Eggs are eleven bucks a dozen. What is TSF doing about it?

[NickB79]

16. Eh, a home flock isn't really economical for eggs alone IMO

Don't get me wrong, I've got 19 of them in the backyard right now, and would never get rid of my flock. But, the cost of feed ($15/50 lb bag) basically wipes out a lot of your egg savings. And up here (Minnesota) they basically stop laying from Thanksgiving to Valentine's Day when the daylight hours drop. I offset that by putting a light in the coop (not a heating lamp, too dangerous for fires), but then you have to be checking multiple times a day or your eggs will freeze and crack.

Where chickens really shine is in their manure. The chicken litter, when added to a home compost pile, or simply spread on the garden in the fall after harvest and allowed to decompose all winter, is worth it's weight in gold. My garden soil after 15 yr is like high quality potting soil and produces hundreds of pounds of vegetables every year. And chickens can eat almost any kitchen scraps and old leftovers as well. If you can let them free range, even better, so long as you don't lose them to predators.

So if anyone thinks they want a home flock, they really, really need to plan on a vegetable garden to go with it. And with the prospect of farm labor shortages from deportations, that's not a bad idea either.