How much does it cost to brood (raise) baby chicks? The goal of this post is to at least give you the tools to answer that question. It depends upon a lot of factors that will be unique to your situation, so the answers aren’t specific but are more like estimates. However, again, you should be able to use the information to figure out how much it costs in your situation. I have organized it around the things you will need, and I have assumed an order of 25 chicks.
- A Brooder: A brooder is just something that you will keep the baby chicks in until they get big enough where they will not need a heat lamp anymore. This obviously depends upon the weather, but that usually means about four weeks. The above is a close-up shot of part of our brooder that we made out of the big tank that we got on the cheap at Tractor Supply. (It was normally about $300, but it had been returned due to a slight leak. So, we got it for $100.) We put cardboard down the middle and braced it with some old scrap pieces of 2x2s and used some cardboard to brace it at the top as well. It has worked great so far. You can use anything from a fancy store-boughten brooder to a sufficiently sturdy cardboard box. Since you can probably put a brooder together with scrap lumber and cardboard, I am going to put the total cost for this at $0. Cost = $0
- Substrate: This is the bedding, or what you will put down on the floor of the brooder. There are various options here, from old newspaper to hay or straw to wood shavings to sand to specialized bedding. In my opinion, the best is probably wood shavings, either cedar or pine. (Some sources say not to use cedar, and about every other option on the list for that matter. I like cedar and that is what is used in the picture above.) I will assume you are going to buy this since, in my opinion, straw or old newspaper, the things you likely have laying around for free, aren’t that great for these little guys and gals. Further, I will assume that you are brooding the minimum order, i.e., about 25 chicks. In that case, you might be able to get away with one bag, which costs about $7. Cost = $7
- Waterer and Feeder: Just like everything above, these vary greatly in price depending upon what you want to get. The one-gallon plastic waterer in the picture above is about $7 around here. I have two types of feeders in there because I have so many chicks in my brooder. The one you can see really well is a 10lb feeder. It is a bit more expensive, about $14 or so. However, in the bottom right corner that red you see is a tray feeder, which costs about $5. For 25 chicks, the tray feeder would be fine. (Obviously, if you go with metal it costs more, and if you go fancy, it costs mores.) Therefore, I will put the total cost for a waterer and feeder at $12, and the good news is that, for your next batch, you will already have a waterer and feeder, which would reduce this idea to zero. Cost = $12
- Water: Well, the cost of the water is negligible most likely. You can figure based upon the amount of electric your water pump uses or how much your water company charges you per gallon or the like. Our costs controls aren’t quite that sophisticated around here, so I am putting $0 for the water! However, you might consider Sav-A-Chick Probiotic Supplement for the water. We use it with brand new arrivals, and it helps to prevent pasty butt. And, yes, that is what it is called. It is a digestive problem, and it will kill baby chicks. Assuming you choose not to use the supplement, your water cost will be $0. Cost = $0
- Feed: Again, there are lots of options out there. We have found that the cheaper you go, the more likely you are to lose a lot of chicks to pasty butt and other problems. We generally go with a little higher quality feed at first, which runs about $19 for a 50 pound bag. Of course, that begs the question: how much will they eat? A baby chick will eat about 1.17 pounds of feed to reach four weeks of age. They will also waste a good bit, so I figure 1.2 pounds to get them to four weeks. Again, we are assuming that you have 25 chicks x 1.2 pounds of feed to get to four weeks = 30 pounds of feed. So, if you buy the 50 pound bag, you will have about 20 pounds left over to feed them once they are out of the brooder. The cost you will have to come out of pocket with is $19, but, to get them to four weeks, when they can leave the brooder, you will only need to use 3/5 of that, so the total cost to four weeks for feed for 25 chicks is $11.40, which I will round to $12. (You should probably also supplement them with some chick grit to help their digestion, but I will leave that out since many would consider it optional.) Cost = $12
- Heat Lamp: For 25 chicks, one heat lamp should certainly be sufficient. I prefer the bulbs that put out red light, but I use both depending upon what is in stock around here. The lamp itself is about $10, and the bulbs are about $5 each. One bulb will almost certainly last the full month that you will keep these little guys and gals under a lamp. And, like the waterer and feeder, you will still have the lamp and probably some life on your bulb, so it will make it cheaper the second time around. Cost = $15
- Electric: I assumed the water costs to be essentially $0. However, we can’t do that with electric. The heat lamp is typically a 250-watt bulb, which means that it uses 250 watts per hour. To determine how much this increases your electric bill, you have to convert the wattage on the bulb to kilowatt hours, which is the unit you are charged for on your electric bill. To do that, divide the wattage by 1,000 and multiply by the hours of use and then multiply by your electricity rate per kilowatt hour in your area (this can be found on your electric bill typically.) So, here is the formula: 250 (bulb wattage) / 1,000 (to convert to kilowatts) X 24 (hours in a day) X 28 (number of days to get chicks to four weeks old) X $0.12 (typical electricity rate, which is what it is around here) = $20.16 (to run the heat lamp for four weeks, which I will round down to $20.) Cost = $20
- Chicks: Well, this really depends. If you want to get an estimate of how much it costs to order them from a hatchery, click here. If you raise them from your own eggs, then you need to include the incubator, feed for layers, etc. That is probably a topic for another post. Using the numbers from my earlier post, let’s assume you order them from a hatchery and therefore have about $4-$5 in them per chick. Assuming $4.50 and 25 chicks, your chicks cost you about $112.50. For the sake of simplicity and nice round numbers, let’s use $110. Cost = $110
Well, I may have missed something, but I tried to think of everything. Based upon our estimates and assumptions above, to get your 25 chicks to four weeks old will cost $66 (or $2.64 per chick) your first time through. This is, of course, excluding the cost of the chicks. If you include the cost of the chicks, it goes to $176 (or $7.04 per chick). (Again, there are lots of assumptions here about the cost of electricity in your area, the cost of the chicks, that no chicks died along the way, how many chicks there were, how much equipment you already had, etc., etc. So, actual costs will vary, but this should give you a good idea of how to calculate your own costs. Honestly, it also demonstrates why buying our Coop-Ready™ Pullets or Coop-Ready™ Wolf Hill Hybrids™ can be such a great idea-it lets you skip this costly and risky stage, which includes a lot of work and shuffling things around, and go straight to your coop!)
That may seem like a lot, but you get a lot of chickens as well. They provide food (eggs and meat), wonderful fertilizer (their manure), and the joys and satisfactions of animal husbandry. Further, you will learn a lot, and it will help you to be a bit more self-sufficient and a bit more conscious of what it takes to get chicken and eggs on the grocery store shelves. Finally, it is probably cheaper than almost any dog or cat that you could get, even if you adopted one from the Humane Society or the local pound (Figaro the cat cost us way more than this by the time you include the adoption fee and having him neutered, which was required.) So, why not follow the advice of Uncle Sam, and adopt some baby chicks today!
