The real cost of keeping backyard chickens: a feed cost guide
6 min read · Roost & Record Co.
"Are my chickens actually worth it?" It's the question every backyard keeper asks at some point — usually when they're standing in a farm shop paying £18 for a bag of layers pellets. The honest answer is: it depends, and the only way to know is to track it.
The main costs to track
Your biggest ongoing cost. A hen eats roughly 120–150g per day, so a flock of 6 gets through about 5kg per week.
Depends on coop size and how often you do a full clean-out.
Mealworms, corn, grit, oyster shell, apple cider vinegar. These add up.
Hopefully infrequent, but worth budgeting for. Some keepers set aside £10/month.
Flubenvet, red mite treatments, louse powder.
Repairs, replacement bedding boards, new nesting box pads.
A realistic monthly example
At 6 hens laying an average of 4 eggs per day (about 120/month), your cost per egg is around 49p. A box of 6 free-range eggs from a supermarket costs roughly £1.80–£2.20 — so your homegrown eggs work out cheaper, though only just.
If you're selling any eggs, even at £1.50 a half-dozen, the economics improve quickly. 30 half-dozens a month = £45 income, which offsets most of your feed bill.
The value you can't put a number on
The chickens won't make you rich. But the quality of those eggs — from hens you know, fed well, ranging freely — is genuinely better than anything in a supermarket. And there's something about going to collect eggs in the morning that starts the day right.
The best thing you can do is track your numbers honestly and know where you stand. Roost & Record Co. makes that easy — log your feed costs, and the app calculates your cost-per-egg automatically.