Tending backyard chickens is both a delight and bargain. Relative to the cost of buying and keeping a purebred dog or cat, chickens are equally fascinating animals that are relatively inexpensive to keep and come with a bonus. Fresh eggs!

Just what does it cost to raise a clutch of chicks to the laying stage?  How can that cost be reduced?

Marion and Rich Patterson decided to keep track of costs. They already had feeders, waterers, brooders, and a coop, so the costs listed below are the consumable ones for raising chicks to 20 weeks. That’s about when they start laying.

The Pattersons received 12 baby chicks of various breeds from Hoover’s Hatchery in April 2024. Since many families buy just six chicks their food costs will be about half of what’s listed below. Costs vary by location. These are based on buying from an Iowa farm store.

Cost to Raise 12 chicks to 20 weeks

Purchase chicks. 12 @ $5/chick average                                           $ 60

Brooder electricity estimate                                                                 $  6

Starter/grower feed.  Five 50-pound bags @ $20                             $100

Bedding/litter. Four bales of wood shavings @ $7                            $  28

Total    $194

It comes to $16 a chick. That’s a bargain, but there are ways to reduce the expense.    Since the cost of the chicks, bedding, and electricity are fixed, a frugal family can manage the flock in a way that reduces feed expenses.

Reducing Feed Costs

It’s never a good plan to scrimp on feed. Quality commercial food helps chicks grow into healthy hens that lay plenty of eggs. Chickens should always have access to top notch feed, but here are ways to lower the cost.  Here are a few.

Buy feed in a Big Bag. 

When bought in a 50-pound bag the per pound cost is about 40 cents.

The same feed in a 10-pound bag is about $1 a pound!  Most farm stores

are happy to help anyone unable to heft a 50-pound bag. Ask at

the checkout counter and they’ll have a salesperson load the bag into a

customer’s trunk at no extra cost. Once home, open the bag while it’s still in the

trunk and scoop five to ten pounds of feed into buckets that can be easily lifted

without back strain. It may take a few trips from the car to the storage container but it eliminates the need to lift heavy feed.

Organic vs. Conventional feed:  A 40-pound bag of organic feed costs about $40 or

$1 a pound. It’s about double the cost of standard feed. Whether to buy

organic is a personal choice. It’s high quality, just expensive. Shifting to

conventional quality feed saves money.

Store Brand. Store brand feed is less expensive than quality name brand feed

and meets a chick’s basic nutritional needs. Often it lacks probiotics and

essential oils commonly found in premium breeds. Store brand feeds can

knock a few dollars off a bag’s cost.

Kitchen snacks and neighbors. Kitchen scraps are chicken treats slightly lowering

consumption of store-bought feed. Leftover rice, pizza crusts, melon seeds

and a host of other of other leftover nutritious human foods will be devoured

with enthusiasm. Scraps are best fed in moderation as a treat rather than

a steady diet. Compost potato peels, meat, and house plant trimmings instead of putting them into the coop. Neighbors may also bring over their food

scraps. Advise them on what is best to share with the hens.

Situating a compost bin near the chicken run makes for easy sorting. Toss

scraps that chicken can eat into the run and the rest into the composter.

Maximizing Run Size to Grow Delicious Food for Foraging Chickens.

Homegrown Feed.  Most families can’t grow most of the ingredients usually blended into commercial feed, but it’s easy to manage a run or yard so it produces natural feed as a supplement. Chickens are hungry omnivores. They love seeds, grass, worms, grubs, bugs, and just about any other small animal they can catch. Managing a chicken run is an easy way to reduce feed costs.

Chickens soon turn a tiny vegetated run into a barren swath of dirt.  A run devoid of plants produces little food, so the bigger the run the freer food it can produce. The huge fenced run at Winding Pathways provides about 200 square feet for every chicken. It is so big relative to the number of hens foraging in it that they can’t possibly eat everything there. During warm months it’s a constant source of free food. Chickens eat some of the plants directly while others attract high protein insects that hens snap up. Increasing a run’s size helps it sustain plants.

Families with small runs can do a few things to temporarily expand it to give the chickens more foraging space.

The off-season garden:  Many vegetable gardens are located adjacent to, or near, a chicken run. Often gardens are fenced to keep rabbits and deer away from tasty vegetables. The same fence will keep chickens in.

Chickens love many vegetables. If they can get into a garden during the growing season, they’ll quickly devour lettuce, chard, sprouting beans and ripening tomatoes. They must be excluded during the growing season, but after the last tomatoes and beans are picked and fall’s nights are frosty, chickens can be outstanding garden helpers. By rigging a portable passageway from the chicken run to the garden hens will gleefully scratch amid vegetable debris as they snack on weed seeds, insects, and bits of leftover vegetables.  They can forage there all winter and be excluded just before next spring’s planting season. Chickens foraging in a winter garden do more than find free food. They deposit droppings, loosen the soil, and eat weed seeds and insects that would otherwise cause problems during the next growing season.

From the Kitchen- Even the neighbors kitchen.  When fed leftover bits of rice, pizza crusts, chunks of tomatoes, melon seeds, and a host of other kitchen wastes, chickens enjoy interesting treats and put otherwise wasted food to use. Human food scraps can stretch feed dollars. Make scraps an occasional treat, rather than a main course. Some human foods may be toxic or unpalatable to chickens. It’s wise to avoid giving chickens Potato peels, tomato plants, many herbs, and house plant trimmings.  These belong in the compost bin.

Neighbors can help!  Many will save their kitchen scraps and enjoy the flock snacking on them.

Seeding the Run.  Seeding tasty plants in a chicken run helps it produce more food.

Sprinkling inexpensive annual rye seed in the run every spring, and excluding the chickens until it’s a few inches high, will produce a green vegetation carpet.  Adding clover, turnip, radish, alfalfa, and buckwheat seeds adds diversity.  Blends of seeds ideal for planting in chicken runs can often be found in stores that sell hunting equipment.  Hunters often scatter these to increase deer forage.

Chicken owners have many ways to save costs while enjoying the hens and relishing the jewels they lay each day.

One of the earliest chicken breeds created in United States, the Wyandotte has been around for well over 100 years. Early colonists were looking for a dual purpose bird that could manage the harsh winters of New York. By mixing breeds such as the Brahma, Silver Seabright, and Cochins, the early Wyandotte was created. The name origin is much debated, but many suspect they were named after the nearby Wendat Native American tribe.

The very first Wyandotte chickens were silver laced, and were first recorded in colonial 1870’s New York. Colonists wanted to create a dual purpose bird that did well in cold climates. By mixing breeds such as the Brahma, Silver Seabright, and Cochins, the early Wyandotte was created. The name origin is much debated, but many suspect they were named after the nearby Wendat Native American tribe.

A bird with good size and striking feathers, the Wyandotte was bred specifically as a dual purpose breed, meaning it excels as a meat bird and layer. Hens lay an average of 240 light tan, medium sized eggs per year.

The very first Wyandotte was a silver laced bird. Silver laced, means having white feathers, with a black outline around each feather. The thickness and pattern of Wyandotte feathers has been meticulously crafted for many years. It is this lacing that has helped them gain popularity. The golden laced variety came next. They have striking orange feathers, each lined by black. In addition to laced varieties, there are many solid colored Wyandottes, including but not limited to: black, red, red-brown, lemon blue, buff, blue, white, partridge, and Columbian. In addition to boasting over 18 (and counting), color varieties, all true Wyandottes share these similarities:

Full feathered, curvy bodies

Pronounced S- Curve in neck

Small; rounded head

Rose Combs

Featherless, yellow legs

Deep Chests

Exceptional in cold climates

Talkative and prone to be noisy

Broody as hens

Excellent free rangers

Dual Purpose

In a flock, Wyandottes can stand up for themselves. They are not bullies, but do refuse to buckle to any hen drama. They do well living in a mixed flock, and are more assertive members of the flock. Wyandotte roosters are impressive, reaching upwards of 9 lbs when fully grown. Hens average about 6-7 lbs at maturity. Both male and female Wyandottes tend to be dominant members of the flock. Hens like to go broody and make very defensive and successful  others.

Although color can vary, all Wyandottes have small, rotund heads and a rose comb. The rose comb aids in frostbite prevention. All Wyandottes have a deep chest and yellow legs.The wattles, earlobes, and facial skin are all red. There are both bantam and standard varieties, with the lacing pattern being most popular, as well as the most difficult to achieve in standards of perfection.

Bred for the cold, Wyandottes excel in cooler climates. Their tight fitting feathers keep heat close to the body. Although they can do fine in warmer climates, extra care must be taken during heat spells to keep them from overheating.

The Wyandotte truly is a great, all-around American chicken. With a color to satisfy anyone’s tastes, these attractive chickens are a must for anyone with a mixed flock of backyard chickens.

To ensure the health of your turkeys, you need to mimic their natural diets as much as possible.

Wild turkeys are found all over most of the United States. Our domestic turkeys are descendants of these wild birds. Although leaner, the wild turkey has a similar diet to that of the domestic turkey. Turkeys, like chickens, are omnivores. Omnivores need a mixed diet of both plant and animal variety. Omnivores are foragers, taking bits here and there as they move through the environment. Wild turkeys can have ranges of up to a mile in diameter that they use to find food. They are seasonal opportunistic feeders. In winter, wild turkeys mainly feed on acorns and other nuts, evergreen needles and buds that are still tender. During warmer months, a large part of their diet consists of berries, bugs, small reptiles, and lots of green grass shoots.

Our domestic turkeys, although most likely fed a diet of pelleted rations, still need that balance and variety of foods.

In order to supplement your turkeys needs, there are several things you can try!

1. Make your own DIY feed mix.

Much research has gone into the development of poultry feeds over the years. Most store bought turkey feeds are great as a daily ration. Commercial feeds average around 22% protein and only 3.5 % fat. These feeds are good, and also contain lots of important vitamins and minerals, but still aren’t giving the turkey everything it needs.

In the wild, turkeys consume loads of nuts. Acorns, which are a turkey favorite, are almost pure fat. Turkeys need this fat to grow thicker feathers with more sheen. Sunflower seeds are an excellent source of this good fat turkeys need.

DIY Turkey Feed

50 % base feed

– Commercial feed with average of 28% protein.

Crumbles for poults, pellets for adults

50 % add-ins

-Scratch feed

Can contain 3-12 types of grains, cracked corn, milo, and wheat. Ask your feed store for the prices and types of scratch feed.

-Sunflower Seeds

Additional sunflower seeds add the oils and fat a turkey needs.

– Oats and Barley

Amino acids in these seeds will allow your birds to process their food more easily, leading to less waste and more weight gain.

(Allow all day access to premixed feed, water, and calcium oystershells.)

2. Free range your flock.

If at all possible, allowing your turkeys to free range is a free and easy way for them to supplement their diet themselves. In the wild, turkeys move constantly. Rarely do you see them standing still, they are forever on the move, scavenging. Your domestic turkeys instinctively know how to sample anything edible. Most of the substance in a turkey’s diet comes from plant matter. Fresh greens, like new grass shoots or plant buds are their favorite. They also LOVE bugs of any type and will soon sweep the yard clear of any insects in their path. If you are able to let them out, even for an hour a day, they will benefit greatly.

3. Scavenge for your birds.

Scavenge in your fridge or scavenge in your backyard, and you’ll be sure to find lots of free food for your turkeys. Like chickens, turkeys will eat most any kind of leftover from your kitchen. While things like citrus fruits, onions, and chocolate don’t make good snacks for poultry, most leftovers are fine!

Turkeys crave protein, and will happily take your leftover cooked meats, and even have been known to gobble up dog and cat food! Meal worms make wonderful treats!

If it isn’t possible to let your turkeys out, you can find some free greens in your yard to bring back to them. Many common, leafy weeds are healthy for turkeys. Things like dandelion greens, purslane, and fresh clover are easy to find. Pull them up by the roots and give the whole plants to your turkeys; they’ll love it! You can also feed them chopped spinach, leafy lettuces, and kale from the supermarket.

It is important to give your turkeys a balanced diet full of variety. Luckily, that can be easily achieved! The healthier the diet, the healthier the bird! Whether you’re raising turkeys for the table, or just to look at, I hope by adding these small changes, your turkeys will grow happy and healthy!

They come with lustrous black, bright white, or blue feathers but Jersey Giants are really a mellow yellow chicken breed. The reason goes back to the breed’s creation in the late 1800s.

Back then, few families enjoyed chicken or turkey dinners for one reason. It was expensive. Birds of that long-ago era gobbled down plenty of food yet grew slowly.

Raising them to market size was a slow and expensive process so, typically, chicken and turkey dinners were reserved for holiday meals and special meals served to guests.

New Jersey chicken breeders John and Thomas Black were determined to make chicken a more common American meal. Between 1870 and 1880 they crossed several breeds, including Langshans, Dark Brahmas, and Javas to create what came to be called the Black Jersey Giant. Although it had black feathers it was named in honor of the Black Brothers.

Their success was mixed. The new breed grew to a huge size. A rooster can tip the scales at 13 pounds with hens only a little smaller. Originally, they had black feathers so why are they a mellow yellow breed?

The answer’s simple. Back then many families raised small flocks. Mellow is a desirable trait. Giants are so big they have a tough time flying, making them easy to keep inside a small fence. Many breeds are considered to be nervous, or “flighty.”  They spook easily and sometimes fly over even a tall fence. Not Giants. The Black Brothers knew that small flock owners preferred mellow, so the trait became a goal of the breed’s development.

Yellow?  Consumers are fickle. English diners prefer a chicken with white skin. Not Americans. They like yellow skin. So, a Black Jersey Giant has black feathers and dark shanks, but underneath is yellow skin. The underside of their feet is also bright yellow.

The Giant is a wonderful backyard bird. They’re mellow and are easy to handle. Hens are prolific layers of large brown eggs. The Black Brothers did a great job creating the breed, but their timing kept them from ever becoming an important commercial meat breed. Giants grow slowly, and it takes plenty of expensive feed for them to reach the size of a small turkey.  To reach full size can take eight or nine months.

During the Twentieth Century many breeds and hybrids were developed that grew much faster than Giants while eating less feed per pound of growth. Cornish Rocks, for example, reach market size when only about six weeks old and eat much less feed than older breeds. That led to commercial success for growers and made chicken a common and inexpensive lunch or dinner.

Despite their slow growth Jersey Giants are wonderful birds to include in a backyard flock.  After all they are mellow and fun to be around. The black variety has impressive almost shiny plumage, while White Giants are brilliant in the sunshine. There is even a blue feathered Giant. All are great layers, although they may start producing eggs slower than better known Rhode Island Reds or ISA Browns.

They are big and may need slightly larger nests and pop hole doors than more standard sized breeds, but generally they can squeeze into normal sized nests.

The Jersey Giant breed enjoys a rich heritage. Although it’s not economic for commercial meat or egg producers it is a wonderful breed perfectly suited to a small flock in the backyard.

Chickens really live their best lives when they are free ranging outside. Unfortunately, not everyone has the option of letting their chickens out of the coop. Space restrictions, local ordinances, and job schedules are just a few of the reasons why many chickens are cooped up all day.

Owning animals is like being a zookeeper. A good zookeeper takes care of the physical needs of an animal. However, a great zookeeper comes up with ways to keep their animals’s minds healthy and active! It’s called enrichment! There are countless ways to provide your flock something to keep their brains busy.

That being said, chickens are simple creatures, and can live a happy and productive existence in a coop. Since we love them, we want them to have fulfilling lives. Here four affordable ways to give your flock enrichment!

Provide a dust bathing area. 

Chickens actually NEED a place on the coop floor to dust bathe in order to stay healthy. Part of a chicken’s daily routine is covering her feathers in fine dust, all the way down to the skin. After kicking around on her side, she will quickly hop up, and shimmy all the dirt, dust, and parasites off her feathers!

Add a dust area in your coop by clearing a clean 2ft. x 2ft. square on the ground. Leave it as dry as possible and add in a few buckets of dirt from anywhere on your property. There’s no need to use a tray, they’ll soon scratch all the dust out and around!

Put tree branches in the coop.

Chickens, like most birds, love to be up high. Their natural instinct to perch, leaves them always looking for the highest possible spot to rest. You can give them some new furniture simply by bringing in tree branches! The bark will help file down their toenails, as well as help work their muscles. The branches might last a few months before they’ll need to be replaced, and by then your flock might be ready for some new scenery anyway!

Rotate hanging treats periodically.

There are tons of resources and ideas for hanging chicken treats out there! In fact, I’m pretty sure there are some on the Hoover’s blog already! Whole cabbage heads, pumpkins, frozen watermelon; the possibilities are endless! Yummy snacks are always a great motivator to get chickens moving!

Give them a chance to hunt.

Chickens are meant to forage for their food all day. In today’s world of pampered pullets and designer coops, our chickens are often given 24/7 access to feed. This is fine! However, is it fun? Nothing pleases a hen more than being able to scratch for her food. Try broadcast feeding some yummy treats like whole corn, sunflower seeds, or dried mealworms. Speaking of mealworms, for even fresher insects, you can pickup some live mealworms or crickets from pet stores. They’ll make a great source of protein for your birds, and will be entertaining as well!

There are many ways still to entertain your chickens without breaking the piggy bank. Let us know some of your favorite ways to enrich the lives of your flock down below!

Does Daylight Savings Time affect chickens?

Well, the short answer is no. Of course chickens don’t have a need to understand numerical times, but YES they are affected by the shortening of days.

Autumn can be a rough time for chickens. You probably have noticed all of your birds molting. Molting happens to every chicken, every fall. They drop their old feathers, and grow in a new, fresh set for winter. They can be more vulnerable to cold during this time. Some of my girls go almost completely naked during molting season. One named Smarty, gets so puny, she literally looks like a disgruntled pigeon as she runs across the yard.

Chickens are creatures of habit. Their clock is the sun. It doesn’t matter to them if bedtime used to be at 9:00, but now it’s at 6:00. When the sun sets, that tells chickens it’s time to go up. Personally, the chickens going to bed earlier works for me! If you lock your flock up at night, you know the struggle of getting everyone in the coop when it’s still bright outside at 8:45pm in the summer.

With the sun as their guide, chickens undergo some internal changes when the days shorten. They now will lay less eggs, even stopping completely in winter. The darker days trigger the molt, which I mentioned previously. They will be spending more energy staying warm.

Just remember to please give your flock more energy rich foods this fall and winter. Whole corn makes a great evening snack for them, and will heat up their bodies during nighttime digestion. (It’s also a great way to persuade them to go up!) Ensure the coop is free of drafts and remember- no water inside the coop. (This prevents frostbite.)

Daylight Savings Time can be rough on everyone, chickens and humans included. Just prepare to hunker down and bring plenty of snacks- for your flock that is!

Poultry watering systems come in many shapes and sizes these days, and your local feed store will have several options. So, which one is right for you?

There are advantages and disadvantages to any product, so choose the one that is best suited to your situation. As I tell any farmer, beekeeper, or gardener: “Do what works for you!”

Some of your choices for watering systems are:

-Metal founts

-Plastic founts

-Water troughs

However, my personal preference is poultry nipples. While the founts work, I found not only did they have a tendency to get dirty, but they would also often develop a tiny leak that would cause the whole thing to dump out, leaving a wet spot in the coop. If we didn’t catch it on time, the flock would run out of water. If you are going to use a fount, I recommend building a stand to keep it up off the ground and minimize some of the contamination issues.

The main advantage to poultry nipples is that the water you are giving your birds stays clean and cool as long as it stays in a shady place where the chickens can have constant access. They are also inexpensive and can be installed in a variety of ways to suit your needs.

For mobile coops, you can simply install them on the bottom of a five-gallon bucket and suspend it inside your coop. This setup should be sufficient to keep a small flock of backyard birds well-hydrated for a week without needing to refill.

If you have a larger flock in a mobile coop, you can attach the nipples to a PVC pipe by drilling the recommended size hole and screwing them in. I like to have at least one nipple per six birds, spaced out every 12 inches along the pipe. This pipe can then be attached to a 30- or 55-gallon drum as the water source. Fill your drum with water weekly and your chickens will have plenty of cool clean water to drink.

For a more permanent coop, you can use a set up a similar system using a PVC pipe attached to a water supply. If you are going to go this route you will also need a pressure reducer to take your pressure down to below 1 PSI. These are available to order, just be sure to look for the reducers specifically designed for poultry nipples. For the DIY enthusiasts, you can also build an inexpensive reducer by putting a stock tank float in a five-gallon bucket. Then hook the PVC pipe up to the bottom of the bucket and allow the water to feed into the line using gravity.

A few recommendations I have no matter which system you choose:

-Always plan on having a way to clean out the system. For the PVC pipe design, this can be as simple as a ball valve at the end of the line that allows you to flush the system. I like to run a bit of bleach through the lines at least every 6 months to keep things sanitary.

-In colder climates, plan on keeping your system from freezing by using heat tape.

-Train your birds to use nipples from the youngest age possible. I put them in the coop along with a fount when the birds are about a week old, then I raise the bucket as they grow and can reach up higher.

-Make sure your waterer stays in the shade on hot summer days.

-Have fun raising your birds, take time to observe their daily activities, watch and listen as they peck at the watering system to fulfill their needs. They are fascinating creatures, especially ducks!!!

Drew Erickson is Farm Manager for Rodale Institute Midwest Organic Center in Marion, Iowa. Learn more about Rodale Institute and their work in the Midwest at RodaleInstitute.org/Midwest.