My mother has chickens at her home. I asked her why she got the chickens and she said it was because eggs were too expensive at the grocery store. Of course, she only wants the organic farm free range well cultured chick eggs and since that variety cost is high she decided that she would rather have her own chickens and eggs.
Doing the Math
So the ultra organic eggs she likes are about $9/dozen but we’ll round it up to $10/dz for this math example. My mother has 4 chickens and a rooster and they need to be fed and watered every day. I think on a good week she get’s an egg per day per chicken so we’ll round up to 2 dozen eggs per week.
Option 1 – Buy The Eggs @ Store
So two dozen eggs at the grocery store will cost $20 per week or $80/month but that’s not the only cost. Using our example from Financial Regrets: Poor Decision Making we will assume the same metrics.
You have a car that gets 15 miles to the gallon. The cost of gasoline is $3/gallon. Your favorite grocery store is 7 miles away and it takes you 15 minutes to get there. You go to the grocery store, buy a bunch of stuff then drive home. When you get home you realize one of your items, let’s say it’s a loaf of bread, is green and moldy. The bread cost you $2.15.
Adding the cost of fuel to the total cost means that the eggs cost $20 + $3 = $23. We won’t add labor cost because my mom is retired and draws no hourly (work) income.
Options 2 – Harvest Eggs from Chickens
In order for the chickens to produce eggs they must be fed and watered daily in addition to being kept safe. So how much does it cost to feed chickens? That number is tricky because it varies and the chickens are fed left over scraps on occasion but I did look up how much feed costs. Chickens typically required 1/4 (4 oz) to 1/3 (5.33 oz) pound of feed per day.
The cheapest feed I found on Amazon is $0.10/oz so 4 chickens x 4 oz feed/day x 7 = $11.20 to feed chickens. So far so good, it appears it is cheaper to grow your own chickens but wait there is more…
I mentioned chickens needed to be secured because two chickens were killed by dogs during this process. Additionally, we haven’t discussed about the cost of the chickens either, they are not free unless you grow chickens too but that’s not my mom. She bought the chickens for $15 to $20 but we’ll use the lower amount $15 x 4 = $60 + 2 replacements = $90.
She also had to spend $100 on building a secure pen for the chickens after the dog incident. Those organic chickens are starting to get very expensive.
Chickens can produce eggs for 3 to 4 years and since we’re using lower estimates I will go with 3 years.
Comparing Options
Option 1 = 3 years x 52 weeks x $23 = $3588.
Option 2 = 3 years x 52 weeks x $11.20 (feed) + $30×6 (lost chickens) + $100 (coop) = $2027.
So clearly it’s cheaper to have your own chickens than buying right?
Well I left out some items and issues that I can’t quite quantify.
Issues
The first issue that comes up is who takes care of the chickens when you have to travel? My mom has missed a few trips because she couldn’t find someone to feed and care for her chickens while she was away. In one instance she had to pay the neighbors kid to take care of them.
The second issue is whether you spend money taking these chickens to the vet when they get sick or just let them die. I have $30×6 in option 2 above as replacement chickens because chickens do die from disease, dog or some other random reason.
The third issue is production. There is no guarantee that you will get an egg out of a chicken every day. Sometimes the chickens have produced no egg often caused by malnutrition or illness or some other random reason.
The fourth issue is consumption. It’s great to have your own organic eggs but do you want to eat them every single day? My mom’s solution to this problem is to give us the eggs. My wife has a co-worker that has a farm and he generously gives us farm fresh eggs too because they produce more than they can consume. I also have to assume that as some point, eggs will get cheaper and once that happens, the savings becomes marginal.
Financial Regret?
“It seems in my life I keep making the same mistakes over and over again.” -Mom
So you may be asking where is the financial regret in this whole conversation? Well this is the SECOND time that my mom has gone from getting chickens, having them for a while, getting rid of them and starting the process all over again. So they actual expenses in this story is now x 2.
Best Solution
The best solution, in my opinion, is to have a family member or friend that has chickens or a farm and gives them to you or sells them to you at a deep discount to what they cost at the grocery store. For me, it seems to much of a hassle to have to care for chickens to get “organic” eggs. So thanks mom!
Share the Wealth
Do you have chickens? If so how much does it really cost for you to keep them & do you use all the eggs?