Rural Gardening: Can You Actually Make Any Money With 25 Egg Laying Chickens, 1 by CountryGardens

CountryGardens wrote:
Mr. Rich,
I didn't read all the posts.
I will just give you my experience.
I bought 125 chicks hatched Oct. 1, 2008. They cost $1.75 each. They were a brown egg layer, Gold Star Layers.
They started laying around March 1, 2009. About a month into it they were giving us about 115 large eggs a day. Many days last summer they were at 100%. Never had any off days. We charged $2.00 per dozen all summer. People were happy to get them. Mine were also "free range".
I fed a 17% protein egg mash. This was a complete feed, even had oyster shells & grit in it. It was around $7.30 for a 50 lb bag most of the time. After the whole summer, we got $26.00 worth of eggs for ever $10.00 of feed.
Our farmers market ended November 1, 2009, so we advertised the hens on Craig's list. We sold al but 10 for $4.00 each. All went to people for egg production. 6 different parties if I remember right.
The ten we kept have been laying 8 to 10 eggs a day all winter. They are in an enclosed building, but no supplemental heat. Coldest day was -29º.
Believe what you want, but hens are very hardy creatures & if kept dry & out of drafts they can do very well in cold.
Conclusion. You can make money on your 25 hens.
We have 100 new ones for 2010. They were hatched October 27, 2009. Last year they started laying to early.
This is the new group. Taken Dec. 31, 2009.
Bernie