I just bought my 16 week old pullets Southern States layer feed... cost $13.50 for 50 lbs. The last bag of feed I bought was 25 lbs of chick starter and it lasted them 24 days. I'm not sure how much feed they will consume as layers. But from five days to ~16 weeks (109 days), the five pullets ate 75 lbs of feed, which is 15 lbs per bird, or 2.202 oz per bird per day. It costs about 4 cents per day per bird from hatch to 16 weeks. Altogether it's about $4.05 per bird to feed to 16 weeks. Assuming that these birds will produce 27 dozen eggs each in their lifetime (two productive years), the cost to raise the birds spread out over the eggs the five of them produce adds $0.15/dozen. You also had to buy the birds. I paid $3.50 for each pullet at the feed store, so $0.13/dozen. Assuming the five hens will consume 1.75 lbs of feed per day, the cost from 16 weeks to 104 weeks would be $291.06. Spread over the 27 dozen eggs per hen, that adds $2.156/dozen.
Now for lights, you need to add on the electricity. We used one 250 watt light bulb from hatch to 6 weeks. Say you have one 40 watt light bulb in your chicken house from 6 weeks to end of production (two productive years). In our area, electricity costs $0.06577 per kwh. For the brooder, 0.25 kW x $0.06577 x 24 hours = $0.39462 per day to have the heat lamp on. So from five days old (when they were purchased) to 6 weeks, would cost $14.60. For the chicken house, 0.04 kW x $0.06577 x 14 hours = $0.0368312 per day to have light out in the chicken house. Let's just say we provide 14 hours of light year round to make it easier. So the chickens from 6 weeks to 104 weeks would need light. So 98 weeks = 686 days x $0.04648 = $25.27. Adding brooder and daily electricity would be $39.87. Spread over 27 dozen per hen x 5 hens, the additional cost for each dozen would be $0.30/dozen.
Plus equipment ($100) and housing ($250), will really increase the prices of the eggs. However you can expect housing to last about 10 years or more ($25/year or $50/flock) and equipment needs to be replaced every 2-4 years ($50/flock). So $100 spread over the eggs would add $0.74/dozen.
I think I included most of the costs, so essentially for my own flock I should be charging $3.48/dozen just to break even. (I did forget to include labor costs to care for chickens, collect/clean/package eggs, and the cost of the egg cartons.) My hens are in their house all day so I can't market them as anything special, other than they lay brown eggs.
If I had more chickens, housing costs per chicken would be lower, as would feed costs because there is a discount when one buys one ton at a time (40 bags). Economies of scale will allow one to produce eggs more cheaply.
Just some things to think about when figuring out what to charge for eggs....
Now for lights, you need to add on the electricity. We used one 250 watt light bulb from hatch to 6 weeks. Say you have one 40 watt light bulb in your chicken house from 6 weeks to end of production (two productive years). In our area, electricity costs $0.06577 per kwh. For the brooder, 0.25 kW x $0.06577 x 24 hours = $0.39462 per day to have the heat lamp on. So from five days old (when they were purchased) to 6 weeks, would cost $14.60. For the chicken house, 0.04 kW x $0.06577 x 14 hours = $0.0368312 per day to have light out in the chicken house. Let's just say we provide 14 hours of light year round to make it easier. So the chickens from 6 weeks to 104 weeks would need light. So 98 weeks = 686 days x $0.04648 = $25.27. Adding brooder and daily electricity would be $39.87. Spread over 27 dozen per hen x 5 hens, the additional cost for each dozen would be $0.30/dozen.
Plus equipment ($100) and housing ($250), will really increase the prices of the eggs. However you can expect housing to last about 10 years or more ($25/year or $50/flock) and equipment needs to be replaced every 2-4 years ($50/flock). So $100 spread over the eggs would add $0.74/dozen.
I think I included most of the costs, so essentially for my own flock I should be charging $3.48/dozen just to break even. (I did forget to include labor costs to care for chickens, collect/clean/package eggs, and the cost of the egg cartons.) My hens are in their house all day so I can't market them as anything special, other than they lay brown eggs.
If I had more chickens, housing costs per chicken would be lower, as would feed costs because there is a discount when one buys one ton at a time (40 bags). Economies of scale will allow one to produce eggs more cheaply.
Just some things to think about when figuring out what to charge for eggs....
Last edited:
You are one of the very few that has a handle on the COSTS of production that everyone else just have their heads in the sand about. 
USDA statistics show that the VAST MAJORITY of small farmers are loosing money in their farming ventures every year. 
Don't forget to also add in the costs of your farm ( mortgage/ rent , taxes, insurance, transportation, your and family / labor, marketing, etc. ). Also , don't forget that the so called "dual purpose" breeds of chickens means that they are mediocre at egg and meat production 
while the competition is using the specialty breeds such as the Leghorn and Cornish X which outperform the " dual purpose" birds hands down. 
This equates to more return on money invested and since they can take advantage of volume scale discounts of purchased feed, housing, equipment, power, labor, etc. , they can sell their product for far less and still make a profit. Then add the selling costs and profit margin of the grocers and the selling price to the ultimate consumer is still lower than what everyone else is able to sell their produce for. 
