this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2026
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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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[–] hansolo@lemmy.today 9 points 2 hours ago (4 children)

Broilers (chickens for meat) are usually males that just hit maturity. Before they go insane on hormones and fight other males, they become food. That takes around 6-8 weeks. So, at scale like supermarkets, not a ton of food goes into them. Likely more money goes into dressing (slaughter), packaging, and shipping.

Layers (les femmes chickitas) turn out eggs until they don't anymore, and then get turned into dog food or nuggets, or soup. They're turning corn into eggs. My parents have layers and get a 20lb bag of food once a month and get 2-4 eggs a day, depending on the weather.

[–] Apytele@sh.itjust.works 3 points 31 minutes ago

Not even just corn. Also all the ticks, ants, and other pest insects in the yard, and possibly even some of your food waste. They literally turn trash and straight up pests into food.

[–] PenguinInLaw@sh.itjust.works 2 points 36 minutes ago

Not entirely true anymore - both male and female chicks are raised for meat, just different breeds than for commercial egg production. The large poultry company I used to work with raised exclusively female chicks, since they grew faster. The male chicks went into the grinder, as the other poster suggested.

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

(les femmes chickitas)

Ah donc nosotros ahora estamos en mélangeant los idiomas simplemente comme ça?

[–] Melobol@lemmy.ml 1 points 1 hour ago

Ohh so male chicks don't go into the food grinder as soon as they are sorted? I saw the popular video years ago, where they inspect the tips of a 3 day old chick and the males went to dog food...
Thank you for your answer!