How to get started with backyard chickens while offsetting your costs as much as possible

This is a common sentiment among backyard chicken tenders:

No one gets into small scale chicken keeping to save money (at least not until we go full eat zee GMO bug burgers/we’re all wheelbarrow billionaires now) But I have found a way to offset your chicken costs with as little inconvenience as possible.

This video was a revelation:

TL;DW: Get more chicks than you want- a lot more. Order them in fall. Grow them for a couple of months. Sell the extras in spring when everyone wants chickens at point of lay (usually around 20 weeks) .

I think I have improved upon this strategy and instead of raising 30 chicks for 5 months (I do not have the space for that) I brood 30 chicks for 6 weeks and still make a profit.

I have brooded many batches of chicks. There is no real difference in the amount of work between brooding 6 chicks and brooding 30. So why not brood 30? I brood chicks outside because I can’t stand the smell and dust. I use this pen beefed up with hardware cloth and tarps:

I live in Texas and I’m still wearing short sleeves in November. But it is still possible to brood outside even in freezing weather:

Baby chicks can’t regulate their temperature until they’re fully feathered (around 6 weeks old) so they need supplemental heat unless you brood chicks in July in Texas and the world is your brooder. This plate is more expensive than a heat bulb but no fire risk + less electricity cost. Worth it. You can sell it when you’re done.

My favorite hatchery is Meyer. I like their website (see how glossy and beautiful it is compared to Ideal and their weird cartoon chick placeholder photo?) and I like that they have a 100% sexing guarantee so they refund for any males they accidentally send you (it happens). Ideal is based in Texas but has a 90% sexing accuracy guarantee.

There are incentives for ordering more chicks. For example at Meyer it costs $15 to ship 15 or more chicks. It costs $50 to ship 14 or fewer chicks!

Buy 30 chicks (be sure to add the “meal maker” free chick if ordering from Meyer) ~$128 for 31 chicks shipped.

I like the assortments. Try this one or this one. Or if you’re feeling festive the colorful egg layers. I love the assortments because I want fancy chickens like a Lavender Orpington. But I don’t $27 for one chick want one. But if I can get one for $5 I’m thrilled.

Meyer hatches on Monday and I generally receive a call from the post office that my chicks are in first thing on Wednesday morning. Meyer refunds you for any losses sustained in the first 48 hours. With the assortments you don’t know what you will get but are you feeling lucky? There is a day-old chick identification page but I am pretty hopeless at it. However, I recently discovered this Facebook group and there are 2 users in particular who are incredible and can ID your chicks for you just from a photo or two:

So you can figure out what you have with your 30 chicks, feed them and brood them until they’re 6 weeks old and feathered out, keep the ones you want and then sell the rest of them locally. I sell mine for $15-25 each. And people buy them FAST because

1. I’m not way the heck out in the boonies. It’s easy to find growout pullets 1 hour from Dallas but some people don’t want to drive that far especially with chickens in their car.

2. I offer breeds that you can’t find in feed stores locally

3. I can usually figure out if a chick is male by 6 weeks so there are fewer surprise roosters and I give those away for free.

4. The chicks are already feathered out, off heat, and coop ready

5. I feed organic or at least non-GMO chick starter. 

I’m not gonna say brooding large batches of chicks and selling most of them gets me rich but it pays for the chicks I add to my flock and my feed costs and keeps my chicken tending hobby from being a money pit