Are Backyard Chickens Cheaper Than Buying Eggs?
It depends on your setup, your feed and the eggs you buy now. The first year is the hard one, because the coop bill arrives before the first egg.
By the Egg Cost Check team · Published 2026-10-18 · Updated 2026-10-18
The short answer
Backyard eggs can cost less than store eggs once the coop is paid for. In the first year they often cost more, because setup is spread over few dozen eggs. The only way to know for your house is to run your own numbers.
A worked example (illustrative numbers, not averages)
These are the default inputs in our calculator. Replace them with your own prices.
- 6 hens, each laying 5 eggs a week
- A $22 feed bag that lasts 30 days, plus $20 a month for bedding and supplies
- $700 for coop, run, equipment and hens
- 8 weeks in year one with no eggs
- Store eggs at $4.50 a dozen
Monthly running cost comes to about $42.29, or $507.50 a year. Six hens at 5 eggs a week for 44 laying weeks give 110 dozen in year one. Add the $700 setup and the first-year cost is about $10.98 per dozen, against $4.50 at the store.
After year one, the same flock lays about 130 dozen a year. Running costs alone work out to about $3.90 per dozen, which is $0.60 below the store price. At that gap the flock saves roughly $78 a year, so $700 of setup takes about 9 years to earn back.
What moves the answer most
- Setup cost. It is the biggest lever in year one.
- Feed. It is the biggest recurring cost. See how much feed laying hens need.
- The eggs you compare against. Budget eggs and pasture-raised eggs give very different results.
- Weeks without eggs. Chicks need months before they lay. Hens also slow down in winter and when they molt.
Reasons people keep hens besides cost
University of New Hampshire Extension describes production factors, and keepers often mention freshness, hobby value and self-sufficiency. Those are real reasons. They are separate from the cost per dozen, so decide how much each one is worth to you.
Costs the cheap-egg math often leaves out
Your time, emergency vet bills, replacement hens and local permit fees. Our calculator leaves them out too, and says so on the method page. Add them to the monthly extras field if you want a fuller picture. Oklahoma State University Extension explains the budgeting and break-even approach in more detail.
Run the numbers with your own prices →
Sources
More guides
- Backyard Chicken Startup Costs: What to Budget For
- How Much Feed Do Laying Hens Need? A Simple Way to Budget
- Before You Buy Chickens: A Practical Checklist
How we write: we link the sources we use, we label examples as examples and we do not claim hands-on results we have not had. See our method. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.