Is Selling Chicken Eggs Profitable?

Good video and great information. Thank You

Is it possible to buy chickens with grant money?

Very practical and complete information.
I've told LOTS of people not to look at chickens as a business unless you can grow your own feed !

Sounds like a business owner trying to prevent competition by showing all the cons and not showing the pros... If it weren't profitable then why do it at all? Why do you do it? For fun? Taking care of 80 chickens with feed and water and collecting eggs daily, cleaning eggs boxing eggs and shipping to the store is a lot of work for a hobby that isn't profitable.

Chickens are a gateway animal for sure

Where did you purchase your black sexlink chicks ?

Ma man, we in romania we don't even buy a special food for chickens, just let them free? While do u have grass and water u will be just fine...and we got a small land where we grow corn for winter's

Feed here is 25 to 30 dollars for 40 lb now not cheap for sure

😮$12-13$ for 50lbs! This will make you feel better…Here in Hawaii it’s $31 for 40lbs or about $20 for a 25lb bag. And you know we need more than feed

Wow, I wish feed was that cheap here in OR. Hit 25. For Purina per 50 lbs last month, has gone on sale recently for 4 off

Where do you get chick's from?

Quit pigs

How many Hens did you start with and how fast do you get baby chicks to add to the flock? Do you order all your chicks or do you make babies?

Aldi eggs back to below $3 a dozen. Reality will hit hard.

You forgot the cost of land

For me it’s for us and if we sell it pays for our feed.

If we don’t sell feed it back to the animals and us .



I know you have Justin Rhodes style coop
But you have different style wheels .


Can you do a vid on dimensions and wheels etc
Im working on one and trying to figure it all out.

I’m thinking 8x8
Or maybe 8x6
And figure out what wheels that don’t cost an arm and leg now.

God bless

The best (only) way to make money on eggs as a small scale farmer ( 100's of birds as opposed to thousands ) is to start breeding programs and sell chicks or pullets. I hatch around 200 chicks every months, and sell them for $5 per bird. I also raise rarer show quality birds (mainly candycorn polish and lavender orpingtons), and I have a breeding program 9 years in the making to develop my own specialty breed of bird,
I make around $1500/month from my chickens right now, and eating eggs make up like $150 of that max.

Raise your price man to 6.50 a dozen

Everyone needs a dog good for you

I realize you have heavy birds, but you shouldn't be going through a pallet of feed per month. That's literally a ton of feed. The only feed I know that's $16 a bag is TSC layer. If that's what you're using you should look into the rumors that it's lowering or stopping egg production. As a scientist I'm skeptical, but 80 birds and 2000lbs a month may have me convinced. I have a breeder flock of 100, I custom mix from a local mill now, but Nutrena, Purina, or DuMor (made by Purina) is what I use to use. 400lbs per month for 100 breeders. If you're doing oyster shell already, try Nutrena All-flock; or Country Feeds layer. AF is around $25 a bag now (CF is around $20), but not having to feed 5 times the amount will definitely save you money! My birds lay year-round with no lights, and a very short molt too.

Lol, I did the HF car ports too, for winter pens. 😊 You're going to need to cross brace the three centers, trust me. I made smaller versions using the same connectors for breeding tractors, I think they're around 6x10.

I totally get that I have different breeds and live in a (normally) warmer state, but please try some new feed just in case, 400 lbs of Nutrena All-Flock or Hearty Hen will run you $250, way better than $640, and easier on your back!

This is a very relevant video. Quail can start laying in six to seven weeks. Eggs are small but can meet your baking and waffle needs.

Great video, lots of good information for Homesteaders wanting to raise chickens. I have free ranged our chickens for years and don't have any problems with Hawks. I have the Australorp roosters that do a great job of alerting and keeping Hawks away. The green color on their feathers is similar to a Crow, Hawks won't come around a Crow.

Are you closing your chickens up at night in their houses to protect from predators?

My least number of eggs was 3. I have 15, but one may die soon.

Raising chicks is a must right now because of the shortages of chicken shortage. I ordered 25 last year because I saw it coming. I have gotten to where I let the blind lead the blind. My hens are getting old, and I don't have many left.

Great video. My idea is that if It pays for my feed by selling our eggs, that is a win-win. And I love my girls. Plus, I find ways to supplement their feed to lower the cost.

Chickens yes!
Great video! love that mornin sun!

Don't forget to mention...rats are a constant danger to the young chicks & they must be kept very warm. Food & water in front of them at all times. I only have 4 chickens & they will supply 2 to 4 people with eggs IF they aren't big egg eaters. It would be cheaper for me to pay $5.00 a dozen for eggs. They must have safe housing, you must close them in EVERY night so predators can't get them. Chickens are low on the food chair so predators are many!!! I love chickens so that is why I have them, not for the egg's. They are quite a bit of work. Bedding (or at least the poo cleaned up daily) has to be changed every day or the smell is bad. They get sore feet when they are on their poo much. Some chicks never do lays eggs (just like humans..some never have children) Are you prepared to kill a chicken or feed it the rest of their life, a possible 10 years. They only lay a few years, not all their life. KC has a large flock of chickens, it does not cost that much to 4 to 6 hens, but it is a lot of work. If considering getting chickens, do consider a class on raising them or get all the info. you can from anyplace you can. The only reason the price of eggs goes up is because all things "pre chicken" (feed, bedding, pens, housing etc.) go out of sight pricing. So to think you will ever make much money on egg's is just a dream.

After watching your video this morning, my 13yo son and I were amazed that you only get about 2 dozen eggs from 80 hens this time of year! We have 32 hens and have had as few as 10 a day for the last part of fall, but for some odd reason we started getting nearly 2 dozen on the first day of winter and through the freezing cold snap in late December. Also, we only go through about 2 to 2.5 bags of the same feed you use every two weeks. We do give some scratch and some kitchen/garden scraps, but what we give them ebs and flows. Since we are just a household of 5, the scraps are nothing crazy. Anyway, my son and I were wondering why you seem to be getting so few eggs right now. We weren't sure if it had anything to do with elevation (we are at around 900ft for reference). But one observation we did make was that you have multiple chickshaws within one fence and not quite as many roosters as that, is that right? My kids are saying they remember only 2 or 3 roosters, so I am just going by what they say! Anyway, my 13yo also remembered you mentioning the Bielefelders getting stressed and stopped laying a while back. Our biggest question, then, is - is there at least one rooster staying in each chickshaw at night and, if not, could that possibly be causing the hens with no rooster in their coop at night to be more stressed this time of year, therefore not laying? We wondered if the eggs you collect primarily come from a chickshaw that sleeps a rooster at night or if it is just random?
Anyway! We just wanted to share our observations, for what it's worth. It does seem perplexing and frustrating! Not sure if we just have beginners luck or what! My problem is trying to get rid of the eggs!
So many good tips in this video!

👍👍👍

Gateway animal 🤔 That is so true. I said honey let’s have a couple of chickens. Now I own 42 chickens, 2 kunekune pigs and I’m currently waiting for 3 goats to be born this spring 😅 good luck to you and your farm.

Dont expect to make profit with your first batch of chickens. The cost of building a coop alone will take a few years of selling eggs to even break even. Plus like he said, its about 6 months of feeding and waiting.

That being said. It can still be worth it if you have the time to manage them. 1 chick is between $5-$10 and will far out produce the cost of a dozen eggs which is about the same price.

I absolutely ❤❤❤ all of your videos! So informative and enjoyable to watch. Thank you John & Jamie for sharing and may God continue to abundantly bless you, your family and your business 😊

We pay $23/50lb bags of feed. We aren’t even picky about the brand, just trying to keep them alive so we can reap all the benefits! We love them though. They make our acreage a “farm” ❤

Definitely a gateway animal!!😅

I love your cost reward analysis. Grew up a farm boy and been a city slicker since my teenage years. I won’t die in the city Lord willing. It seems winter is the time to have the least chickens

labor costs

I know you’ve shared it before but where you do get your egg layers? And do you get Cornish from the same place or somewhere different?

I raise chickens ducks geese and I have 5 pigs 3are kune kune and 2are a mixed kune magnalista pig which will feed up end of this year and I only sell eggs for 3 dollars a dozen but my layer mix is made at my local feed mill for my ducks chickens and geese and it's 12.25 for 50lbs and my chickens stop laying for 3months come winter

Hi John,
How much waste are you seeing with those bucket feeders? A couple items missed was chick death loss and cost of egg cartons. In spite of your best efforts, not all chicks will make it. You mentioned your labor to feed, move housing and fencing, but not the labor and expenses associated with attending farmers markets. I agree people think they can make money selling eggs until they figure in feed costs. The feed store is the one making money. We looked at egg sales as a loss or break even until we started buying bulk ingredients and grinding our own feed. Having pastured eggs available does bring in new customers and helps sales of our grass finished beef so that is another advantage. Not going to make a living on egg sales alone.

We have had chickens for almost 10 years, and we've just started calling it an egg service instead of an egg business. Just like you said, no eggs to sell in the winter, and so many to sell and clean in the summer! And all it takes is an addition to your chicken coop and you're in the red again. It's a good thing I like watching them walk around and hearing the roosters grow.

Great video with very relevant points, thank you! From a non-farmer, backyard chicken keeper perspective, the health benefits as well as the mental health benefits of raising chickens have been the most important aspects for us. There is something beautiful and healing about raising chickens. I also believe that chickens can be a gateway animal. I find myself watching more videos about goats, sheep, cows, and pigs. However, our suburban location and our homeowners' association keep me in check on that for now. Lol

Do you supplement with oyster shells or anything else? What about costs for medical care items, such as Veterasin, Hen Heal, probiotics for water when needed, etc? Do you use an avian vet or just take care of their health care yourself? So far we've been researching and doing it all ourselves, but I'm afraid there will come a day when we will have to break down and take one to a vet. All of the costs associated with raising chickens have really been eye opening for us since we started last year. We also got a heated waterer for the extra cold weather.

$8.79 an 18 pack here in Arizona