bulk raising chickens in the millions is a totally different cost per animal ( is bulk slaughter and roasting them), than what you pay at a supply store

It’s simply not economical to raise chickens. It’s like brewing beer: very labor-intensive, expensive, and heart breaking when they die, which they are very good at. It’s not a hobby to save money, despite what people tell you. The eggs are great though.

Before doing this, you may want to checkout the Farming while Beige youtube channel (blackbirdcoop).

In some of his videos he provides a very honest description of the work involved.

You're not ready for Chicken Math, buddy.

Those chicks at the supply store are for small hobby farms. The rotisserie chicken comes from a big factory farm. That factory farm either doesn't have to pay for chicks at all (they just breed their own), or they buy them for a fraction of the retail cost by buying them in bulk directly from suppliers.

You don’t start a chicken farm with Tractor Supply chicks is the answer. Even if you did it that way, you’re not really losing out much in the grand scheme of things.

Tractor Supply chicks are sold as glorified pets.

Fun fact: it costs next to nothing to ship chicks through the USPS because of heavy subsidies for the industry. You literally just buy a crate from a wholesaler to start a broiler farm.

I have a small flock and it really depends how much you can DIY, but I’ve spent several hundred on their yard setup and equipment (food and water buckets, water heater for winter, etc.) and thats very cheap materials. This is because I live in town and part of the license stipulates they are in a fully enclosed area, not able to roam. I also built their overnight run out of 1/2 in galvanized mesh, to keep them safe from night predators, and that was expensive to do.

If you live out in the country you wont have that problem with the required fencing, but you will have predators, and if you don't properly account for those you wont have any birds to harvest.

Chickens take several months to reach full meat bird size. The feed is like $20/50lbs and 6 go through 1-2 bags per month. I heavily supplement their food with kitchen scraps from all the people I give eggs to, so we all waste less and they have incredibly healthy eggs, which reduces their feed consumption substantially, but that feed cost is always there.

My chickens are not meat birds, mostly because I’m not allowed to have a rooster so i cant’t get hatching eggs for free, it's not really worth repeatedly buying eggs for that purpose. I get 4-6 eggs per day every day from my 6 hens, and that is a LOT of eggs. I average a dozen every 2 days or 15 dozen per month. I supply five households with that, with occasional extra to a few others. If you plan to raise birds for eggs, make sure you have people lined up to take them before you get the birds. Tons of people have backyard flocks these days so its much easier to get eggs from random people.

If you want an economical option, i suggest raising quail. They are ready for culling at 6 weeks and while you get a lot less meat from each bird, they are much faster and cheaper to get to grown, if you get good at incubating the eggs, and keep your own breeding covey. They are also incredibly easy to slaughter and clean, mechanically speaking. Tools include very sharp scissors and a bucket and that’s all. They also only need 3sqft/bird to be happy (you’ll see 1 sqft thrown around but that's industrial and their standards are trash, even 3 is a bit low, but they don't seem to mind, because it means a 10-bird covey gets 30sqft of floor space), unlike chickens which need a lot more.

I recommend the book Make the Bread, Buy the Butter. Author Jennifer Reese talks about the costs and hassles associated with raising chickens for the eggs, among other food subjects.

Chicks at the hardware store are for the eggs

Ask them for a bulk purchase of 100 baby chicks and they’ll reduce the price to maybe $4. Bulk at 10,000 will probably get you to $3. Order several million per year and you’ll get $1 or even lower. Maybe even few cents per chick.

So your rotisserie at $5 still includes a modest to large profit, even including cooking, materials, shipping and handling.

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.

$5 is selling at a loss at this point.

It’s called a loss leader.

1 egg per day could be worth 20-30c/day to you. Maybe more for freshness and convenience value. 100 days at 6c profit or 200 days at 3c, would pay for the $6 back. End food value is bonus.

I was excited for the rotisserie function of my new oven until I got to the supermarket and discovered that an uncooked whole chicken costs more than a store-rotisseried whole chicken.

How are you raising them and what breed?

The old breeds you just release around your home, that's it. A coop helps if you want eggs, but the goal here is to eat chickens not eggs. And it costs zero upkeep. The chickens are too stupid to realize you're a predator, but capable enough to avoid natural predators. They'll just hang around your property, because you keep normal predators away most of the time.

That's how the arrangement with chickens is supposed to work.

If you're in a city or even a town and can't let them loose and just want eggs, then you still don't need vitamins, just raise mealworms and feed them that with chicken feed.

But you're going to need to make sure you buy the right kinds of chickens for what you want them to do.

I have two chickens and I get approximately two eggs a day. Their food is like, I dunno, $20 a month? Probably not saving money on eggs but they're my pets so that's why I have them. (not eating them, obviously. Or any chickens for that matter.)

Backyard chicken wranglers hatch lots of males they don't want.

Post in fb chicken groups saying you'll have them.

Go to chicken auctions and buy 6 for $1.

Prices don’t only reflect the cost of production/raising an animal. But also how much the customers are willing to pay, also supply and demand. Especially stuff that has very little sale numbers are waaay more expensive than production because otherwise a business would not be profitable.

WHAT IS IT NOW?

My siblings have chickens, but I wouldn't call them a money saver so much as a hobby. If anything the eggs are more useful for bartering/giving to friends, since even a family that eats a lot of eggs typically has trouble going through the eggs laid by a small flock. Take into account too that they're not going to be laying as much or at all during the late autumn and winter months. So you'll be drowning in eggs in the spring and summer, and then not really any. Historically people dealt with this by preserving eggs in lime (mineral, not fruit) water, but most people don't bother today since you can get them at the store.

You may still need to buy chickens down the line, because sometimes an illness can go through a flock and knock all (or most of them) down without there really being much to do about it. Letting them just breed for too long without introducing new blood can also cause incest issues. The vitamins and feed aren't really that expensive. You may be able to get a better deal at a local feed store than online or through a pet store.

I’ve heard that raising the hybrid layer/meat birds for a season usually ends up slightly to significantly over the cost of premium eggs and chicken. Exact amounts vary widely depending on accounting etc.

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/

My last group of chicks (18) I got free from a neighbor who got them free from the Grange when the bought their dog food. They had some special going on, spend x and chicks free.

Hens are sweet and have a great personalities, some more than others but they’re fun and provide great nutrients for my compost plus I’m getting the best possible eggs. If you’ve only eaten store bought eggs, even if organic free range, you’ve never had outstanding eggs.

I’m not sure if I’m saving money or it’s costing more per egg than buying but it’s a process that’s totally worth it.