For most masses , it ’s possible to pick up a dozen cage - free orchis at the grocery store for around $ 3 . Even many comfort station store sell eggs . This ease of commercially available food is in all probability not on the listing of reasons why you ’re a James Leonard Farmer , though . The reason that might be on your list — control over how your food is raised , environmental and animal - welfare issues , food costs , the expiation of ego - sufficiency — double as reasons why that XII orchis from the grocery store is n’t adept enough for you .
Cue the cluck of hens in your backyard .
Economies Of Scale
If you ’re only after the intangible benefits of home bollock - production , going about this in an economical manner might not factor highly into to your decisions about the size of flock or breed of chicken . But there ’s no grounds you ca n’t keep chickens without losing money .
The economy - of - scale construct apply to just about any enterprise you may name . If you have a roving poulet coop that can handle 30 birds , that henhouse will cost you the same amount of money to construct or buy , irrespective of there being 30 or just two hens in it ; likewise for water boy , birdfeeder , electric nett fencing material , a guardian click and clock time you spend actuate the coop .
The variable input are where the tangible cost are , and there is even some saving of scale . provender be less if you buy in bulk , and the cost per chick goes down when you buy more , for example .
There is no stock severance - even point for pasture - based egg product , as everyone ’s operation is different . This is where University of Kentucky Department of Agricultural Economics associate extension phone prof Greg Halich was issue forth from when he and Extension Associate Samantha Kindred developed their “ Pasture - found Laying Hens Decision help ” interactional spreadsheet .
“ I bed people that were view raising small flocks of layers , ” Halich says . “ They were able to receive information about carry off a small flock but no skilful selective information to help them figure out if they would actually be profitable . ”
Halich and Kindred spend about two years researching , talking with egg producers and file name extension professionals , and compiling their findings into their synergistic spreadsheet to help oneself small - scale farmers and backyard chicken - keepers become profitable — or at least not lose money in their testicle speculation .
Choose Your Flock
For the sake of this article and using Halich and Kindred ’s initiative budget , our HF Hens belittled - scale commercial mountain and home - production flock will both expend Barred Plymouth Rocks in their first year of lay . The stock you select will affect your profitability in term of charge per unit of lay , age at which laying Begin and average mortality figures .
HF hen are receive constitutional feed and living in peregrine houses that are moved to new pastureland once per calendar week . We are gauge our chicken - keeping experience as novice . ( Each of these token is a airfield you ’ll fill out in the aforementioned spreadsheet . )
Feed Costs
Both of our flocks are getting a commercial brand of constitutive chicken provender , which we pick up from a provender store in 40 - hammer bags for $ 0.62 per punt . The price of provender fluctuates with commodity cost , as corn and soy tend to be the main fixings in chicken feed . You may find a better price or twice this price in your area .
Feed Options
If organic feed is n’t your thing or you do n’t want to cart around feed in bags , there are other ways to source chicken feed , and these will touch on your monetary value . It goes without saying that organic feed is run to be more than non - GMO feed , which is plump to cost more than conventional feed . If you have other concerns , such as soy - gratuitous , that will also tot up to your costs .
You could discover a skillful toll by purchasing from a feed mill in mass , or you could also go in with neighbors to purchase a large amount of provender and share in the tone arm or delivery costs . Another feed option is to grow some ingredient on your own , though you might find this to be more dear . The true cost of grow your own provender accounts for the land on which you ’re growing ; seeds ; equipment and Labour Party for planting , cultivating , harvest home and cleaning ; computer storage distance ; and mixing this with vitamin , minerals and other ingredient to insure your biddy have the diet they need to develop well and stay levelheaded .
Foraging
poulet do n’t digest foraging the way ruminant animals do . Some nutritionary needs are meet on forage — mostly from the insects and chuck , seeds and the occasional shiner . Pasture - based hens may glean 2 1/2 to 15 percentage of their dietary need from forage .
“ you could more easily give smaller flocks cracking access to lea and also sub more of their dieting in wasteland food from the kitchen and garden , ” Halich says . “ The effective feed cost will go down proportionally . This can be a major cost advantage , as provender costs typically account for 2/3 or more of all varying costs , not counting labor . ”
Your rest home may produce enough food garbage to make a difference to a home - production flock , but unless you ’re receive calibre food garbage from elsewhere — a local food - service establishment , for example — your home - kitchen scraps likely wo n’t supplement much of a small - scale commercial flock ’s demand .
Your Time
“ For home product , keeping the undertaking per bird to a reasonable level is probably the cost that is most thought-provoking , ” Halich read . “ In general , the small the flock , the higher the labor per bird will be . You need to be out there doing chores , no matter of whether you have 10 layers or 100 layers . Yes , the 100 layers will take more overall time , but it will not be nearly in balance to the numbers . ”
If you ’re in it to make money , labor must be considered . Time is recorded for everyday eating , waterer clean - out , egg assembling and cosmopolitan maintenance ; hebdomadally , the troop are move to raw pastureland . For the little - scale commercial-grade flock , eggs are washed once per week , and time is spent marketing the egg , too .
“ What may be reckon ‘ labor ’ for one somebody might be considered something unlike for another , ” Halich say . “ Just as many people have hobby like golf , some may consider their laying hens a hobby that they do partly for their enjoyment or their kinsperson ’s enjoyment . ”
This is where home eggs - production and little - scale , commercial egg - product diverge in a big way .
The farmers tend the HF hen small - scale commercial batch receive $ 10 per hr for their oeuvre ; those raising the fowl in the home pile do n’t account for their time . We picture we spend 30 minutes per sidereal day caring for the chickens and collecting testis , plus another hour each workweek for move the poulet to fresh pasture and one hour per calendar week wash eggs . ( This is a modest accounting of egg - wash meter . )
Egg Cartons
You might think this is a cockamamy cost category , but egg cartons are a very material disbursement . Halich estimates one new egg carton and carton recording label cost nearly $ 0.50 . You ca n’t lawfully sell eggs in used cartons in many states , so this disbursement adds up . If you ’re just using your bollock at home , no one is going to stop you from recycle your egg cartons , so this expense is not counted in the HF Hens domicile passel .
Water
Here ’s a negligible expense — it ’s not even accounted for in the decision aid spreadsheet . Water does n’t cost much — an norm of $ 0.0015 per gallon in the U.S. , according to the American Water Works Association — but it ’s a valuable resource . You need water for your chickens , for wash eggs , and for cleaning the cage and other open .
Marketing
If there ’s any intellect why small - flock egg manufacturer would want to keep his operation at a home - production scale , it ’s this dreaded G - countersign . Marketing is often the most difficult part of any farm enterprise .
“ The big hurdle I see for the commercial producer is having a feasible market place for their premium product , ” Halich aver . “ Trying to sell pasture - based egg product at supermarket - level prices is a recipe for failure . ”
Whether you are competing for business enterprise with the large - scale , ceremonious testicle producers or with the kid selling eggs as an FFA project , competing on cost alone will almost never work out .
“ You need to deal the eggs for what they are truly deserving , ” Halich says . “ But this is toilsome to do in some rural country where people are selling orchis for $ 2 per 12 just down the route . These hoi polloi are not accounting for all their costs . ”
To sell your egg , your best bet is to develop a relationship with clients interested in your eggs for their impalpable benefits : crop product , supporting local farmers , etc . The amount of time you invest in marketing include time spent revise your website ; driving to , setting up for , sell at and give out down at a farmers mart ; time spend researching and cold - call chefs ; and the cost of constitutive or another product certification , if this is part of your business plan . For our HF Hens flocks , we pass no prison term at all marketing the household - scale of measurement flock and an average of one minute per week market our small - ordered series commercial ball flock .
Marketing costs money , too . Include your entanglement design and hosting costs and marketplace - vendor fees as selling expense in your budget . The HF Hens commercial flock has a modest $ 100 per year marketing tab .
To save money and time , the commercial heap ’s marketing considerations are shared with other small - scale farm enterprise . On the other hired man , if you were to have a website for eggs only , marketing would all fall into the bollock budget .
Fixed Costs
Everything from your incubator room to an egg electric refrigerator and fence supplies to egg basketball hoop are fixed , depreciable expense for your lay quite a little . These expenses are there disregardless of what type of mint you have , but they could be shared among other farm enterprises .
Your Culls
Another indebtedness of egg yield is older position hens , but they can offer a welfare , too . These girls only have about two geezerhood of a strong laying life , but there is some value in these expend hen as stew hens or for take a shit caudex .
We sell about 80 percentage of our HF Hens live for $ 6 per chick right there on the farm so we do n’t have the expense and hassle of processing , or we process them for our home base use . The other 20 percent of our hens live out their Day on our farm .
Manure
Here ’s another indebtedness turned benefit : Keeping your hens on ley , their manure enriches the dirt as they go . For the time that they ’re kept in a brooder , that manure and bedding material can be composted for your own garden or sold to others . The fiscal economic value of fertility is not factored into the HF Hens budget , but as sustainable - farming advocate , we do revalue it .
The Break-Even Point
The goal of a pasture - ground orchis enterprise is , of course , to make money ; for a rest home - production flock , not drop more on your hens than their eggs would be deserving retail would be prissy . Eggs from the pasture - parent , organic - cereal - fed HF Hens flocks are appraise at a modest $ 6 per XII retail and $ 5.50 per twelve sweeping . If you ’ve price pasture - raised , organic - feed eggs at your Fannie Merritt Farmer market late , you know this is a steal — though our imaginary passel are not certify Organic . We betray 50 percent of our eggs sweeping , 40 percentage retail ( admit what we keep for ourselves ) and factor in 10 percent not sold due to defects and other loss .
see that egg price , we take 219 Barred Rock hens in our small - scale commercial flock to stop even at the end of the year , according to the Pasture - Based Laying Hen Decision Tool . ( We actually rake in a banging $ 14 profit , but 218 birds loses us money . ) The break - even monetary value of one twelve eggs in this system is $ 5.90 ; remember that the wholesale testicle Leontyne Price is just $ 5.50 , meaning the business need to review pricing . Realistically , the business needs to get more hens , too , if we actually require to have a successful endeavor .
In the HF Hens household - scale flock , the numbers could not look more different . Just eight hen are take to make this egg - laying flock breakage even . Doing away with the costs of selling , labor , carton and labels , and an egg icebox makes a large difference of opinion .
Costs and Revenues
We used the University of Kentucky ’s Pastured place Hen conclusion make Tool to determine project expense for our imaginary HF Hens bollock - laying mass for the twelvemonth . Without recounting every number entered , here are some important fact and soma that may aid you in your own pasture - produce egg decision making .
Commercial Flock:219 hens
toll
Chicks ( include shipping):$729
( We started with 243 and factored in 7.5 to 10 percent mortality . )
Feed:$12,779 ( 20,455 pounds )
cartonful and Labels:$1,471 ( 3,428 cartons and labels )
Labor Department ( marketing and flock - related):$4,170 ( 417 hours )
Fixed Facilities and Equipment:$889
full ( fixed and variable):$20,180
Revenue
Egg Sales:$19,570
Stew Hen Sales:$624
Total:$20,194
Home Production:8 hens
Chicks ( including shipping):$45
( We started with nine chick , assuming we ’d fall behind one on the way . )
Feed:$467 ( 748 pounds )
Fixed Facilities and Equipment:$213
Total Yearly Costs:$767
note value
Total Egg Value:$750
Stew Hen Value:$28
Total Flock annual Value:$778
Before the sounds of hens click weirdy into your farm dream , spend time with realistic chicken - keep fiscal and direction figures . If net profit is your aim , set goals so you do n’t unite the ranks of little - graduated table Farmer disillusioned with the business of orchis . Home - raised eggs still baffle grocery - shop eggs any day , but only when they ’re worth your while .
This clause originally appear in the March / April 2017 issue ofHobby Farms .
