Ten weeks to the day since we got them, the chickens ate the last scoop of food from their 20kg bag of layers pellets this morning. I’ve already written about how much (or little) they eat, and how I suspected that the eggs they were giving us were actually working out more expensive than shop-bought ones.

But I was wrong.

We’re lucky enough to live close to a miller – Marriages – which has a small shop in town selling food to strengthen horses hooves, make budgies breath smell better, and dogs more frisky. They also sell layers pellets and, as they mill these things themselves, there’s not so much of a mark-up.

So a new 20kg bag, which should last the chucks as far as Christmas, was £7.05. A bargain. If they keep on laying and eating at their current rates we should have 140 freshly-laid eggs between now and then. If we do, they’ll have cost us 5p each, or 60p a dozen. Considering a good free range egg in the supermarket costs £1.70 for half a dozen, we’re making a saving of £1.40 each time our ladies lay that number.

If we did ever want to sell our eggs, a pound for each half dozen wouldn’t be a bad starting point. We’d turn a profit of 70p on each sale, and our neighbours would save exactly the same amount over buying them in the supermarket.

Perhaps more importantly, though, it would also mean they weren’t tempted to economise and buy from the battery hen pile.

Related posts:

1. Could we live on the income from our eggs?
2. September was a record month for eggs
3. How to get yellow yolks