Can You Save Money on Eggs by Raising Your Own Chickens?

[buzglyd]

Just had a fresh duck egg for breakfast this morning. Delicious!

 

[clifffaith]

Honestly, that’s gross. I wouldn’t be able to eat it. I won’t even buy brown eggs. It’s a me thing.

We’ve been buying Cage Free Dark Yolks eggs at Trader Joe’s during the egg shortage. The orange yolks are a bit weird, but they are fine scrambled or for French toast which is usually how we have them.

 

[PigsDad]

Honestly, that’s gross. I wouldn’t be able to eat it. I won’t even buy brown eggs. It’s a me thing.

You sound like my cousins “from the big city” when they came to visit us on the farm. They wouldn’t drink milk because “our came from cows, and theirs came from the store”.

Kurt

 

[CalGalTraveler]

When my daughter would show her 4H pigs and goats at the county fair, people from the city part of the county would ask, "Where do they go after the fair?" umm...to our freezer...

They would look horrified. But then we would ask,

"Do you eat meat?"
"Yes"
"Then where do you think all of those packages at the butcher counter at Safeway come from?"

 

[easyrider]

I had a work colleague who raised hens as pets. If you like them as pets, the eggs are a nice benefit, but with the cost of housing, food and veterinary care, eggs would have to get pretty expensive to break even.

Google "vent gleet" and you will probably not want to deal ith chickens on a casual basis.

Our chickens and one duck were egg producing pets , lol. The duck ruled the coup and was really funny. They were always happy to see us, especially the duck. I don't remember their names. Since we are snowbirds we gave the chickens away to a neighbor. I think a coyote got the duck as it had disappeared that fall.

I'm content with buying organic eggs from Costco. It's not like we eat a lot of eggs.

Bill

 

[JohnnyO]

Good friend of ours took the journey raising chickens. Predators always an issue. Need chicken sitters (not full time) when traveling. It was a lot of work and also money. She finally gave them away and feels much more free.

 

["Roger"]

Pretty much what we have around where I live. However, if any of my neighbors decided to grow chickens (which I am pretty sure the town would not allow) - I'll be having a free chicken after I wring its neck. I mean really - maybe at a farm ok, but certainly not in any residential area.

You are right. A good many towns (perhaps most) have ordinances not allowing farm animals to be raised in town.

 

["Roger"]

All that needs to exist for chickens to officially be allowed to be called cage free is that they have a ten by ten area outside their barn which they can wander into. Few do as they consider it too intimidating to be outside.

I always buy eggs that are labled pasture raised. Interestingly, at a local supermarket, they had three brands where the eggs were pasture raised. (Most supermarkets have none.) The prices varied just a little - $5, $9, and $12. I have seen it before where the price of a dozen pasture raised eggs (in this case, the $5 dozen) is actually cheaper than just a plain dozed eggs.

 

[JohnnyO]

 

[geekette]

Better yet, live near someone with too many eggs. Free for me, just take some scraps for them when I go for refill. Excellent use of too much zucchini. I like hearing the roosters, actually, and they are so pretty.

but how do I know his hens are healthy, that bird flu hasn’t creeped in?

 

[CalGalTraveler]

Better yet, live near someone with too many eggs. Free for me, just take some scraps for them when I go for refill. Excellent use of too much zucchini. I like hearing the roosters, actually, and they are so pretty.

but how do I know his hens are healthy, that bird flu hasn’t creeped in?

You must have friendly roosters. They can be nasty. One stuck a claw in my teen daughters thigh (she had jeans on so no skin) and would chase kids at the school farm. Geese are nasty too but they don't have claws.

 

[DaveNV]

Keeping chickens for egg production in an urban setting is rarely a money making thing. By the time you build the facility to house them, buy the hens, feed and water them until they're of egg-laying age and condition, plus clean up after them, you've spent plenty. A typical hen lays one egg a day, sometimes every other day, sometimes every three days. If you're feeding a family, you'd need to have enoiugh hens laying regularly to keep your family supplied. But even then, you'd likely have to wait awhile until the hens are ready to lay for you - presuming no illness or night-time coop raiders.

To my mind, that's a lot to go through just to have a few eggs at home. Easier to let the commercial producers supply them, as they can. I bought a two-dozen pack at Costco the other day for $8. So even at $4 a dozen, it's not as outrageous as it might have been. Better than spending $8 at Starbucks for a fancy coffee drink.

Dave

 

[Patri]

Curious here. Chicken eggs are one thing, because I eat chicken. Has anyone eaten emu or ostrich?

 

[DrQ]

Curious here. Chicken eggs are one thing, because I eat chicken. Has anyone eaten emu or ostrich?

I've had ostrich. It's red meat.

 

[buzglyd]

Curious here. Chicken eggs are one thing, because I eat chicken. Has anyone eaten emu or ostrich?

I’ve eaten ostrich a few times. Not sure if I’ve had Emu but I imagine it‘s similar to ostrich.

 

[WorldT]

Honestly, that’s gross. I wouldn’t be able to eat it. I won’t even buy brown eggs. It’s a me thing.

Brown eggs as in chicken brown eggs? I only buy brown chicken . Yummy

 

[CalGalTraveler]

We had brown chickens with brown eggs. Green eggs. The brown eggs are the best.

 

[DrQ]

We had brown chickens with brown eggs. Green eggs. The brown eggs are the best.

Green eggs go with ham.

 

[DRIless]

1) Build a coop using materials I already had laying around under the house.
2) Catch feral hens with a trap I borrowed from a neighbor and some rice.

Total cost: Diddly/squat. Half a day's work building the coop. They live on kitchen scraps, bugs and leftovers.
Eggs are $1.50 each here. And going nowhere but up. And I make my own mayonnaise and Caesar Dressing. Even with the egregious price of eggs, that's still less expensive (and far tastier) than store bought. Particularly Caesar dressing, which is the difference between home made cookies and "Chips Ahoy."

1) Build a coop using materials I already had laying around under the house.
2) Catch feral hens with a trap I borrowed from a neighbor and some rice.

Total cost: Diddly/squat. Half a day's work building the coop. They live on kitchen scraps, bugs and leftovers.
Eggs are $1.50 each here. And going nowhere but up. And I make my own mayonnaise and Caesar Dressing. Even with the egregious price of eggs, that's still less expensive (and far tastier) than store bought. Particularly Caesar dressing, which is the difference between home made cookies and "Chips Ahoy."

Please send me your Caesar Dressing and mayonnaise recipes.
Spence
wittencs@yahoo.com

 

[easyrider]

Better yet, live near someone with too many eggs. Free for me, just take some scraps for them when I go for refill. Excellent use of too much zucchini. I like hearing the roosters, actually, and they are so pretty.

but how do I know his hens are healthy, that bird flu hasn’t creeped in?

I read a few weeks ago the USDA conditionally approved a bird flu vaccine for chickens. It hadn't at that time been approved by the FDA. So if this goes through and all of the commercial eggs might be from from vaccinated hens. Interesting is I think the original chicken vaccine was a mRNA vaccine from Moderna and the FDA rejected it. The Zoetis vaccine is just a regular type of vaccine. Even so, I bet more people freak out and start raising hens.

Bill

HPAI vaccine receives conditional approval from USDA

Whether to implement a vaccination strategy against avian influenza in commercial poultry is a contentious issue in the U.S.

www.wattagnet.com

 

[lynne]

I read a few weeks ago the USDA conditionally approved a bird flu vaccine for chickens. It hadn't at that time been approved by the FDA. So if this goes through and all of the commercial eggs might be from from vaccinated hens. Interesting is I think the original chicken vaccine was a mRNA vaccine from Moderna and the FDA rejected it. The Zoetis vaccine is just a regular type of vaccine. Even so, I bet more people freak out and start raising hens.

Bill

HPAI vaccine receives conditional approval from USDA

Whether to implement a vaccination strategy against avian influenza in commercial poultry is a contentious issue in the U.S.

www.wattagnet.com

I believe the reason for not vaccinating hens was that the eggs could not be sold overseas.

 

[geekette]

You must have friendly roosters. They can be nasty. One stuck a claw in my teen daughters thigh (she had jeans on so no skin) and would chase kids at the school farm. Geese are nasty too but they don't have claws.

Good to know. Generally hear em and not see them but will watch out.