Is It Better to Buy Chicks or Hens?

If you’re interested in getting chickens this year but aren’t sure if it’s better to buy chicks or hens, then this is the post for you! Take a look at the pros and cons of purchasing your chickens as chicks or hens through this article.

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So, you’ve decided to get chickens this year! Congratulations! But now you’re faced with the question: Is it better to get chicks or hens? This is really great question and should really be considered thoroughly before purchasing your chickens. The answer to which is better, chicks or hens, is clear for people with different preferences.

For those who are seeking to learn about the entire process and save money on the initial chicken purchase, then it is better to purchase chicks than hens. Getting chicks as babies allows you to purchase your chicks at a low cost, gives you hands-on experience with what raising chickens looks like, and helps you to bond better with your animals.

On the other hand, your preferences may be focused towards egg production. If your preference is to make a better return on investment and get eggs sooner, then purchasing a hen is better than purchasing a chick. Purchasing a grown hen ready for egg production is going to give you an animal that is able to give you eggs the day you bring her home, which then provides you with a return on your investment immediately after your purchase.

Let’s dive into this a bit deeper!

Table of Contents

• Choosing a Hen vs. a Chick
  • Age of Hens Matters
  • Where Your Hen Comes From is Important
  • Overall Costs to Consider
• Choosing a Chick vs. a Hen
  • Choice in Varieties
  • Relationship Considerations
  • Control in Feed
  • Overall Costs
• Major Takeaways
• More on Raising Chickens
• Save this Post
• More on Raising Animals

Choosing a Hen vs. a Chick

If you’ve decided to choose a hen instead of a baby chick as your chicken purchase, there are a few things you should consider and make sure you know before bringing your new hen home.

Age of Hens Matters

Though a grown hen is capable of laying eggs as soon as you bring her home, it’s important to remember that age plays a big role in egg production for hens. Hens will begin to lay eggs at 18-22 weeks old, and most will peak production at about 30 weeks old. So, if you’re bringing home a hen that is in their peak production, you will be able to most likely make your money back in eggs the first few weeks of having her.

If you get an older hen than that, however, you are not going to get as many eggs per week as possible. And, if you’re getting a hen that is older than the age of 6 or 7, you likely will see only a couple eggs per week, continuing to lessen until there aren’t any eggs at all. Obviously, this would not be a great return on investment, unless you plan to harvest the chicken for food.

Where Your Hen Comes From is Important

In general when considering chicks or hens, you’ll find that it’s a bit more difficult to find grown hens to purchase than baby chicks. Many places, including Tractor Supply Company, have chicks available to purchase right within the store and many don’t have full grown chickens readily available.

When you do find a grown hen, be sure you’re getting it from a seller you can trust. Chickens can carry diseases, and if you’re adding a grown hen to an existing flock, it’s important to consider this fact. On that same note of adding hens to existing flocks, it’s also important to remember that the existing flock may not be welcoming to its newest member(s). It is wise to quarantine a new hen for a week or two and to give the existing flock opportunities to slowly become accustomed to one another.

Overall Costs to Consider

The final things to consider when choosing a hen instead of a chick is the upfront cost. Most grown hens are going to cost somewhere between $20-$30 per chicken, which is significantly more expensive than buying the same amount of chicks. However, as I mentioned before, if you’re purchasing a hen around or nearing her peak production age, you are going to be making your money back in eggs within a few weeks of purchasing her. This is important! Though it seems expensive to pay $20-$30 per grown hen, you are already going to be a return on your investment shortly after purchase, where a chick would take over 6 months of feeding, bedding, and caring (in addition to the upfront cost) before getting any return.

Now, on the contrary, if you’re purchasing a hen that is past its peak production age, then you won’t be getting as much of a significant return on investment right away. More than likely, your older hen will not lay as frequently, though she will still eat as much as she would have. This means you’ll be paying for food for the hen, but not getting as many eggs, which means it will take longer to get the return on your investment. If you’re buying a hen older than peak production age, make sure you are able to get a good and fair price (I would say anywhere between $7-$15 is fair, depending on the hen’s age).

Choosing a Chick vs. a Hen

If you’ve chosen to purchase baby chicks instead of purchasing a hen, there’s also some important considerations to think about.

Choice in Varieties

One benefit of choosing a chicks over grown hens is that you probably will have much greater choice in which varieties you get for flock. Oftentimes, the options of varieties for started pullets from hatcheries just isn’t comparable to the options of varieties you have for baby chicks. If you get a grown hen from a farmer, then the options are really limited to the types of birds that the farmer has. Depending on the breed you’re seeking, you may only be able to find it in the form of a baby chick.

Relationship Considerations

Raising a chicken from baby chick into grown laying hen gives you a lot more time to connect and form a relationship with your chicken. The chicks will be used to you, be used to you feeding them, and you probably will feel a connection with them, too. If you bring a grown hen to your house that’s used to another home, it may not be as friendly or tame as chickens that you’ve raised from little on would be.

Control in Feed

One factor that can influence a person’s decision as they debate between chicks or hens is the fact that when you raise chicks, you are in direct control of what they are fed and how they are raised. If you want to raise organic chicken eggs, you are able to choose to feed your chicken completely organic food for its entire life. On the contrary, if you buy a grown hen, you will have had no say in what that chicken had eaten as food prior to it coming to your home or how it was raised. If this is something that’s important to you, then make sure to consider this when deciding between chicks or hens.

Overall Costs

When considering whether to purchase chicks or hens, one of the biggest differences that come to mind is the difference in price per bird. Bird for bird, a baby chick is going to be cheaper than purchasing a grown hen. You can easily purchase a whole flock of chicks (say 10-15 birds) for a total around $50-$75).

However, it’s also to remember that baby chicks require a lot more hands-on care because of the fragile nature. You will need to purchase a heat light and have a brooder of some sort for them before they can go out to the coop. They’ll also be eating food (which costs money) between the time that they are babies and the time that they begin laying eggs. This additional cost of feed during the time between them being chicks and laying eggs is sometimes overlooked by first time chick buyers. Because your newly purchased chicks aren’t able to produce eggs until they are 18-22 weeks old, you will be paying for chicken food without any eggs in return for quite some time.

Major Takeaways

Here are the major takeaways when considering whether it’s better to buy chicks or hens for your home.

	Advantages	Disadvantages
Purchasing Chicks	*Cheaper initial bird price *More variety in breeds *More control over feed *Easier to form connections with the birds	*Longer wait before you can get eggs *Require a lot more hands-on care in the beginning *Expenses begin before any return on investment
Purchasing Hens	*Quicker return on investment *You will get eggs relatively fast *More efficient in time, energy, and in materials	*Less control over feed prior to bringing the hen to your home *Higher upfront cost *Less varieties to choose from

More on Raising Chickens

Now that you’ve decided which is better for you, chicks or hens, it’s time to dive into more about raising chickens! Check out some of these other posts!

NUMBER OF CHICKENS YOU’LL NEED FOR YOUR FAMILY HOMESTEAD

SHOULD YOU FREE RANGE CHICKENS ON YOUR HOMESTEAD?

TOP 5 BEST CHICKEN BREEDS FOR EGG PRODUCTION

CAN I MAKE A PROFIT OWNING CHICKENS?

RAISING CORNISH CROSS CHICKENS FOR MEAT: THE ULTIMATE MEAT BIRD

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