Cost of keeping chooks??

[thesunflowergal]

I am once again thinking about getting some chookies, for pets of the kids but mainly for the eggs.

Can anyone please give me a rough idea how much 4 ladies would cost per month to feed etc? I know that all that would be throw out if they needed the vet etc, but an average cost would be fab.

I have seen a house and run that looks pretty good, I need to buy something as my woodwork skills are rubbish!!

Thanks Nikki

[Rosendula]

I thought I remembered this been asked before. Here's a link. The actual prices might be out of date now though, I don't know, I don't keep them myself It will give you an idea if nothing else.

[Evelyn J]

I have 4 big ladies and i feed them on layers pellits at £9.80 20k sack, and it lasts around 5 weeks, but after my dad has made his donation for eggs there is a few quid left over so it dosent cost me anything to keep them and they are actualy helping me save up for a new shed. Also i keep them on shredded news paper donated by friends so it dosent cost me anything in that department either, and of corse they have solved my frustration of having a teenager who is a picky eater, everything she leves they take care of

Eve

[JulieSherris]

A 25K bag of layers pellets here costs around 11 euros - then a 20K bag or rolled oats costs me 7 euros & I buy one of each every 2 weeks for a mixture of chickens ducks, guinea fowls & the turkey. A total of 32 birds.
The oats are good for the birds in 2 ways - oats keep the birds warm through the winter (we swap to barley for the summer) the roughage of the grain is good for them........ and it bulks the pellets out too ;)

It will also depend on whether you intend to let them free range - a free bird needs less feed as it will forage for a lot of food. Then of course, there's the left overs.
I also keep all the peelings from potatoes, carrots, parsnips etc & boil those up the next day for a few minutes.
Then there's crusts, soggy biccies, cat food... anything that's edible really!!

So really for 4 hens, you should be looking at around £2 a week..... ish!

[Annpan]

We pay £8.50 for a 25 kilo bag of pellets. Our 5 birds take around 6 weeks to get through a bag.

So even less than £2 a week.

We also have a sack of mixed corn that is pricey but they get it as a treat, or on the colder nights.

As Julie says, let them forage for food, supplement their diet with extras here and there, they will eat loads of fresh cut grass and they eat very little bought in food indeed.

I have a movable run the same size as my veg beds - they get penned into it before I plant and after I have dug up my crops - they eat all the leftovers, all the beasties and poop lovely fertiliser directly where it is needed

Plus you should consider selling the excess eggs to cover costs a bit too

[Rosendula]

The main thing that puts me off keeping them is the size of my garden. If I tidy up really, really well, I should be able to fit in a coop for 3-4 chickens, and be able to move it to 2 other locations if I move Katie's swing at the same time. The thing is, tiny gardens mean 'close to the houses'. And behind my garden is someone elses from a street that runs parallel to ours. So really I would have to take into account my two next-door neighbours, plus 3 neighbours 'out back' at the minimum, and I'm not sure they would be too chuffed about the noise. It's really difficult to guess how much noise would be heard from the house, and I don't want to get some only to receive complaints and have to get rid of them again.

[Annpan]

Rosey - 2 chickens would probably be enough if you just want them for yourselves and are short on space.

They really make very little noise, no where near as much as a dog, or even a cat miaowing at a window.

Now that we have 5 of them #1 occasionally crows when she feels threatened (by an owl or when the other girls steal her food) but she is daft and behaves like a cockeral.... when we only had 2 we never heard them make a peep.

[red]

now i have 19 hens, and a cockerel. there can be a lot of noise as they fight over their favourite nest box - they have ample.. but they all want the same one.. and there is much clucking and fussing.. particularly now the eggs are coming in thick and fast

a couple of hens wont be noisy


we sell our surplus eggs at the door, and use the cash to buy the food.

[Milims]

We have 6 gals - Brehenda, Mocca, Lotty, Dotty, Meghen and Bronwyn the brown one. They potter happily round the garden all day and take themselves off to bed at night. The only time we really hear them is when they want out in the morning - and even then it's sort of a gentle crooning. We live in an ex-Council house so there are gardens backing onto ours from all sides - but we've never had a complaint about them. We buy mixed corn at £6.50 a bag and that lasts about 2 months as we also feed them lots of other stuff like left over rice(ok so I usually cook them a bit extra!) and mushy bananas which they love - and the neighbours bring them to me for them! After that they scrat around the garden and find bugs. They have really helped with the garden too - they've eaten all the wire worms and stuff so we can safely plant potatoes and they love to eat the soft weeds for us. Their scratching has also meant that we have areas of lovely cleared ground ready for planting in! All we have to do is fence off plots that we dont want them in when we are growing stuff! So not only do they give us eggs, they help with the gardening and give us lots of amusement watching them. I think that's worth the odd £6.50 don't you?!

[Rosendula]

I hope Nikki doesn't mind me hijacking her post but I have a few more questions I hope people can help with

The info about costs and noise have been really helpful to me, and I have put the idea of keeping chickens to OH. Now he wants to know about
1) the smell. Do they pong at all?
2) the cats. There are a lot of cats around here. Will that be a problem (to the chickens or the cats)?
3) we understand they don't lay all year round. Can you please give me an idea of how many eggs we will get per bird per year (roughly)
4) if we were to get ex-batts, DD1 said their beaks will be clipped and she doesn't think they will be able to pick up food . Am I right in thinking they will still be able to feed themselves from a feeder?
5) what about injections and things?
6) should I leave you good folk in peace and go and borrow a book from the library?

[ElizabethBinary]

I hope Nikki doesn't mind me hijacking her post but I have a few more questions I hope people can help with

The info about costs and noise have been really helpful to me, and I have put the idea of keeping chickens to OH. Now he wants to know about
1) the smell. Do they pong at all?
2) the cats. There are a lot of cats around here. Will that be a problem (to the chickens or the cats)?
3) we understand they don't lay all year round. Can you please give me an idea of how many eggs we will get per bird per year (roughly)
4) if we were to get ex-batts, DD1 said their beaks will be clipped and she doesn't think they will be able to pick up food . Am I right in thinking they will still be able to feed themselves from a feeder?
5) what about injections and things?
6) should I leave you good folk in peace and go and borrow a book from the library?

1. No, they don't smell at all, to me. I have 3.
2. Shouldn't be a problem if your cage is secure.
3. Depends on the chicken. An Australorp lays 250 eggs per year, average. A bantam is about 200.
4. I have no idea.
5. I also have no idea.
6. No! I'm bored and need to talk! :P

[JulieSherris]

1) the smell. Do they pong at all?
2) the cats. There are a lot of cats around here. Will that be a problem (to the chickens or the cats)?
3) we understand they don't lay all year round. Can you please give me an idea of how many eggs we will get per bird per year (roughly)
4) if we were to get ex-batts, DD1 said their beaks will be clipped and she doesn't think they will be able to pick up food . Am I right in thinking they will still be able to feed themselves from a feeder?
5) what about injections and things?
6) should I leave you good folk in peace and go and borrow a book from the library?

Haha! Questions, questions...... and I bet you get a good few answers as well... and all will be different!

1 - Smell? Yes of course ..... well, the poo smells, but only a bit & it's not a bad smell & you won't even notice with 3 or 4 hens anyway.... our turkey boy also farts..... now THEY smell!!!

2 - Cats... shouldn't be a problem, because the hens are large & a bit off-putting. The farm next door have chooks, ducks, geese etc & they have about 9 cats.... our cat sometimes gets a wiggle on & lunges out after the rooster, but she doesn't do any harm. Most people that I know with chooks also have cats & they're all free to roam with the birds with no damages.

3 - Egg production.... this depends on the breed somewhat, but during summer you should get an egg a day per bird, maybe missing an odd day here & there... through the winter mine have been laying every other day.
Now that the temperature is starting to warm up a bit, I'm getting about 8 or 9 eggs a day in total from 9 hens & 3 (maybe 4) ducks, so not bad at all.
Books will tell you that you should expect up to 300 eggs per year from a good old brown layer hen.

4 - Clipped beaks.... my first 3 brown hens all have their beaks clipped. This was done before we got them & it's just the sharp tip of the top beak that has been clipped off. It doesn't stop them pecking & foraging, but in an enclosed space, it's supposed to stop them from pecking at their eggs.

5 - Health.... you don't need to have them jabbed... just get a pot of mite powder for both birds & the house & a good wormer - although you can use garlic in their feed to help with any worming problems & you don't have to stop eating the eggs at all. Just make sure that you have a good poultry goods supplier within easy reach - whether in person or online.

6 - Books... naaaaah..... why go by the book - why not just do what feels right - the birds will be happier for it & so will you!!
(Which is why George our turkey is living with the hens, even though the books say differently, he is happier in with them... until his harem arrves anyway!!)

So Rosie.... when you getting some??

[Annpan]

1) not much, only when cleaning out the house.... it smells like chicken poo....lol
2) Our cat doesn't go near the chooks - they are bigger than you think and they have wings and a beak. They can hold they're own against most cats... I wouldn't worry.
3) Our hybrids were POL when we got them... we have had at least 2 fresh eggs a day right through this 'worst winter in 20 years' I think a figure of around 300 a year is often given though they will slow with age
4) They should be able to pick up food from a feeder fine and some will even manage from the ground (this is all they have ever known to eat with so they will have figured it out by now)
5) Our hybrids were treated as day old chicks against salmonella and about 17 other things.... form what I gather this is in a liquid that gets put into their water as a matter of course in the hatchery (that is, when you buy from the system like we did, rather than a home breeder) it would be the same for ex-bats I have no interest in treating our girls again and I don't know how often it would be done if I chose to..... vets bills is not something we equated into the 'keeping chickens' funds I am afraid.
6) No.... ask questions and get a variety of answers..... what do them writers folks know that we don't anywhoos??? *stares at Dave and Andy*.....lol.....

[Millymollymandy]

My girls are very noisy! The two youngsters shriek all the time and the two oldies crow a lot, either because they've laid, or because something frightens them, or mostly just because they can!

Some hens lay all through the winter their first year then taper off. Some only lay for 2 years total. Some go broody a lot during the summer months which means up to 6 weeks of no laying. So you need to think about what you'll do with the hens when they've stopped laying if you are keeping them as pets and only have room for a few at a time.

Also if you don't have much space they will destroy the ground they are on and if it rains a lot you'll have a mud bath. Plenty of posts on here about that! Mine have two runs about 50m2 each which is bigger than the average London garden! and one is completely destroyed just by my two newbies who scratch like I've never seen before. It's just brown dirt and stones now (I've kept them off the other one as much as possible which still has some grass in it).

Have a read through some of the posts on this forum because there are tons giving advice on chicken keeping.

[Milims]

1) the smell. Do they pong at all?
2) the cats. There are a lot of cats around here. Will that be a problem (to the chickens or the cats)?
3) we understand they don't lay all year round. Can you please give me an idea of how many eggs we will get per bird per year (roughly)
4) if we were to get ex-batts, DD1 said their beaks will be clipped and she doesn't think they will be able to pick up food . Am I right in thinking they will still be able to feed themselves from a feeder?
5) what about injections and things?
6) should I leave you good folk in peace and go and borrow a book from the library?

1) Not much and their poo makes excellent fertilizer
2) We have 2 cats who sit and watch them - from a distance!
3) Ours don't really lay through the winter, but it's pretty much an egg a day each in the warmer times. We let Brehenda off as she's really old - but when she lays it's a biggun!
4) As has been said - yes - otherwise thy'd have starved by now
5) Apparently they don't need to be innoculated unless you have 20 or more - which is when you have to register them - but I'd check that out if you need to. Otherwise the only thing we've had to do with ours is dust for red mite and check for scaly leg, which you treat by wiping surgical spirit on their legs and feet. You should really do this when you get them - especially if they are ex-bats. Cheap and easy! Oh and we have wormed them once.
6) Why do you need a book when you have us lot to advise! But if you want o get a book go ahead - it's interesting to know about them.