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Egg prices are soaring. Are backyard chickens the answer?

(civileats.com)
310 points greenie_beans | 1 comments | 19 Feb 25 21:46 UTC | HN request time: 0.222s | source
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Jgrubb ◴[19 Feb 25 23:18 UTC] No.43109033[source]▶
To save money? Absolutely not. I'm keeping a spreadsheet on our 20 chickens this year. They're young, so input is very high while output is still ramping but I'm guessing it's $7-8 dozen in food costs alone (the highest end organic feed tho), never mind the initial buyin.
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h0l0cube ◴[19 Feb 25 23:25 UTC] No.43109107[source]▶
> the highest end organic feed tho

Maybe feed them your food scraps? Or bulk buy and prepare your own grains/pulses?

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MagicMoonlight ◴[20 Feb 25 12:30 UTC] No.43113927[source]▶
This makes me wonder - would chickens grow more efficiently if you cook their food for them?

When we invented cooking it gave us a massive advantage because of the nutritional efficiency, yet we feed animals just random raw stuff. Would feeding them porridge instead of grain lead to higher output?

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philipwhiuk ◴[20 Feb 25 15:39 UTC] No.43115997[source]▶
> When we invented cooking it gave us a massive advantage because of the nutritional efficiency,

I was reasonably confident cooking reduced nutrition but reduced food-based disease way more.

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1. Sargos ◴[20 Feb 25 20:24 UTC] No.43119700[source]▶
What makes you reasonably confident? Cooking leading to better nutrient absorption and our IQ growth is mainstream science so making a wild contradiction like that without something to back it up isn't very helpful. Helping with food-based illness is an interesting thought though.