours.. then you can put that money in a jar and use it to buy the next bag of feed.. then you get your eggs for free - (presumably what Stonehead is doing?) - but you have to have the space for extra birds.

they will lay less in winter.. hopefully you will get one or two. but you can freeze them - either in things like pasta, quiche, cakes or just as eggs.. (for use in things like pasta quiche cakes!)

and on top of that... your own eggs are sooooo much nicer then shops. honest. the yolks are so orange.. and they take longer to boil and stand proud in the frying/poaching pan....

[Rachel Squires]

Hi,

My parents buy free range eggs by the tray direct from the farmer so I do get extras sometimes - I pickle these and John has them in his lunch box. It's very easy to do, just hard boil the eggs and pickle with vinegar in the ususal way. As for keeping your own pig - I think there really is nothing better than home cured bacon and homemade sausage as wel as all the other stuff you get from a pig.

I think that improved animal welfare, personal satisfaction and economics are all a massive reason to grow your own but for me, the major reason that I'd keep my own pig (I don't have space at the mo but getting there) is that you can cure it and make other by-products using much purer preservatives that make shop brought products look slimy and nasty in comparison. Even without my own pig, I still make my own bacon and sausage from meat brought from a butcher and am quids in!

Best wishes

Rach.

[Stonehead]

then you get your eggs for free - (presumably what Stonehead is doing?) -

Don't make the mistake of thinking they're free! Selling the bulk of the eggs covers the running costs of feed, bedding, medications, housing and run maintenance, incubators, heat lamps and the like. Until the most recent feed price rise, we were managing to break even on the running costs.

The eggs (and the meat) that we keep for ourselves is a long-term repayment of the capital we've sunk into our flock: housing, runs, incubators, tools, initial hens and cockerels, etc. The more expensive eggs and chicken meat become, the quicker the payback.

But neither the sales nor the eggs and meat for us cover the cost of our labour.

With the way food prices are going (and are likely to keep going), a small capital investment in three or four hens and their housing is good idea economically. I'd do it for non-economic reasons as I like keeping chickens and preserving rare breeds, but if costs are the most important thing then having a few birds for personal egg consumption will pay.

And if you can minimise your housing costs without compromising welfare, then you're further ahead.

If you're only after a relatively small number of eggs per week (say a dozen to 15 eggs for a family of four), then modern hybrid layers might not be a good idea unless you have buyers for surplus. Our ISA Browns lay an egg a day without fail so if you kept three of those you'd have 21 eggs a week.

On the other hand, three Scots Greys might give you a dozen eggs a week if you're lucky.

You really need to look to the middle ground—traditional laying breeds with a reputation for reliability but less productive than the hybrids. The aim would be to get about 15 eggs a week from three hens.


And don't underestimate how gross an egg can look when you're having to eat the overproduction. We eat quite a few eggs and enjoy them most of the time, but there are certain times of the year (mainly school holidays) when we have to up our intake to avoid wastage. There are times when I feel like Cool Hand Luke...

[red]

Don't make the mistake of thinking they're free! Selling the bulk of the eggs covers the running costs of feed, bedding, medications, housing and run maintenance, incubators, heat lamps and the like. Until the most recent feed price rise, we were managing to break even on the running costs.

The eggs (and the meat) that we keep for ourselves is a long-term repayment of the capital we've sunk into our flock: housing, runs, incubators, tools, initial hens and cockerels, etc. The more expensive eggs and chicken meat become, the quicker the payback.

But neither the sales nor the eggs and meat for us cover the cost of our labour.

I take your point there.. it will be a long ol time before we recover the capital costs of fencing off our fields to keep sheep.. and we fenced entirely by hand ourselves. And a long time to repay the costs of the extensive hen run we built, with net cover, even though the hen house was made by converting an old shed, again all ourselves -
the costs of labour is a difficult one to judge.- I dont have to take time off paid work to care for the hens, I doubt anyone would on a small provinding for self scale. and I have already made the choice to be at home for other reasons, so while the labour is not to be ignored.. it is not actually costing money in the handing over notes sort of way.

And don't underestimate how gross an egg can look when you're having to eat the overproduction. We eat quite a few eggs and enjoy them most of the time, but there are certain times of the year (mainly school holidays) when we have to up our intake to avoid wastage. There are times when I feel like Cool Hand Luke...

cool hand stoney
must admit we have upped our egg consumption - but they do freeze as I said.. and there are things like pasta etc. with the three of us, and only three hens laying, and not always every day, we are getting just about the right number of eggs for our own needs. Wont be so in winter.

[Millymollymandy]

I tried freezing eggs and they didn't work.

Annpan you also have to think about what you'll do with the hens when they stop laying. I've got 3 old biddies who are just pets these days, and one youngster who lays about 6 eggs a week, which we can just about get through between the 2 of us.

Then I have 4 duck eggs every day which go in the bin unfortunately, because we are sick to death of eggs and duck eggs are too rich for us.

I think the only way to make your hens pay for themselves is if you can sell your excess eggs to a permanent market. I bought new hens because a neighbour told me she'd take a dozen eggs off me a week. Well that didn't last long.

[red]

I tried freezing eggs and they didn't work.

I seem to remember you thought they looked congealed and chucked them? if you go on to cook with them.. say in cakes.. they work just fine. my parents have been doing this for years.
To freeze we scramble them and then put in a pot labelled with how many eggs. you can also freeze then separated.. as yolks and whites.. never actually tried doing yolks at all but whites work just fine.

[hamster]

I've never done yolks either, but apparently you have to put a pinch of salt or sugar in with them for them to freeze well. Then, obviously, you have to label them so you know whether to put them in sweet or savoury dishes...

[Millymollymandy]

That's exactly what I did, and yes Red you are right. They just looked so disgusting I thought something had gone horribly wrong. Do you just beat them up again?

(Actually at the time my hens never stopped laying that winter so I didn't need those frozen eggs.)

Might be worth doing it again with some of the duck eggs for when the little buggers start eating the acorns again - remember when I had green eggs in autumn?

[red]

well if you are chucking the duck eggs out anyway.. might be worth experimenting.


when you say ducks eggs are too rich for you.. do you mean from a health point of view. or that you dont like them?

[Millymollymandy]

I find them hard to eat - didn't like them hard boiled, don't fancy them fried or soft boiled (although Green Rosie said all her family enjoyed them when I took some to her).

We used to eat a spanish omelette (tortilla) every week but when we changed to using duck eggs we got sick of them - but that's probably going from 6 hen eggs to 5 or 6 duck eggs which is the equivalent of 10 hen eggs, so not surprising!

No I just mean rich from a taste point of view - even scrambled ducks eggs make me feel queasy now yet I still like them with hen eggs.

I don't bake hardly at all as I'm still trying to lose weight so I just can't get through all these eggs!

But I will freeze a few for the autumn anyway.

[red]

yeh I find ducks eggs have a stronger flavour. I make vegetable and duck egg curry with them, when I get given some.