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Baby chicks cost $6 at a supply store, but I can get a rotisserie for $5? What is the real cost of having chickens? (lemmy.ml)
submitted 3 weeks ago by to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world
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I do not understand the mathematics behind the dilemma. I'm assuming only the firts chicks cost money, because down the line they will breed.
But feeding them, housing them - vitamins and doctoring costs a lot of money.

So anyone with couple or more chickens - how much does it cost to have them on the table? And realistically how many eggs do you get?

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[–] 7 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

All of the comments about loss leader and factory scale vs. hobby farming are huge factors. Another is the predatory nature of poultry farming in the US. I don't know about Costco, but the other major producers, like Tyson and Perdue, have an extremely abusive relationship with contract farmers.

https://sentientmedia.org/contract-farming-makes-corporations-rich-and-family-farmers-broke/

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  • [–] 9 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Not to mention the breed of chicken matters immensely. The ones that are grown for meat are, in my opinion, nearly an entirely different species at this point and wouldn't survive a year on a hobby farm.

    We found several chicks that fell off a Tyson truck and added them to our flock. They all grew to be nearly featherless, fat, grotesque birds that's broke their own legs because their bones couldn't keep up with how quickly their meat grew. They did all die in under a year.

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