[Moleskins]

I'm pleased to report that production of the worlds most expensive eggs has doubled. These eggs cost roughly £51 each at todays rate. And on top of that 50% of the eggs are not full size !!
Yes I'm pleased to announce that on cleaning the hens out today I found that another bird has started to lay, taking production up from one egg to two per day.

[bloomer]

when i first had chickens i did sums ike that in the end i took the capital outlay out of the equation and it made me feel so much better, with 6 chickens at the end of 1 year my average was 17p per egg excluding capital and about 51p per egg with capital.


our capital was relatively low as i built everything myself from stuff we had laying around, we only had to buy chicken wire for the run, feeders and the birds...


we got about 600 eggs in our first year from birds who were 18months old when we got them...


i do miss my chooks 

[Mammyshaz]

Once they start, there's no stopping them  we have had our 3 for 18ish months and one hasn't had a break. One lays every other day now, and one has come out of a months moult and laying every day again.
They took between 4 weeks and 12 weeks to start laying when we got them as POL.

It worries me that the constant layer will burn herself out at some point as it must take a lot out of her.

They are hybrids so will dwindle off quicker than breeds tho. Will wait and see. Just want more different breeds now 

The original layout cost I dare not work out. Their welfare was top priority so a large enclosure was built. If/when we move it will be dismantled to travel with us 

[hughesy]

Ours are all moulting now and we're only getting a couple of eggs a day from our layers. They've done really well this year though having covered the feed costs for themselves, various young birds from hatching to point of lay, and made a decent contribution towards the pig feed too.

[Mrs Snoodles]

If I took out electric fence, energiser, battery plus house which are all excellent and will keep me going for absolutely donkey years (and I will never ever be without chooks  ), and my time, the exbatts I took on in Dec have made me a tidy profit - enough to cover a pigs yearly feed. We sell at £1 a half dozen.

[Daisy-at-the-dairy]

Hi moleskins. I'm wondering what exotic and high-end dish you made with your £51 eggs? Beluga caviar soufflé perhaps? Plain old boiled noggy with soldiers surely not good enough for such exotically priced ingredients.
Good luck with with your chooks as the cost/benefit analysis approaches cross-over (slowly). 

[chrismahon]

Depends how you write-off your capital outlay when determining your egg cost. If you built your own coops and runs, or bought top quality you can expect a 20 year life at least with a proper maintenance system. I don't expect to ever replace our coops as being wood and built carefully every individual component can be easily removed and replaced if necessary.


Good equipment also has resale capability -Chinese coops can't be given away and last about 2 years. Simple equations. £200 lasting 2 years is £100 lost a year in capital. £600 lasting 20 years is £30 capital (excluding interest for simplicity -the actual equations are more complex but life is too short!)


We find capital costs exceed both feed and livestock price components. We also think that you can't buy eggs of the quality we produce -or so our customers used to tell us.

[Moleskins]

Oh, I didn't cook them, at that price that would have been really silly, I exchanged them for 2 Faberge ones.
Like the calculation for a non Chinese coop versus a better made one, makes sense.

[Ina]

 

But hey - consider this: they are now only £25.50 each...