A chook and her boy +

Checking the blogs I visit often, Gavin did a post on 'Chickens - Return on Investment' over at The Greening of Gavin. So I visited the link he posted, put in all the info and came back with $374.752 AUD as our net profit return - or, the value of the eggs that we don't have to buy each year!

Zeke and Snow White (or Spots?), in the hammock

Of course, that's a guesstimate and the girls don't give out tax invoices...

I did my working out and numbers based on an average of 3 eggs per day, for 6 chooks for the whole year. In summer, they lay 4-6 a day but in winter or moulting, sometimes only 2 a day. So I took a rough guess and put in 3 for one day, so .5 eggs per bird per day x 365. A conservative estimate and even that has us in the 'profit' category.

Mind you, you can't value FRESH real eggs. Nor the fertiliser the chooks make and the weeding and bug clearing they do. And certainly... something I didn't forsee... they're great pets and much loved by the kids. There's something quite... satisfying sitting out with a cuppa and watching the girls do their thing. So they are valued well above their egg production alone.