Raising Chickens Frugally???

[Janbee]

I am looking for ideas how to raise my chickens as frugally as possible. Do you have ideas on feeding and raising my chickens frugally?
I have 4 hens and 2 roosters that I got this spring. The hens are now laying but not consistently. I have 15 pullets that I got this fall. I am still feeding chick growth feed to the pullets. The spring chickens I am feeding laying pellets and scratch grain. I let them free range during the day several days a week.
I laugh and say that my chickens cost like my dogs and they both bring me lots of entertainment but the chickens at least give me eggs the dogs give me poop.

[ladytoysdream]

Chickens and frugal are hard to be on the same page.

We are now up to 44 birds of which 2 are roosters. A lot of young pullets still growing. Last year girls are molting, and we have about 10 old ones, from the first year we started.
Grain is pricey and continues to get worse.
When I did the market this summer, I got $ 3 a dozen which paid the feed bill. My winter customers want eggs cheap. And the birds are not laying well right now

Plan was to put in a lot of sunflowers this past spring. Which did not happen, but it WILL next spring. Chickens love sunflower seeds. Just throw them the heads and let them do the work.

I also get lots of cheap bread for them. I make sure there is room in the freezer for this treat.

I bought some beef suet at the meat processing business just a little bit ago. Intention is to chop it up and render it. Last year I made wild bird seed cakes. The chickens love it also. This time, I experimented and gave some whole/as is, to them. They pecked it gone in short order. Less work for me to do. I bought it for .75 a pound.

We have a vegtable / produce farm store about 5 miles from us. I like to stop and get a couple of $ 1 bags of marked down seconds /blemished . I sort when I get it home, and use what I can for us. The chickens get the balance of it. They really like lettuce, cabbage, and most fruit.

We also bought some bales of hay from a farmer. The chickens will peck at that. Right now, the bales are used in the add on room, against the walls to help keep the birds off the cold dirt floor in the winter. Spring it becomes mulch in the garden.

We also usually get a few bags of whole corn on the cob, that gets left in the neighbors field after the harvest is over.

Also we let the birds out in the late afternoon to free range. When it gets dark, they put themselves back in and we shut the door for the night.

.................

I wouldn't go overboard with a lot of chickens unless you eat a lot of eggs yourselves and / or , you have a steady year round market.
Come spring or sooner, the older hens will have to leave here or end up in the freezer. We can't justify feeding birds that are not laying anymore.

[nodmicks]

I only have laying hens. I found a big difference in feed prices. They were eating the laying pellets at $16 for $50 lbs. I found the organic laying mash for $18 for 100 lbs. Big difference. We let the chickens free rang the yard this summer and that cut down a lot on the feed bill.

I didnt know they liked sunflower seeds! I'm going to plan those next year. They are so pretty besides.