One of the first questions would-be chicken owners ask is, "Is it worth it to raise my own eggs?"  That can be a tricky question, actually.  If by "worth it", they mean the cost aspect of raising eggs, the answer is probably no.  There is so much more to raising your own eggs than just the cost of them, however.  You are ensuring the food you eat is the best you can get, raised by animals you know and care for, in conditions you have complete control over.  No more factory farms, miserable chickens and unhealthy additives.

That being said, you can figure out the cost of raising your own eggs relatively easily.  Adult chickens, when fed nothing but commercial feed, will consume about four ounces per day.  With four birds, that is one pound of feed per day, and only if you do not let them free range or supplement with table scraps.  In our area, a 50-pound bag of laying food is $14.99, or 30 cents per pound.

An average chicken will lay about 300 eggs per year, so with a cost of $27.36 per bird for commercial feed, that comes out to nine cents per egg, or $1.09 per dozen.  This does not factor in any supplemental feeds, the cost of electricity or any other costs.  Even still, our local grocery store sells organic brown eggs - the kind our hens produce - for more than $5 per dozen.

Overall, the cost of home grown eggs is less than the cost of commercial eggs, but in addition the money savings, you will be choosing not to support commercial egg factories and their inhumane conditions.  To me, that pencils out very well indeed.