Last updated
05 February 2012
Quest for the Good Life 
Keeping some Chickens for eggs
- Do I need a cockerel?
- Hybrids versus True breeds
- Pens versus free range
- How many birds?
- Cost Vs returns
- Using artificial light in winter
Do I need a cockerel?
Chickens will lay eggs without a cockerel being present. We have a team of 6 birds laying flat out and they have never seen a cockerel! The advantage of this is that you are eating eggs which have not been fertilised. If you want to keep true breeds and replenish your own stock, then a cockerel will be necessary to fertilise the eggs and produce young.
Hybrids versus True Breeds
True breeds (Rare breeds) are lines of chickens that reproduce themselves true to the breed. For example a Light Sussex hen will produce Light Sussex young when mated with a cockerel of the same sex.
Hybrids are crossbreeds. A light Sussex can be crossed with a Rhode Island Red and the young will be hybrids that will not breed true themselves.
Commercially they use hybrids as they produce more eggs. Unfortunately these are the breeds they use in battery farms and produce the “caged bird eggs” you see so cheaply in the supermarket.
You can buy commercial hybrids as youngsters and grow them free range or in a pen and their quality of life is much improved compared to their caged cousins. They will not breed true but if you keep them just for their eggs then you will be well rewarded.
True breeds, many named rare breeds because of their decline in numbers, will produce less eggs, but you can establish a breeding flock to replenish your numbers.
So which are better? If you want a few birds to turn out regular nice brown eggs
then I would say go for the hybrids. They are sturdy, easily kept birds and will
give you what you want -
The cost of buying a hybrid chick will be around £5 each, a true breed can be three times that price.
Pens versus free range
How you keep your birds is your choice. If you consider battery caged birds to be
un-
A run can be bought or made. A larger pen needs fence posts and wire with measures to keep out Mr. Fox!
All will need a house for the birds to roost and lay eggs in. Egg collection from nest boxes is much easier than patrolling around a field.
With free range the birds can walk about eating a variety of foods. This healthy diet and natural chicken behaviour must contribute to the quality of the eggs produced. However, if you have them in a pen, you can still move the pen around weekly so they have new grass or soil to peck over. This is pretty much as good as being free range but does involve a bit more work.
How many birds?
Hybrids will lay the best and consistently produce an egg a day per bird. Rare breeds tend to lay fewer. In winter the rate of lay will naturally decline as the day length reduces. You can alter this with artificial light and keep the laying rate up through the winter.
So you decide how many eggs you want per day. Lets say 4. Then four hybrids with winter light will just about keep up. To make sure you could have 5.
If you keep true or rare breeds then the lay rate will be less and your flock size needs to be that bit higher.
Cost Versus Returns
To most having chickens in the garden and getting fresh eggs is worth every penny, but is it cheaper or more expensive than buying eggs? The initial setup costs of house and run, feeders and drinkers as well as the actual birds themselves can easily set you back more than £300. We cut down some of the costs by building our own house & run. You can find out how in our downloads section
To recover the investment of materials and food, we simply look at the return in
terms of eggs. The value of an egg we set at 20p. If you look at the supermarket
range, eggs can cost as much as 25 -
The graph starts in Jan 09. This is when we made the chicken house and run. Pure costs for materials. In March 09 the birds arrived, another cost with no return. Then there’s the drinkers, feeders and food. This is rearing time, growing the birds and giving them condition ready for their egg laying careers.
Finally in July 09 they lay their first eggs and so begins the return. With winter approaching the eggs reduce, but artificial light saves the day and production even improves into November.
The red line shows the cumulative cost. This is everything we spend added up. You can see at the height of initial investment in June, we had spent nearly £200. Since the egg laying started though we have clawed back some of this investment and by the end of November we had reduced our outlay to £120. Over the next egg laying year, this should reduce further and further.
If you are thinking of having some chickens in the garden, the outlay will be at least this or even higher. Expect any financial return on investment to take years not months.
By the time we are entering 2010 the initial set up cost is starting to be repaid.
View our Chicken Cost analysis chart below. This download is in the PDF format available to the majority of computers. Click on the image . .
What about selling your eggs?
You cannot sell your eggs through shops without being registered with the Egg Marketing
Inspectorate and all of the rules that follow it. However you can sell you eggs
at your gate and locally door to door. This is what DEFRA’s web site says:-
Are farm gate/door-
Yes -
For more information go to:-
URL: http://www.defra.gov.uk/foodfarm/food/industry/sectors/eggspoultry/faq/eggmarking. htm
Interested in breeding chickens? Go to our breeding pages