One of the additions we were most excited about when we bought our little farm (just 2.55 acres) was getting chickens!  In fact about a month before we even moved to the property we bought the little baby chicks and kept them in our garage in suburbia, that’s just between you and I.  That’s one of our deep dark HOA secrets, ssshhh.  They were SO cute with their fluffy fuzzy butts.  Now? Not so much.  Don’t get me wrong, we’re happy they’re here but they’re not always so cute.  They can be stinky, dirty, and bratty!  One of our first chicks ended up being a rooster, and despite the fact that I saved his little life early on he still turned out to a be a total jerk to the kids and I.  He ended up in freezer camp.  He was formerly known as Mr. Roo.

We have somewhere around 40 birds right now and that means a lot of eggs!  Thankfully our family all enjoys eggs, we go through a dozen a day easily.  We also sell them and feed them back to the animals around here.  The dogs each get an egg a day, the pigs got several when they were still around, and every once in a while we scramble them up and serve them back to the chickens.  I know that’s strange but I promise it’s not cannibalism.  It’s a great source of protein for them. Just don’t feed them raw – because then they’ll start skimming eggs off the top and embezzling them before you can collect them.  You never want them to find out that those big white boulders they lay actually contain something super yummy – so collect them often!

This is Killer and his baby chick.
He’s so very protective!

If we had to buy all the eggs we eat/serve the animals in a week we’d be somewhere around $28/week.  That is assuming eggs are $2/dozen but in our area they can be pricey since we’re in a small town. Our closest major store is Walmart and it’s about 35 minutes away.  We go through about 2 bags of feed right now/week at $11,99 per 50lbs.  This is an area where we can’t afford to buy organic that would just be INSANE.  A bag of organic feed last time I checked was $35 for 40lbs, it’s been a while since I’ve looked though.  However even with the money we could potentially bring in ($5/dozen vs $3/dozen) we’d still be in the hole.  We do however choose a local feed, so I like to tell myself that means something. Regardless though of feed farm fresh chicken eggs blow store bought out of the water, every single time.

So are you going to get yourself some chickens?  If not, support a local farmer and buy their eggs you won’t regret it!