I do not understand the mathematics behind the dilemma. I’m assuming only the firts chicks cost money, because down the line they will breed.
But feeding them, housing them - vitamins and doctoring costs a lot of money.
So anyone with couple or more chickens - how much does it cost to have them on the table? And realistically how many eggs do you get?
It’s simply not economical to raise chickens. It’s like brewing beer: very labor-intensive, expensive, and heart breaking when they die, which they are very good at. It’s not a hobby to save money, despite what people tell you. The eggs are great though.
They’re also extremely sweet creatures when hand raised. They’ll come running and want to be picked up and everything. Eating them or having them die is awful.
Very true. A fox got ours and it was really traumatic. They all had names and were so sweet.
In my very limited experience that chickens can be really chicken brained. I saw owners showing off their permanent scars when a chicken had a random idea to pick at them… I bet it is depends on the breed and the owner also.
It sounds like a hobby with big benefits. You get meat and eggs hhat you know where they come from.
Probably a way lot healthier than anything from even organic food.
Oh totally. But not economical.
I grew up in a village, and it was definitely economical. But village math is not city math.
You feed them grain and seeds that your neighbours grew literally right next door, in exchange for eggs laid right at your home. You let the chickens scratch around for food, and they mostly care for themselves. You bring in a rooster from the next town over occasionally to incubate the next generation. Once the hen stops laying eggs, you butcher it, and invite your neighbours for dinner.
If you try trucking in formulated commercial chicken feed and straw and such, it gets expensive fast. But in a village, it all just kind of works, and it’s basically free food. I imagine it’s a similar situation on a bigger farm. Maybe more independent, you grow your own grain and have a silo and such. But basically you don’t buy feed or chicks at all, unless it’s an emergency like a poor growing season or you need supplements.
I can attest that fresh free range eggs are better than any other eggs I’ve had since. Can’t get more organic than literally laid this morning. I will mention though some realities you may not be aware of that catch people off guard.
If you live in the city or suburbs, having chickens is more like having an exotic pet. It would take so much effort and expenses that it becomes a hobby.
You can make it work, but you’re rowing uphill. The eggs will still be great, though.
The shell will be “sticky” and warm, and sometimes got a bit of poop on it. This is normal, you just wash the egg if eating today, or gently wipe if storing. Don’t wash them if you’re storing them, they have a natural barrier that prevents bacteria that doesn’t survive washing. That’s why some countries refrigerate eggs; they wash them as part of the processing stage but naturally they don’t need the fridge. They will last longer than you think in a carton, about 1 month unrefrigerated, or 4 months refrigerated.
More reading: https://coopeduplife.com/how-long-do-fresh-laid-eggs-last/
Thank you for your answer!
I mean, killing, plucking, and gutting a chicken is a huge pita. Depending on where you live, a few chickens for eggs can be done pretty cheaply. Not as easy or cheap as buying eggs.
Yeah I haven’t killed anything that wasn’t a bug - so that would.be definitely challenging part.
Dude fresh eggs are so good, I don’t have chickens but my wife’s coworker has some and we get a dozen eggs every so often. The best store bought eggs are a pale comparison. Like a good store egg has a nice yellow orange yolk but the orange yolk of healthy home hens is just amazing
To me, these seem like marginal benefits. If knowing where your food comes from is important to you for some reason, by all means, carry on.
However, every scientific discussion I’ve ever seen on organic food has found the same thing - there is no significant difference in nutritional value between certified organic food and nonorganic food. Of course, “certified” organic food is still industrially produced - just according to arcane regulations that make it more expensive. You could make a case that “organic in spirit” food is more nutrient dense in some way or other - but the lack of a real scientific definition of “organic in spirit” will make it harder to study, and I have not heard any scientific discussion of this. And improved health in people who eat organic foods are corrolational, and can be chalked up to these people caring more about their health in general, and being wealthier. All the most robust science on diet and health points to the same thing - the big factor is simply avoiding junk food. Getting farm fresh eggs is just a way to show off how much money you can throw away if you use them to make french toast covered in locally tapped mapel syrup.
All that to say, I really doubt you would find any noticeable health difference.
The benefit of keeping chickens and eating their eggs is that you get to enjoy the process. You get to watch your chicks grow into chickens, feel pride when you get the first batch of eggs, and enjoy eating those eggs (which I find are tastier than the cheapest ones at the store that I buy - though I think the taste is comparable to the fancy high price eggs my friends sometimes feed me). Do it to enjoy the process. But don’t do it under the illusion that you are saving money, saving the world, or saving your health.
Climate town did a great video about the green packaging - basically the meat industry. So yeah I’m not too keen on them, but a girl needs to eat.
You could save money with brewing your own beer, you would just need a good source of barley and malt it yourself. The malt is too expensive to save much if anything on making beer.
The mormans or latter day saints forget which are all about stockpiling, and they operate bulk stores to prepare for the end of times or whatever, and they sell 50 lb sacks for a decent price I hear, but there aren’t any near me.
Malt is the absolute cheapest part of brewing beer, I buy 55lb bags of it for $80 CAD (so like 40-60 USD), and there are multiple shops near me I can buy from. You only need a pot, a big ass mesh bag, a carboy/airlock, and a bottle capper if you don’t have swing top bottles.
To make 5 gallons of basic ass beer (yields like 48-54 bottles) you need 8-10lbs of grain (1lb of which is the fancy $2/lb malt; and 2lbs of which can be subbed for minute rice if you are doing an adjunct ale). You need 1, maybe 2oz of hops (hallertau is $2.50/oz). Yeast is $4-8 but is a 1 time cost because it’s reusable. To make an IPA your malt cost is 25% higher and your hop cost is like 4x
The economics are actually great, but that’s fully contingent on you 1) placing no value on your time, and 2) not getting hooked and spending thousands on a stainless steel, PID controlled electronic brewing system, or a 4 tap home draught system (I did both)
Ha ha, it’s easy to get carried away on equipment for sure, I do maple syrup and it’s a huge money pit and I still am no where near having everything to do it like a civilized person with a pump and mainlines to bring all the sap back to the shack rather than carrying buckets hundreds of yards. Some people spend hundreds of thousands of dollars or more on everything. Fancy reverse osmosis stuff (can easily be 250k along for a commercial model,) fancy stainless steel tanks and boilers, pressure filters, and so forth.
I guess that isn’t such bad math even just buying the malt. I put in a woodstove though and was going to put a rack over it and malt like in the old days, that was one of the homemade ways.
Apparently barley is hard to malt well, I’ve been strongly discouraged from doing this on brewing forums. Anyway I do still brew but just sugar into liquor with a stove-top still or maple syrup wine. But I prefer Ale, especially Indian Pale.
It is much cheaper to brew beer than buy it in Australia. A carton of 24 is about $50, a $18 kit will make 60 cans worth.