There are several ways to make money off your chickens. One of the most popular ways is selling eating eggs.
1 Rhode Island Red chicken lays 250+ eggs per year. I am going to pretend the + is the number that your family eats. In one year, you could make:
1 Chicken 250 Eggs per year= 20.8 dozen (rounded to 21)
21 dozen x $4 a dozen = $84 per year per hen
$84 a year doesn’t sound like much but $84 a year x 20 chickens = $1680 a year
Let’s assume your chickens free range so you feed them less than cooped up birds–free ranging also makes the eggs healthier. My free range chickens eat very little feed in the summer months.
20 birds x $2/month in feed =$40 a month x 12 months = $480 a year in feed
$1680-480 = $1200 per year
Even if your birds do not free range much, each hen eats roughly 3 lbs. in feed each week so 12 lbs. per month. For one hen, a 50 lb. bag should last 4 months. Right now, a 50 lb. bag of laying pellets at Tractor Supply is $15.00 per month–that adds up to $3.75 per bird per month.
2. Fertilized eggs: Fertilized eggs sell for $1 per egg up to $3 per egg for rare breeds. If a Rhode Island Red lays 250+ eggs per year and you sell those 250 eggs for $1 that egg, you have just made $250 in eggs.
$250 x 20 hens = $5000-$480 in feed per year = $4520 a year in fertilized eggs
3. Chicken Meat (if you’re brave enough to process your own birds).
4. Feathers for arts and crafts
5. Chicken Manure for gardens. I see this asked about several times in our area in the spring.
6. Hen or Hen/rooster combo
7. Baby Chickens: Baby chickens sell for no less than $5 per chick in most places which adds up to thousands per year
1 hen: 250 eggs = 200 babies per year (remember they don’t all hatch), 200x$5 = $1000 per hen
20 hens x $1000= $20,000 per year – $480 in feed = $19,520 per year in baby chickens
Little Rock Poultry 