Scratching the Surface: Do Australian Chooks Save or Cost You More?

How ya going I have had a mob of chooks scratching around my Aussie backyard for a good while now and I thought I would spin you a yarn about the real dollars and cents behind backyard eggs because everyone reckons you will be rolling in cheap brekkie but the truth is a bit more complicated  

Watch video on Scratching the Surface: Do Australian Chooks Save or Cost You More?

I kicked off this whole chook caper because I wanted eggs that did not come from some grim factory shed  

I was keen for the kids to understand that food takes effort  

And I was over getting stung at the checkout every time there was another shortage and the price shot up like a rocket  

But mate once you start forking out the cash the fantasy gets a quick reality slap  

The first whack is the setup and it is not pocket change  

A solid fox proof chook house that will stand up to a stinking hot Perth afternoon and a Canberra cold snap does not come cheap  

I tried the flat pack from the hardware giant but by the time I added decent wire roof insulation and an auto door so I could sleep in on Sundays I had dropped well over a thousand bucks  

Then you need the birds  

Pullets ready to lay are selling for twenty five to forty dollars each all over Australia right now  

I went with ISA Browns and a couple of Australorps because they pump out eggs and handle our weather but they still cost me before I saw a single egg in the straw  

Throw in feeders drinkers bedding shell grit and the other odds and ends and I was five hundred dollars in the hole before the first squawk  

Then the regular costs roll in and this is the bit that catches most people off guard  

Layer mash has climbed like crazy lately  

A 20 kilo sack is nudging thirty dollars and my half dozen hens chew through it in three or four weeks unless they are out hunting bugs in the lawn all day  

Kitchen scraps help but they do not replace proper nutrition and you still need shell grit or you end up with eggs you can nearly bounce  

Add worming powder mite spray and the odd vet bill when one of the girls goes quiet and sits puffed up in the corner  

Even water is not free when it is forty in the shade and they are drinking like they have just finished a game of footy  

So what do I get for all that outlay  

Eggs of course  

A healthy young hen will knock out five or six a week when the days are long then she backs right off in winter unless you start fiddling with lights which chews power and feels a bit mean anyway  

My best four layers give me around twenty eggs a week which sounds tops until you run the numbers  

That works out to roughly eighty six dozen across the year  

At the local growers market free range eggs fetch eight to twelve dollars a dozen depending on whether you are in Noosa or Newcastle  

But let us be straight I am not down there selling cartons every Saturday  

I hand them out to mates I use piles in pancakes quiches and weekend fry ups and I still end up grabbing a carton from the shops when the whole flock decides to moult or go broody together  

So cash coming back in is pretty much zilch  

And do not get me started on time because no one ever counts that  

I am out there each dawn letting them out topping up water checking feed and each dusk locking them up tight so the foxes do not score a free dinner  

Scraping poop off the perches rounding up escape artists and gathering eggs takes me three or four hours every week without fail  

If I paid myself even ten bucks an hour that is over fifteen hundred dollars a year in labour  

Suddenly my home grown dozen costs more than the fancy ones from the organic grocer  

But here is where I think the real payoff lives and you will not find it on any budget sheet  

My veggie beds have gone ballistic since I started mixing in aged chook manure  

The kitchen bin is half as full because leftovers go straight to the girls  

The kids know that food does not magically appear in plastic and that lesson is worth heaps  

And there is nothing quite like plonking yourself on the back steps with a coffee and watching the chooks fossick while the butcher birds sing in the gums  

You cannot measure that kind of afternoon with money  

If you want to make the finances look a bit rosier here is what has worked for me  

Scour Marketplace for a second hand coop and reinforce it yourself because brand new ones cost a fortune and foxes around Australia are cunning little buggers  

Choose breeds that are famous for laying and staying robust not just the ones that look pretty in photos  

Give them as much free range time as you safely can to slash the feed bill but always shut them in before dark  

Preserve your summer oversupply by freezing or water glassing eggs so you are not buying any in winter when production drops off  

Keep an honest tally of eggs for a couple of months because we all overestimate how many we actually get  

And stick to a sensible flock size because six hens will feed a family of four easy and more birds just means more feed more mess and more noise for next door  

When all is said and done raising backyard chooks for eggs in Australia rarely makes a true profit if you track every dollar and every minute  

But it can wash its face or feel like a win if you care about the lifestyle the quality of your food and a bit of independence  

I keep chooks because I love stepping outside in my bare feet and finding warm eggs in the box while the kookaburras cackle overhead  

If I only cared about cheap eggs I would just hit up Aldi and be done with it  

But if you want a hobby that feeds you teaches you and gets you out in the yard then the cost starts to make sense  

If you want to suss out your own situation just grab a notepad and write down every cent you spend on the chooks for three months then count every egg you collect  

No fancy programs no tables just pen and paper  

You will know soon enough if your flock is a money saver a money drain or something in the middle  

And whatever the result it will be the fair dinkum truth and that is what backyard chooks in Australia are really about  

If you already have a flock I am keen to hear what caught you by surprise  

For me it was realising I now cook way more just to use up the eggs  

Was it the feed prices the coop build or the fact you have started talking to your hens like they are your mates  

Drop your story below so we can all compare notes because every backyard is different and that is what makes this chook life such a bloody good ride