When starting out with chickens, you might ask yourself the question: how many chickens do I need to make a profit? In this article, we’ll explore that question to come up with a direct answer of just how many chickens your homestead needs in order to make a profit.
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Finding an animal that can be profitable to keep on a homestead is ideal. But, just how many chickens do you have to raise before you are saving money rather than spending? Can raising chickens be profitable?
Based on the average dozen of eggs costing $1.79/dozen and the average chicken costing $0.65 per chicken to feed, plus the monthly cost of around $17.38 to cover costs for bedding, the coop, and other supplies, the earliest you will see a profit from eggs over chicken expenses is with 41 chickens. You can, however, see a profit as early as 10 chickens if you are able to sell your excess eggs at a premium price.
How many eggs do families eat?
Eggs are an extremely versatile and useful food to have on a homestead. Sometimes in late winter and early spring, as we struggle through eating the little bit of preserved food we have left, eggs become our staple item. Boiled, pickled, fried, scrambled, or baked, eggs are a great source of protein and food for a homesteader.
According to the Washington Post, Americans are eating around 279 eggs per year. That equals out to 5 eggs per week per person. A family of four will consume just over 1 and 1/2 dozen eggs per week. A family of 6 will eat, on average, 2 dozen eggs per week.
What is the cost to purchase eggs each year?
Statista did a study and found that the average cost of eggs comes to about $1.79 per dozen eggs. This means that the average family of four will spend around $156 each year for eggs, or $3.00 per week. The average family of 6 will spend $3.58 per week on eggs, which comes to $186.16 as an annual expense.
Organic eggs are a different story and will cost you more per year. Organic eggs, on average, cost $5.50 per dozen. If your family of four was to purchase organic eggs each week, you would be spending about $429 each year for eggs, while a family of 6 would spend about $572 annually.
How much money will raising chickens cost?
In this post, I detail how much food your laying hens are going to eat each week, as well as the weekly cost to feed a small flock of chickens. In summary, though, a flock of about 20 laying hens is going to eat about one 40 pound bag of food each week. This will cost you about $13 per bag of food for non-organic feed and $23.00 per week for organic feed to feed your chickens. Annually, this means that you will be spending about $676 annually to supply your flock of 20 chickens with non-organic feed. If you choose organic, you’ll be spending $1,196.00 each year on chicken food.
How many chickens will I need to make a profit?
So let’s break down these numbers even more to really find out how many chickens you’ll need in order for your chickens to be profitable. For this data, I’m going to assume you’re getting the highest producing chicken breeds for your homestead (read more about which types those are here).
| Family Size | Number of Chickens Needed | Cost for Non-Organic Chicken Feed Weekly | Number of Eggs Produced Weekly at Store Value | Total Profit Weekly | Total Profit Yearly |
| 2 people | Minimum of 3 chickens | $1.71 | 18 eggs/week = $3.24 | Profit: $1.53/week | $79.56 |
| 3 people | Minimum of 4 chickens | $2.60 | 24 eggs/week = $3.58 | Profit: $0.98/week | $50.96 |
| 4 people | Minimum of 5 chickens | $2.89 | 30 eggs/week = $5.40 | Profit: $2.51/week | $130.52 |
| 5 people | Minimum of 6 chickens | $3.42 | 36 eggs/week = $6.48 | Profit: $3.06/week | $159.12 |
| 6 people | Minimum of 6 chickens | $3.42 | 36 eggs/week = $6.48 | Profit: $3.06/week | $159.12 |
If you’re just counting eggs, chickens could become profitable if you raise your own high producing chicken breeds for your family’s egg production. However, there’s more than just eggs to raising chickens, and those factors need to be considered too.
Other factors to consider
Though your chickens may be profitable in terms of the number of eggs they’ll give you each week compared to how much you’d be spending for eggs at the store, it’s important to remember that there are other factors involved that can influence whether or not raising chickens is profitable.
- Chickens will require some type of bedding, and that can potentially cost money. Some farmers use straw that they’ve already baled or even leaves as bedding for their chickens, but others need to buy their own bedding. Bedding can be as expensive as $20/month to keep a chicken coop clean and fresh, but it can also be less if your chickens are free ranging. Cost of bedding per week: $5.00
- Chickens will need a coop or safe place to go at night to avoid predators. Chicken coops don’t need to be fancy, but if you don’t build your own out of scrap material, they can be expensive. On average, a chicken coop might cost you up to $2,000 on the expensive end and around $300 on the cheap end. This will lead to a higher weekly expense. Though this expense will only be an addition for the first year, it’s still something to consider. Cost of $600 chicken coop (broken down to weekly expense): $12.00
- You’ll also need a way to water your chickens and feed them. This can be a DIY project to save some money, but if you purchase, it will add a cost. You can expect to pay about $20 in total for both. Cost of feeder and waterer (broken down to weekly expense): $0.38
- Chickens are not machines. They go through body processes just like humans and that can alter production.
- Chickens will molt annually, and they will stop laying during this time. A molt can last up to 3 months, which can really drop the production rates in some months. However, the average egg production numbers do have this already built into consideration.
- Chickens also will produce less eggs as they get older, and will ultimately stop laying at around age 4-5 years old.
- Chickens lay less eggs in winter. Again, this is factored into the average egg production number, but it is something to consider when you raise chickens. You will get less eggs in winter because of the shorter days, as chickens need 14-16 hours of light to lay at their full potential. You can supplement with light in winter, but the cost of running a light is also going to add to the overall cost.
Final Conclusions
So, what is the answer to how many chickens do I need to be profitable? Let’s get an overall cost compared to savings.
| Number of Chickens | Total Cost of Raising Chickens Weekly (including feed, bedding, supplies, and coop) | Total Amount Saved Weekly | Difference Between Cost and Savings Weekly |
| 3 | $19.09 | $1.53 | -$17.56 |
| 4 | $19.98 | $3.58 | -$16.40 |
| 5-6 | $20.80 | $3.42 | -$17.38 |
| 10 | $23.88 | $8.95 | -$14.93 |
| 20 | $30.38 | $21.60 | -$8.78 |
| 25 | $33.63 | $27.00 | -$6.63 |
| 30 | $36.88 | $32.40 | -$4.48 |
| 35 | $40.13 | $38.70 | -$1.43 |
| 40 | $43.38 | $43.20 | -$0.18 |
| 41 | $44.03 | $44.28 | +$0.25 |
Drumroll! The final conclusion to the question of the number of chickens you’ll need to make a profit, strictly in terms of egg production vs. feed, bedding, supplies, and coop is 41 of the highest producing chickens. At 41 chickens who each average 6 eggs per week, you should get a total of 246 eggs weekly and your chicken raising efforts will be profitable. At store value, that would equal a total of $44.28, which is ultimately $0.25 more expensive than raising the chickens yourself.
Owning Chickens Can Be Profitable Sooner
Even though you could make a $0.25 profit with your 246 eggs, that is still a lot of eggs for one homestead. And honestly, starting at the 10 chicken range, you are probably going to see that you have more eggs than your family needs weekly if you have young, healthy chickens who are at their prime laying age. Any surplus of eggs you have can be sold, and often, people are willing to pay a higher price for cage-free, pasture-raised, or free range eggs, even if you’re not using organic feed. Selling your eggs is going to lead to profit sooner.
Can I make a profit with only 10 chickens?
Let’s look at the 10 chickens and use that as an example to answer if owning chickens is profitable. With 10 chickens laying approximately 60 eggs per week (again, best case scenario with young, highest producing egg layers), you’re going to have 5 dozen eggs. If you keep 2 dozen for your family, you’re left with 3 dozen to sell. If you are able to sell your eggs for $5.00/dozen, you’re going to reduce your weekly cost of raising the chickens to about $9.00. This is still substantially higher than the average cost of 2 dozen eggs ($3.58), but not organic egg costs (2 dozen = $11.00). In fact, if you generally had purchased free-range or organic eggs before, you would actually be already making a profit here with only 10 chickens.
Final Thoughts
Obviously there are a lot of factors that can really alter this drastically. The breed of chickens you purchase, your type of feed, the choices you make with the coop and other supplies all play a role in the overall cost and egg production. My biggest advice to you is to be creative when raising your chickens and remember that they don’t need the fanciest things to thrive. An ice cream pail works just fine as a waterer for your birds, and spreading the feed out on the ground for scratch works too. They can be very happy in a chicken coop made from scraps around the homestead, and can eat less food if they free-range and are given table scraps. Remember, pioneers were raising chickens and they didn’t have half of the fancy things we do today. If they could do it, we can too!
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