Raising Chickens: A Cheaper Way

When my husband and I decided to dive into the great adventure of raising chickens, we didn't even know where to start. It was pretty obvious that just buying the things we need to set up for our chickens was going to be expensive. Feeders, waterers, nesting boxes, a coop, a run, oh my aching wallet!

I knew that there had to be a cheaper way, but how? Do people really pay those prices to raise chickens? Surely not! With my mind made up that If I wanted to raise chickens, I had to do this cheaper, I set out in search of sales for the items I needed. No luck on that one. I don't think I found a single item that I needed to buy for our chickens that was under $20.00 each.

If we wanted to raise our chickens on a budget, I was going to need to do a lot of research. Looking for a sale wasn't working out so well. So, that is exactly what I did. I spent hours and hours on the computer researching cheap and do-it-yourself chicken-raisin' items. Thankfully, in the end, I found a cheaper way to make everything I needed for raising chickens out of items we had around the house or could access easily.

You would be surprised how many chicken-raisin' items you can make on your own for free or close to it. Feeders, waterers, and nesting boxes can all be made out of 5-gallon buckets. We found ours at the local bakery. Many bakeries sell their icing buckets for $1 each when they are finished with them. Our local bakery went above and beyond and gave us the buckets for free. You can't beat free! I know what your thinking... this is going to be hard. I promise you, it isn't. If I can do it, anyone can do it.

Let's say you have five hens. For those five hens, you would need five nesting boxes, a waterer, and a feeder. Get yourself seven 5-gallon buckets and two 3-gallon buckets from your local bakery. If they don't give them to you for free, it shouldn't cost you more than $10.00. Approximately $10.00 compared to hundreds of dollars as your initial investment. Now that you know it is possible to have a very minimal startup are you ready to learn how to make your own chicken-raisin' supplies