Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Chickens are a Win Win

Maintaining a small flock of free range (pastured) chickens really makes economic sense if you have a half acre or more of available pasture. They're a heck of a lot easier to keep than most probably suspect, and not only pay for themselves, but then some.

I started in the early spring. Initial investment setting up (including the price for the eight hens, one lost to a hawk) was about $1500.00 all told (you can start up a lot cheaper, of course). I save on the price of eggs that I normally consume (which is about seven and a half dozen per month), then take in an additional $30.00 per month from sale of the excess eggs. That $30.00 fully takes care of the cost of the organic layer feed (and other expenses) which supplements their feed off the three quarter acre pasture (bugs, grubs, wild greens, etc.), which pasture they're on from dawn till dusk (Naturally, my house sits on the acre too, so I subtracted the space taken up by it as non-pasture). Considering what I save on my own eggs consumed, they'll pay me back for the start up cost in four years (see PS).

Then there's the factor of superior eggs, far superior nutritionally to anything available at the grocery store. Even those eggs labelled "free range" there don't come close. All that's required for that grocery store label is that those chickens have access to a small plot of grass for an hour or two a day. The rest of the time they're kept enclosed, even if not caged. Yard hens, in contrast, are free to roam your property (mine's pesticide free for seven years now) searching for their own natural foods, all packed with the best nutrition a hen could possibly get (which goes right into the eggs), from dawn till dusk.

PS Factoring in the fact that in the winter they will probably stop laying till spring (which comes early here), this pushes back the time it will take for them to pay for their own start up cost a bit, so let's call it (for me) five years instead of four. During that time (here in northern Florida, it shouldn't be a long period of time, I wouldn't think), the economics of the operation dips into the red for a bit. But since most of the year it's in the black, this is no drawback in the big picture. It's an operation that more than pays for itself. Additionally, you get to look out your windows and see chickens happily wandering around, which does a heart good all by itself.

Are you serious or just have chicken fever

He got tired of being the stupidest critter on his homestead.Chickens won out over goldfish.

you see happy chickens...I see chicken parm

7.5 dozen eggs a month is a LOT of cholesterol....

Glad ya lost only one to a hawk... A neighbor here started with chickens, lost all 15 of them in about 2 months, then went to Guineas and thats been 12 or 15 of them, and down to 3 or 4 last time I saw, in about a month or so now.... hawks eating really good so far.

That's a lot of eggs to eat in a month!

Production will certainly fall off in the winter, but it likely won't stop completely. Think about adding the correct type of lighting to mimic the light given from the sun and put it on a timer in their coop to give them more "sunlight". Add a bit of light to both ends of the natural daylight and it should help a bit.

Gotta get a few chickens myself. My wife buys organic eggs from the store and who really knows where they actually come from and how old they are? I do know that they are a bit pricey.

Got plenty of room for chickens here, just a matter of building an insulated coop and running power to it. On the down side, we've got a lot of hawks, raccoons, weasels and coyotes. Bears too, though I haven't heard of bears ever being a problem for chicken owners.

These aren't meat birds. Did you know that meat bird chickens ("broilers") are a fairly recent development? Prior to the 1950s, chicken meat was considered a rare delicacy, because of its price. Hens were considered too valuable as egg producers to slaughter, so that only left young roosters for meat, and there were no real meat specialty birds.

My girls have gotten real good at spotting hawks since they lost their buddy in the late spring. They run for cover at the slightest hint that a hawk might be about.

That's outdated dietary science, my friend, especially as applied to truly free rang pastured hens' eggs. It's been decades since they've discovered the fallacy in the egg restricted diet. As it turns out, cholesterol in foods you consume doesn't end up in your blood, and has zero adverse effect on your health. It's only the cholesterol that your body produces that can do that, and even then it's only a problem if you're on a poor diet otherwise, e.g., one high is refined and starchy foods.

Additionally eggs from free range, pastured, hens are loaded with omega 3 fatty acids, which is a huge boon to good health.

There just ain't nothing like the feel of chicken s**t squeezing up between your toes on a cool morning either.

BCR

Well, I typically have two for breakfast every morning, then between one and three are involved in some aspect of cooking the remainder of the day, as I cook almost all of my own meals. When you do that you're always dipping something in egg batter, or incorporating eggs into something or other.Sure, that's an option, but my understanding is that this shortens their productive lifespan quite a bit. That dormant period is actually necessary for their health.I highly recommend you do. Really very few if any down sides. Very easy to keep them. They seem to know their own property line and rarely if ever spend any time off it.

Yep. That's about the only drawback. You have to watch where you step.

Just get yourself a chit eating dog! Be sure to keep the dog outside and don't let it lick your face.

Hawk, my daughters chickens lay year around and they too are free range during the day.

Does she do any light exposure manipulation, or do they lay year round with only natural lighting? Does their egg laying slow down in the winter at all?

Slows down a bit is all, just natural day/night cycles for them. Not like we have months of overcast skies and freezing temps down here.

That's great news, T. Thanks.

I love mine. Bought a crap load of chicks this past spring to supplement the adult hens because I can't keep up with demand for my eggs. I really enjoy watching them tear around the yard catching bugs and stuff. Even with selling off a handful of momma raised mixed breed chicks, I think I'm still at 55. Gonna increase my hen numbers to 20 (at 13 now) and slaughter all but one rooster.

Your history don't quite match up with mine. While they did not eat chicken every day, people that lived on the farm and in small towns ate a lot of chicken. It was the go to meal when company came and was on the menu nearly every Sunday. They kept hens setting and had birds of several sizes on hand. My mother said that when she was a girl (born 1913) they started eating them when they were the size of quail. Skin them a fry them. Big city's where you had to buy everything was probably different, but down on the farm, chicken was et often. miles

Great entertainment, aren't they?