Re:Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
by poulsbohemian on Thursday January 12, 2023 @12:38PM
(#34357434)
I just did some very casual back of the envelope math for my backyard flock. Assuming worst possible outputs and highest monthly costs, it works out to the equivalent of $5/dozen. In my area, roadside stands and/or grocery store “free-range, organic” eggs have been more than $7/dozen for years now. My gut tells me that over the time we’ve had these chickens, our actual break even would be closer to $4/dozen once our startup costs (coop, feeders) were repaid. We eat them, we don’t sell them, and we have fun with the chickens so I haven’t tracked any of it very closely.
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Re:Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
by voisin on Thursday January 12, 2023 @12:57PM
(#34357734)
These numbers are very close to what we’ve found with our flock.
Re:Eggs are 60% more expensive than last year in the US
by poulsbohemian on Thursday January 12, 2023 @02:11PM
(#34358830)
I'm sure you recognize the same dynamics we have in our small flock - we had 7 birds, then later went up to 10. There is a down time for the molt, and production is slower in the winter. These birds are now essentially three year olds, so I expect there to be a drop in production. Yet all that said - we're still conservatively averaging 3 eggs a day. So you extrapolate out an average of 100 eggs / mo (again - even that is really conservative) and $50/mo on feed/supplies (and let's be real - that's generous, it's probably more like $30/mo typically) and the numbers play really well for backyard chickens.
That said - we have had a lot more coop expenses than expected, because our neighbors wanted to be jerks about it and I wanted to keep the peace. So realistically the "savings" we would have had in egg costs have likely been eaten up or significantly reduced by having to rebuild / move our coop.