What will backyard chickens cost you?
My real numbers from the guide, scaled to your flock: what it takes to start, what feed runs each month, and what your eggs are worth.
Chicks, brooder, coop, run, feeders and your first bags of feed.
Scaled from my flock's feed budget
Rhode Island Red average
At $7 a dozen
Square feet you need
Egg value minus feed
Months of laying to cover startup
See the line-by-line budget
Costs, space rules and lay rates come from The Graftwild Homestead Guide (Chapters 1 and 3). Feed is scaled from my budget of about $100 a month for 25 chickens (30% layer feed, 70% free scraps and garden). My startup table is for six hens: above that, the coop, run, brooder and feeders scale up with your flock; below it, they stay at the six-hen setup. Hens lay less in winter as the days get shorter. Estimates, not quotes.
You've run the numbers for 6 hens. Now learn how to get there.
For $37, the guide walks you through it step by step: where to buy your birds, how to set up and predator-proof the coop, exactly what to feed them, and my feed budget line by line, with kitchen scraps doing the rest. Plus why yolks turn deep orange and the spice blend I make for my 25 chickens.
Get the guide $37