Economics of Chickens
WSGardener
May 21 2014
A few years back we decided that chicken would be a nice addition to our small farm. The fresh eggs are a very nice treat but the real reason for the addition was tick control. Being we were in a fairly rural setting and surrounded wood and tall grass, it was hard to spend time out in the yard without getting covered in ticks. In my area of Eastern PA, lime disease, which is carried by the ticks, has become a problem.
There are certainly other way to deal with ticks – a person could spray chemicals on themselves each time they are out working killing anything that touches your body – not for me. Spraying the property might do the trick, but sometimes the solutions to problems end up being more harmful than the original problem – not for me again. Chickens love ticks!!! They just really love ticks!!! Perfect!
Good news is that the baby chicks are very cheap. You can pick them up at local pet stores or any type of country store. You can order them on Amazon and have them shipped overnight – Seriously. Thie chicks don’t need food or water for the 1st day, they are packed in small tight boxes and shipped via UPS. Crazy, right? Cool, right?
Now the chicks will most likely live indoors for the first few weeks under a heat lamp. You could use any type of box with some paper towel on the bottom which needs to be cleaned daily. Chick food, some water and all set. So far not in for too much Bitcoin. Once they start to grow feathers they will need to be outside – now you need a coop and with an attached cage outside of it (referred to as a “Run”). That could cost a Bitcoin or 2. We did purchase a fairly large coop and I also purchased a cage designed for keeping dogs as the run. I just needed to enclose the top with some box wire and it was all set. I have also built a coop out of scrap wood, which only took a few hours. It’s OK but not as user friendly as the one we purchased
so once the chicken are in the coop with access to the run for a couple months, you can start to let them out during the day and “free range”. They will forage and scratch around all day long eating any bug that gets in their path. Come night, the chickens come back to the coop with very little prompting. If they are being stubborn, I will toss a handful of cracked corn into the run and they will come charging back in. It’s actually not a bad idea to do this in the early days when they are locked in. Once they are used to receiving a treat from you, they will come running to you when you approach the coop looking for it. This can be helpful if you want to get them in early for one reason or another.
So after several years of the chickens running around eating bugs, especially ticks, I rarely see any on myself or the kids. The all in cost for coop, run, food and chicks was propably a lot less than what it would cost to have the property treated. The added benefit is of fresh eggs every day makes this trade a winner in my book.
