Our first official carton of eggs, and yes, I numbered each egg cause I'm so darned proud of the hens. (And I cry for help.)
Who said raising chickens was a good way to save money on eggs?
Because according to my calculations, our first official carton of eggs, courtesy of our flock of 31 chickens who just started laying a week ago, is more expensive than this most elegant and tasteful statue from SkyMall.
Lets look at the cost of homegrown eggs, shall we?
$200 Cost of the chicks themselves, plus feeders and waterers and heat lamps
$300 Cost of feed since June ’09
$500 Portable electric fence
$500 Frame the hen hut is built on
$60 Grated metal flooring for the hen hut
$0 Materials for the hen hut itself. That’s right: ZERO DOLLARS. My husband just “happened” to have all the building materials laying around…..the wood, latches, windows, metal sheeting for the roof, even the weather vain. Sanford and Son could take a few scavenging lessons from Jake.
The Hen Hut
Grand total: $1,560.
Which means. This chicken raising thing? It’ll be a lifetime before I recoup the costs. Wait. A deep thought is forming. This isn’t some flash in the pan hobby that will occupy my time until I move onto something more glamorous like taxidermying squirrels. There’s a good chance I’ll be raising chickens for the rest of my life.
Maybe I should have stuck to SkyMall.
All original content © 2012 by Jessie Knadler
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
You better be eating those babies with gusto my friend!
CB: We’ve only cooked ONE of our eggs so far. I think the hesitation stems from me trying to come up with a quiche recipe to end all quiche recipes.
Wait until you have enough eggs to start giving them away (or selling them to co-workers like I do) … I would stress about an eggless refrigerator in the morning while my husband laughed, telling me “You’ll collect another dozen this afternoon!”
Jake and I were just discussing this last night. Now that we have chickens, we’ll never have to bring a bottle of wine to another dinner party again since who doesn’t prefer receiving free range eggs? I know I do.
DOOD! must get that Anubis!
One is on the way. Assembly required, though.