How much does it cost to keep chickens
Feed is the number people ask about and the coop is the number that decides whether it was worth it.
The short answer
A small flock has two cost structures that should never be added together carelessly: a one-off setup, and a running cost that recurs every year. Six hens typically run somewhere around $415 a year to feed and bed, and closer to $517 once the coop is depreciated across its life.
The formula
annual feed = birds x daily grams x 365 / 1000 x price per kg
running cost = feed + bedding + grit and supplements + health
setup = coop + run + equipment + birds
depreciation = setup / expected life in years
true annual cost = running cost + depreciation
Whether you include depreciation changes the answer more than any other choice here. Both figures are legitimate; quoting the smaller one and calling it the cost of keeping chickens is where the popular numbers come from.
Worked example
Six laying hens eating 120g a day, feed at $0.95 a kilo, with a coop and run expected to last eight years:
feed = 6 x 120 x 365 / 1000 = 262.8 kg → 249.66
bedding 96 · grit and shell 24 · health and misc 45
running cost = 414.66 a year
setup = coop 450 + run 180 + equipment 60 + birds 132 = 822
depreciation = 822 / 8 = 102.75
true annual = 517.41 → 86.24 per hen
About $415 a year to run and $517 a year once the coop is honestly accounted for. The gap is the part that never appears in the answers people give.
What moves the feed number
Season. Birds eat roughly ten percent more in cold weather, and a flock with genuine free-ranging in summer can eat ten to twenty percent less. That is a swing of thirty percent across a year on the largest running cost.
Waste. A poorly designed feeder loses a surprising amount to spillage and to rodents, and the loss is invisible because it looks like consumption. Treadle feeders cost more once and often pay for themselves inside a year.
Breed and purpose. High-output hybrid layers eat more than a dual-purpose heritage bird and lay considerably more, so the cost per bird and the cost per egg move in opposite directions.
The costs people forget entirely
Replacement birds. Hens do not lay well forever, so a flock kept for eggs needs new birds every few years. If you never count this, your cost per egg is understated permanently.
Predator-proofing, which is usually bought after the first loss rather than before it, and always costs more than it would have.
Boarding or a neighbour's time when you go away. Not a cash cost for everyone, and a real constraint for anyone who travels.
Why the coop question is not just accounting
A $450 coop spread over eight years is $56 a year. The same coop over three years, which is what a cheap flat-pack often lasts outdoors, is $150.
That difference is larger than the annual bedding bill, and it is decided once, at the start, by someone comparing coops on price. It is the single most consequential purchase in the whole exercise and it gets the least analysis.
What this leaves out
- Feed prices vary by region, brand and whether you buy in bulk. The consumption figures are more stable than the prices.
- Assumes healthy adult layers. Chicks, moulting birds and broodies all eat differently.
- Excludes your time, which is the largest uncosted input and the reason most people keep chickens anyway.
Common questions
- How much does one chicken cost per year?
- On the figures above, about $69 a year to run and $86 including the coop. The per-bird number falls as the flock grows, because the coop and the equipment are shared across more birds.
- Is it cheaper to keep chickens than to buy eggs?
- It depends entirely on which eggs you would otherwise buy. Against the cheapest supermarket eggs, usually not. Against premium free-range or organic, often yes. The comparison only works if you pick the eggs you would genuinely have bought.
- How many chickens should I start with?
- Three to six for a household. Fewer than three is hard on birds that are strongly social, and the fixed costs of a coop spread badly across one or two.
Spreadsheets that do this
The formulas above, already built and checked — so you fill in your numbers rather than the arithmetic.
Related guides
Last reviewed 22 August 2026