Elderly cat breathing difficulties when purring

[hanns]

Hi,

 

we have had an enquiry from a programme maker who would like to interview an eglu owner for whom one of the main reasons that they keep chickens is that it saves them money on eggs. Now I know we all like to spoil our chickens as well so this may not apply to many people but if you do grow your own veg and generally appreciate the fact that you aren't having to buy all your product could you get in touch please! Just email me johannes@omlet.co.uk or call Omlet on 0845 450 2056 and ask to talk to me and i'll tell you more.

 

Thanks!

 

johannes

 

PS. Lets spread the word - chickens are eggcellent!

[Willow]

Humm I think if we all added up the cost of 1/2 doz eggs we'd have to do a payback of 5-10 years tell them the payback isn't in money it's in fun, quality of food, destressing and chicken poo

[Tina C]

Chickens are eggcellent - but not sure I save money. As Patricia says its about a lot more than just the money.

[bronze]

Won't be long til I do start saving myself money but thsts because of the meat I'll have not the eggs.

[Bexiboo]

I haven't got my chooks yet. However for me even though I am getting mine a bit cheaper (second hand chooks and eglu lol) I didn't do it to save money, will still take a while to make back what I put in, I am getting them just for the sheer enjoyment.

[freddie]

No eglu here as the hens have a stone biulding as their home, but we've got ours for pence, they've laid like wizards, we grow our own veg, and we give them all the s"Ooops, word censored!"s, plus corn and pellets, so they've saved us a heap over the yrs..and we love them to bits, as they're great fun!

[ubereglu]

Well the money saving wasn't the real reason we got hens, but I grow my own veg, compost and save rainwater!

[Tina C]

Why don't you go for it then Liz - you set a great example.

[Couperwife]

since we have had our girls we have become more "good life"

 

I have always been into recycling and saving water, but I think the chooks have certainly opened our eyes to what else we can do

 

Liz, I think you should go for it it would be good as you are so young too

 

cathy

x

[sparkleeeeee]

i wouldnt want to do the programme but i am alot better off financially having my cube and hens. at current prices our weekly egg bill would be between £15 to £20 per week, thats £780 per year (i will take the lowest figure). my cube cost £400 and i have a homemade run that was made from recycled materials and cost £30 for the roof. the chooks cost £40 as some were rehomed for free. so set up cost was £470. the average bill for hemcore, feed and corn etc is £185 per year, so thats £655. so overall i will have saved £125 in the first year and £595 per year after that, i might have extra costs like replacing birds etc.

 

However we as a family wouldnt be consuming so many eggs if i bought them from the shop because

 

a) i certainly wouldnt let my toddlers eat runny eggs from a chicken i didnt know. (my children currently eat alot of 'dippy eggs')

b) i have an allergy to antibiotics and i have been ill even with organic freerange hens eggs when they have antibiotics so i am always wary of bought eggs. i dont have that worry with my own hens, so even now i am pregnant i am eating runny eggs.

c) i also worried about the H5N1 bird flu and did used to stop buying eggs during an outbreak. (i know its not in the eggs but i worried about it anyway as i have two very young children)

d) i do alot of baking and probably do more now than i used to because i have the eggs to use up (thats a great excuse to make another chocolate cake ).

 

the main reason i bought hens was the health issues but its an added bonus saving all that money.

we also grow some of our own veg so we save money there as well.

[redhotchick]

since we have had our girls we have become more "good life"

 

I have always been into recycling and saving water, but I think the chooks have certainly opened our eyes to what else we can do

 

I feel the same. The chickens and all the bits and pieces I've bought for their wellbeing will probably have a quite a long payback period, but since I have had the chickens I have started growing a lot more veg.

I commented only this week how much I'm saving by not buying lettuce alone. If I offset this and other crops (hopefully) the payback period would be greatly reduced!

 

Can't really quantify in monetary value the satisfaction that I get from having my chickens and eating food I have grown myself.

[Guest]

I too didn't get the chooks because I wanted to save on eggs. In fact we sell more eggs than we eat. But since getting the chooks I've become greener and more environmentally aware.

 

• I've started a veg garden
  fitted loads of water butts
  been a mad recycler (has anyone seen my chicken run made from decking???)
  laid part of the garden to a meadow
  planted 5 fruit trees to make an "orchard" in the front garden
  planning a wildlife corner in the back garden with a wildlife "stack" and some wildlife "ponds"
  Started bird feeding
  Started a plant stand outside my house

 

I've spent lots more time in the garden and I've become keener and keener to think of ways to encourage more wildlife in to the point where I'm planting specifically for wildlife.

 

Cost wise though, I have 8 hens, an eglu for "introductions" a cube for housing and another cube on the way!

[sparkleeeeee]

i didnt account for the fact that we didnt have eggs until abit later on, so i will have probably broken even by the end of the year. also the cube will still be worth something.

i think having an eglu has made me more aware of where we can make your life better and be kinder to the planet. i am actually thinking about keeping, turkeys, sheep and pigs for food next year after the baby is born. i think with that and a pollytunnel we could be producing a big proportion of our own food.

[Ange1]

I've emailed you Johannes!

[chickenanne]

I'm not really convinced that keeping chickens saves money in any way - if you add together feed, housing, bedding, time, land they take up, cost to buy the chicken etc - I honestly think that you'd need to be keeping 20+ before you could break even over medium term, and then you'd probably need to replace stock by getting hatching eggs under a broody hen to do much more than just break even.

Theres a fairly old saying "all chickens die in debt".

[Valkyrie]

We will be keeping hens purely as pets. We chose a breed that will be docile, friendly, not flighty and will not produce many eggs as it is only me that will eat them, apart from the baking side of things. However the real plus will be that the birds will help in the garden by eating the pests, keeping down weeds and best of all, manure that will make my veg fantastic!