How much does it cost to raise backyard chickens?

Updated October 14, 2026 · Backyard flocks

Backyard eggs are not free, but they are usually cheaper than the carton, and the coop pays for itself sooner than most people expect. Here are the real numbers for a small flock, split into what you pay once and what you pay every month.

One-time setup: $300 to $1,500

The coop is the big variable. Everything else is small.

Item	Typical range	Notes
Coop	$150 to $1,200	Home-built from pallets at the low end, a prefab walk-in at the high end. Plan 4 sq ft per standard hen.
Run (fencing, hardware cloth, posts)	$80 to $300	Hardware cloth, not chicken wire. 10 sq ft per hen.
Feeder and waterer	$30 to $90	A treadle feeder costs more and pays for itself in saved feed.
Bedding, nest boxes, roosts	$40 to $120	Pine shavings, a few 2x4s, buckets or crates for nests.
The birds	$3 to $6 per chick, $15 to $35 per pullet	Pullets cost more but skip the brooder and lay within weeks.
Brooder (chicks only)	$70 to $160	Heat plate, bin, chick feed for 8 weeks. Priced for your flock in the chick arrival planner.

A sensible first flock of five pullets, a mid-range coop and a fenced run comes out around $600. That is the number we use in the examples below.

Monthly costs: $20 to $35 for five hens

Item	Per month, 5 hens	Notes
Layer feed	$16 to $20	About 0.25 lb per hen per day, so 37 lb a month, or three quarters of a 50 lb bag at $22.
Bedding	$3 to $6	One bale of shavings lasts a month or two with the deep-litter method.
Grit and oyster shell	$1 to $2	A $10 bag lasts most of a year.
Health, odds and ends	$2 to $5	Averaged over a year: dewormer, a vet visit now and then, a replacement waterer.

What a dozen really costs

Five healthy hens in season give about 25 eggs a week, roughly 110 a month, call it nine dozen. At $28 a month in running costs that is about $3.10 a dozen, and closer to $2.60 for a six-hen flock on the same bag of feed. Compare that with $4 to $7 for free-range or pasture-raised eggs at the store, which is the honest comparison, since that is what backyard eggs are.

Two things move this number a lot. Winter and molt: the same feed bill with half the eggs doubles your cost per dozen for a few months, which is why the yearly average matters more than any single month. Waste: an open feeder loses 10 to 20 percent of every bag to spillage and rodents. A treadle feeder is the single best money move a keeper can make.

Spills and rodents usually take 10 to 20 percent of a bag. A treadle feeder is the most direct way to cut that cost.
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When the coop pays for itself

Take the setup cost and divide it by what you save each month against the store. With $600 of setup, nine dozen a month, $3.10 per dozen at home versus $4.49 at the store, you save about $12.50 a month and break even in about four years. Against a $6 pasture-raised carton the savings jump to $26 a month and the coop is paid off in under two years. A cheaper coop or a second-hand one halves that again.

Most keepers never run this math because it lives in a spreadsheet nobody updates. The cost-per-egg calculator does it in a few seconds, and the ChikiPay app keeps it current from the eggs and feed bags your household logs.

Ways to lower the cost

• Buy the biggest bag you can store dry; price per pound drops noticeably from 25 lb to 50 lb bags.
• Use a treadle or no-waste feeder.
• Keep the flock at the size you eat. Retired hens still eat full rations.
• Let them forage when you can; it trims feed by 10 to 20 percent in a good season, though it never replaces layer feed.
• Sell the extra dozens to neighbors at a fair price. Even two dozen a month covers the feed bill.

Common questions

Is it cheaper to raise chickens than to buy eggs?

Usually yes on the monthly costs, once the flock is laying: a small flock on bagged feed lands around $2.50 to $3.50 a dozen, below most store prices for free-range or pasture-raised eggs. Counting the coop and the birds, it takes one to three years of savings to break even, longer if you buy a premium coop.

How much does it cost to feed a chicken per month?

About $3 to $4 per hen per month on layer feed at $20 to $25 for a 50 lb bag, since a standard hen eats roughly 7.5 lb a month. Treats, scratch and waste push it up; free-ranging on good pasture pulls it down a little.

What is the cheapest way to start a backyard flock?

A secondhand or home-built coop, point-of-lay pullets instead of chicks (no brooder, no heat lamp, eggs within weeks), a treadle feeder to stop waste, and a flock sized to the eggs you actually eat. Four hens cover most families.

How many chickens do I need for a family of four?

Four to six laying hens. In season that is about 2 to 4 eggs a day, 20 to 30 a week, which is a dozen or two more than most families eat and leaves some for neighbors.