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Valkyrie

Sorry, yet another question

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Hello all

Now that I have shown OH where intended winter quarters for cube and run will go, he is happy-ish! I have worked out basic costings as much as I can, but please may I ask how much it costs (roughly) to keep 3 whopping birds per year? I know it would vary - I'm not even considering vet bills, that can be a pleasant surprise at a later date!

Many thanks for your help.

Regards, Kerry

PS Love Phosphorus's avatar - can't stop looking at that little elephant, it's mesmerising! :lol:

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I just did a rough costing. I would say for pellets and Hemcore about £10 per month, of course this depends on how much Hemcore you use and whether you have to pay delivery costs, which I do, and how greedy your chickens are, mine are uber greedy :roll: On top of that there are things like Red Mite powder and wormer but these last for ages. Of course the real costs are all the little goodies and extras you will want :wink: bags of porridge oats, mixed corn, tubtrugs to match your housing, pekabloks etc., Only joking, I would say realistically about £150 per year.

 

Tessa

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Hmm, let's see...

 

According to the Omlet guide, an adult hen will eat about 120g of pellets a day, so that's 360g for three hens, or about 2.5kg of feed a week. A 5kg bag of pellets costs around £3.75, so that's £1.87 a week, or £97.50 a year.

 

If your hens lay 300 eggs each a year (not uncommon in egg-laying hybrids), that's 900 eggs or 150 boxes of six. At a very modest 1.50 a box (and large free-range eggs are often a good bit more than that), that's £225 worth of eggs!

 

So even adding in extras such as mixed corn, feed supplements and bedding, you should at least break even :)

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Oooh don't tell DH that - I am trying to convince him they will only cost about 3p per day :lol: and that will be covered by eggs :lol::lol:

He will catch me out very soon (think he has already given the bills from the timber suppliers etc re the run :cry: )

 

Glad you like my elephant Koojie :D

 

Andrea

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They will probably eat more as they are all now layiing, but a 20kg bag lasts my girls 7-8 weeks - at £7.30 a sack, that is actualy £1 a week on pellets for three chickens (£4-5 a month) - a bag of mixed grit is £1.20 and lasts me over 2 months, small bag of mixed corn £1, which lasts me about 2 months as a treats. Hemcore for nesting box £7.80 - but this will last for months.

 

I understand the countrywide stores two bags of pellets is £10, so cheaper than I have been paying, or if you go organice about £10 a bag.

 

Certainly costs less than what you get back in eggs.

 

Tracy

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.............and there's no contest!!

 

Keeping chickens is much more fun that queueing up at a supermarket & I haven't even got any yet!!

 

:D

 

have just been to Christian's Chicken Party (sorry Christian I just had to tell them!!), was sorely tempted to smuggle out a couple of them under my jumper - think he would have noticed though :wink:

 

:D:lol::D:lol::D

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Three big chickens are probably more cost effective than the prices I quoted, since you can buy the 20kg sacks of feed - I was forgetting that my little banties don't eat as much so I have to buy the smaller bags (and I prefer to get organic pellets when I can find them).

 

I don't think you can feed anything on 3p a day nowadays (except maybe goldfish) - the price of wheat has skyrocketed in the last year, as anyone involved in farming will know :(

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All those inputs in such a short space of time - many thanks everyone. :D

I did get stuck with that elephant again - it's that little trunk waving - and now I have spotted his ears flapping - just! :oops:

 

I had forgotten to add eggs into the equation too - so has OH, even better. I think when you add the eggs, it seems pretty reasonable. By the way, HE has spoken - no funny coloured cube, it has to be GREEN! As long as we get the birdies that is a compromise I am prepared to make. :D I'm not going to mention Tessa's extras just yet :lol::lol:

 

I have been working my way back from the old postings because there are so many good pointers and things to watch for. I'm on page 96 now and nearly cross-eyed, every now and then I laugh, getting some rude comments from daughter and OH. :roll: I've even read about footballs to keep them occupied - I think that would happen much, much later if necessary - another extra. On the other hand, when grotty son piles up his plate and leaves half, more treats for birdies = more room in bin. Those in the family that fancy half a tin of sweetcorn, put remainder in a container in the fridge and conveniently forget about it . . . hens will stop the waste. I think I can convert him now.

Cheerio and thankies again, Kerry (My nickname came from baby brother that started with Koo, then it became Koojie Bear because of Rolf Harris's little Koala)

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have just been to Christian's Chicken Party (sorry Christian I just had to tell them!!), was sorely tempted to smuggle out a couple of them under my jumper - think he would have noticed though :wink:

 

:D:lol::D:lol::D

 

You are not the first Moomin! I had to wrestle Pam (Hillfamily) to the ground to get Winifred from under her coat! :roll::wink::wink:

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My chickens are not at all cost effective, when you take into account the cost of the eglu and their other house, wood and weldmesh for the run, corrugated plastic for the roof, drainpipe system, etc. BUT I reckon they will be able to pay for their own food and bedding once they are all laying and I can sell some spare eggs at school.

 

A 20kg sack of pellets costs £8 and a bale of easibed/aubiose is about £8.50 so if I can sell 4 boxes of 6 eggs per week at £1.20 they might just manage to pay for themselves. :wink:

 

Your 3 chooks will probably cost about £1 a week in pellets.

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My 3 ex batts and 4 bantams coost me £10 every 6 or 7 weeks on food. Hemcore I get for £6.42 a bale but that seem to be cheap. It lasts me ages at the mo because I only have the basic cube run and then hens freerange all day. So far I've only bought 2 bags in 9 momths :oops: . Today my new run arrives :P so then that will cost a fortune to line in Hemcore and I will have to change it regularly because my girls will be confined to the run for most of the time durung the summer.

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Hubby and I reckon that our lot cost about £6 per week to keep by the time we have bought the poultry spice, marmite, layers mash, pellets, verm-x, etc. However, as someone else pointed out, the cats cost us about £5 a week to feed and on top of that they have vets appointments every 6 months for flea injections which cost £60 for the two. Although the cats are lovely and we wouldn't swap them, the chickens do reward us with delicious eggs and therefore they contribute towards their own keep.

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Superjules may say the chickens will not cover the cost of the eglu - but remember if you gave up keeping chickens you would easily get your money back on the eglu on e-bay, so you can treat an eglu as cost nuetral.

 

Value of eggs is more than cost of food & bedding - plus remember they are one of the few pets that have any payback!

 

Tracy

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More thank you's from me.

I figured that a lot of things would probably last a while in the long run, and replacing them would be spread out over time. The "recycling" our cube and getting money back from it is also something I hadn't thought about either :) . I figure that we would keep it even if we had to give up the girls (grumpy neighbours - whose dog was barking this morning and I could hear it even with our windows closed) or they go from natural causes, because we are intending to move to a place with more garden/land in a few years time so will have lots of chickies and cockerels too! Darned inconvenient teenagers who insist on going to particular colleges in this area! :wink:

I already have some oystershell grit because I have been giving it to the wild birds, and I have been breeding my own mealworms. We have so many slugs here that the frogs/toads/hedgehogs and thrushes can't cope - I think that problem will be sorted by the summer! :twisted:

Regards, Kerry

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I have just thought of something else - if we use hemcore etc, then it will be put onto the compost heap, and that will mean we will in turn be making more compost = we won't have to buy so much from the garden centre. Problem (not that there was much of one) solved! Another for the plus side! Just need to give him his dinner, one Pimms and he will be putty in my hands! :D

Regards, Kerry

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:lol:

 

You will never need to buy compost again! You may need another compost bin though ... both mine are full, although I can probably dig some out of one. Chicken poo + aubiose = rich, crumbly compost in no time.

 

I read all the above with interest, especially the calculations about the eggs. It was only afterwards that I remembered that I give most of my eggs to friends, which makes me very popular but not very rich! I may have to start charging.

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:lol::lol::lol:

Good news about the compost then - lucky we have 2 large homemade bins and a couple of plastic ones that we got for the allotment years ago. We never seem to fill them all up and one is just about ready for emptying out. There has never enough for the whole garden.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy ordering day for me (and credit card headache for OH :D )!

Regards, Kerry

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I have to admit that compost was one of the reasons I decided to get chickens - I love eggs but the DH isn't that keen on them. So far I've been keeping my eglu on bark (just switched to hemcore now I know where to get it), so I've been using the soiled bark as a nutrient-rich mulch on my allotment's perennial beds, and rotting the contents of the poo-tray - I spread a small box-full on one of my raised beds in the autumn, and the parsley is thriving!

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Greetings to all you wonderful henkeepers!

 

My green Cube and three Pepperpots are due to arrive on 17th April :D and I have been lurking in the forum and swotting up on all things chicken (SO helpful!).

 

Anne, may I ask where you've found a near-to-Cambridge supplier for Hemcore? The Yellow Pages doesn't show much in the way of local horse suppliers.

 

I am so excited about keeping hens that I'm hoping to supply a US Eglu and Gingernuts to my son and his wife who live in the Mojave Desert. They both get depressed (for understandable economic reasons) and I know from (limited) past experience that chickens are VERY life-enhancing!

 

I guess I will have to shell out for a digital camera as well!

:roll:

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