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If the skyrocketing cost of eggs has you considering a do-it-yourself solution, specifically establishing your own backyard chicken coop, allow us to recalibrate your excellent egg expectations: even with the inflated prices of today, raising your own flock of laying hens will be no cheaper than buying eggs from the store. It’s also a lot more work.
“Some people think raising chickens means free eggs, which it doesn’t,” said Vermont senior writer Doug Mahoney, who writes about home improvement and owns 37 chickens (plus a dairy cow and some sheep).
Bringing chickens into your home can be fun and fulfilling – and we’ve got some great tips for getting started, if you’re willing to put the time and energy into it. But the growing number of people shelling out for “inflation chickens” to offset egg costs and shortages should know that this is unlikely to be a money-saving venture. If you’re trying to offset price increases on the two dozen eggs you buy a month, it could actually take years to, uh, recooperative what you spend in the process. “There are a lot of costs associated with it: infrastructure, feeders, waterers, bedding, medical supplies, the birds themselves,” Doug said.
Inflation has also raised the prices of some of these already expensive items. A chicken coop is the first of several items you would need to house chickens in your home. Our top pick chicken coop from Petmate was $450 when we first published our guide, in 2021. It’s now $600. Even though small necessities, like pet food storage containers, may not cost that much up front, they add up. And you also have to keep in mind that grain for chicken feed is a recurring cost, and feed grain has also risen in price, thanks to inflation.
While a modest setup with just a handful of hens can reduce your start-up costs, egg yield still won’t work in your favor. “I have seven hens at the moment, which is not much for me, and I’ve had a total of four eggs since October,” said Jackie Reeve, who wrote our chicken coop guide and lives outside of Seattle. In his experience, small herds can be both more expensive and more difficult to maintain in the long term. “It’s not cheaper with a small batch of hens because you’re not really getting enough eggs to sell or offset those costs. And it’s a lot of work, no matter how many birds you have,” she said.
There are several reasons for Jackie’s near-zero egg count, including seasonal moulting and lack of sunshine in fall and winter, as well as the fact that her hens, 3-4 years old, are past their first years of laying. .
Restocking your chicken supply is another recurring cost to consider. Doug said he recommends getting “new chicks every year or so.” But he also noted that chicks don’t start laying eggs until they’re around 6 months old (and you’ll still have to deal with the cost of feeding, housing and caring for them until then). Meanwhile, if you intend to streamline expenses and maximize egg production, older hens may need to be “culled” (umkilled) – a task you may not be able to bring yourself to do once your chickens are pets.
Doug estimated that to break even on your operating costs, you would probably need to keep at least 20-30 hens in their most productive laying years and sell some of their eggs for around $5. the dozen. This would cover your cereal costs. But Doug said even then, “you may never recoup your infrastructure costs.” (To find out how many birds you can house in your yard, our experts recommend 2-4 square feet of coop space per chicken, depending on how much extra room they have for running around outside the coop as well. )
The true value of raising hens lies in the enjoyment of raising them and the quality of eggs they will provide. “Our eggs are radically different from what we find in a store, even organic eggs,” Doug said. “Plus, I love knowing my chickens are happy, have plenty of room to roam, and can express their ‘chicken’ however they want.”
This article was edited by Alex Aciman and Catherine Kast.
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