Costing out the cost of incubating a chicken

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Philcott

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I have been wondering for a while if any of you have done any cost analysis when it comes to incubation? i.e. how much does it cost from egg to 8 week old chick. I don't even know where to start so any pointers would be appreciated!

I did manage to work out that it costs me £1.00 per month for feed for a full grown chicken - but that was a while ago when I only had a few and it was easy to figure out how much was being eaten!

Sorry if I am coming across as a bit dim here, but the old grey cells are not quite as sharp as they used to be or as others!
 
I have no idea but i suppose it depends on what you factor in - for instance, if you don't breed your own but buy in eggs, there's the total cost of the eggs divided by the number that actually hatch. But if you're hatching from your own stock, do you include something for what the hen has cost you up to the time she lays the egg, and something for the necessary cockerel? Obviously electricity if you're using an inci, divided by the number of chicks hatched, and also heating whilst in the brooder similarly. Or if under a broody hen, what does her maintenance cost? Food for chicks of course. Finally, equipment; - inci, brooder, heat lamps etc; your setting -up costs divided between the number of chicks you've hatched using all this to date? And offset the costs by what chicks you've managed to sell up to 8 weeks, against what it would have cost you to buy them in from someone else?

I never was any good at maths - glad my chickens are just a hobby!
 
That's the problem Marigold - there are so many bits and bobs! Fortunately all my expense was last year and the year before for equipment, so have already paid for themselves, and the eggs are my own. I was hoping that someone had already sort of worked it out to a 'sort of' thumbsuck figure! I am not lazy, just wanting to save my energy! LOL
 
Hi Philcott. I've done all the calculations but didn't save them. Got to £23 for a 6 month pullet when I factored everything in best I could as follows.

The obvious are the consumables-feed, electricity (depends on batch size as 50 chicks under a lamp costs the same as two), bedding, medication, sanitation. The less obvious are maintenance and depreciation on capital costs. The completely overlooked are the cost of keeping the breeding parents, so a hatching egg has a significant cost before you start. By maintenance I mean replacement bulbs, broken equipment so any repairs -quite small really.

Capital depreciation can be viewed thus -the equipment always has a reducing resale value up to it being worthless or worn out. This is highest in the first year. To make it simple just assume that it will last a certain number of hatches and divide the purchase cost accordingly. Bare in mind that if you only use the equipment once the real costs will be far higher. To be absolutely on the safe side cost on the basis that the equipment will be used once and then sold if you like, but you won't like the numbers. Ignore the interest on the investment, meaning you could have had the money in the Bank and had interest -that's almost nothing now. It only really comes into play if you borrow the money.

Past 8 weeks they may be off heat, depending on the time of year. Then the feed is straightforward but the capital is horrendous. Cost of a 10 bird coop and run that can be used once or twice a year and falls apart in 10 years! Could add £5 a bird. We also employed rearing units - built 4 which can be used as broody rearers, isolation coops, emergency coops and broody breaker runs when separated. Extremely useful.

So if you ignore most of the capital side as your equipment is now 'free' it is still a complicated equation! Hope this helps. I decided to forget about it. Market forces dictate the selling prices, so if everyone thinks they are making a profit but are actually making a loss I am stuck with it.
 
And of course nobody's mentioned the real cost of your time and labour - done for love if it's a hobby, but how people make a living out of it I do not know.
 
Thanks for the input - it was for the purpose of trying to work out what a sensible selling price would be for day olds through to POL that I wanted to know! Previously, I have charged £1.00 on hatch and £1.00 for every week thereafter. But the costs of things have gone up so much! :? I do it as a hobby and the cost of my feed bill equals my own feed bill for myself per month! Wouldn't change it though! :)
 
I think people will be prepared to pay what it takes to get good, well-bred stock from a knowledgeable breeder who is helpful and will give advice before, during and after purchase. Those who are just after cheap chickens can go down the road and find cut-price, mass-produced birds in plenty. After all, a good healthy bird will be with you for several years, long after a pound or two on her price as a chick has been forgotten.

Should you also factor in the cost of any 'useless' cockerels hatched, if it's not a dual-purpose breed you can rear on for eating?
I expect all of yours are autosexing, Philcott, but people raising non-sexing breeds would have the problem of having to rear on cockerels for several weeks more, probably, until they crowed...
 
Last year I had payed £9 for a chick(few day old).The breeder who selling them has his system of charging for them the older they are they more expensive.You can look at his website to have an idea http://www.surbitonpoultryandhenhouses.co.uk/index.php/pricelist
 
Hatching eggs for Pedigree birds cost £3 round here. Week old chicks are £5 rising £1 a week to their maximum of £20 -£30. Optimum time to sell is at 6 weeks I think, before they sex but are off heat. In my £23 per pullet calculation the cockerels werte factored into the end cost so that at 6 months they were wastage -valueless. With an autosexing breed therefore your costs to that point may be only about £15. Quality of the feed was a big factor. Cheap feed is half the price of Dobson and Horrell crumb, but worth the extra as they really grow fast and strong on it!
 
Where I get my chickens, Chalk Hill Poultry, near Blandford, is just brilliant in every way. Their price list is here http://www.chalkhillpoultry.co.uk/ As you see, less than the site Chris quotes, £1.50 for purebred hatching eggs and £8.00 up to 2 weeks, then £15-£20 at 3-9 weeks, depending on breed rarity. When you see how well he treats his birds, I think he must be undercharging for his time and care.
 
Cheap for hatching eggs that Marigold. Breeding trio doing 200 eggs per year will consume 120kg of feed. Then there is medication, suppliments and aging birds plus chemicals and coop and run unit. So I recon that, assuming half the eggs are sold for hatching, the rest are eaten, they make nothing.

Off at a tangent slightly. Over the whole of our flocks it costs us £1.90 to produce 6 eggs, which we sell for eating at £1.30. We haven't included any capital costs in that equation and certainly no labour. This is why we need to sell hatching eggs, just to increase the revenue to break even. We can't make a profit on selling pullets in this area as too many people are doing it. Mind you, not a problem for much longer. The French have far more land and free range theirs with a simple mixed corn suppliment rather than buying pellet feeds.
 
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