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The longer and warmer days have our hens back into regular production, which comes at a great time for us. Eggs are, of course, on the menu almost daily in April.

On two separate occasions this winter I had to hide my face as I went into a local grocery store to buy chicken eggs. Can you imagine if someone had recognized me? It would be like a sourdough artist stopping off at a gas station for some white sandwich bread. You鈥檇 never live it down.

I鈥檝e not done that since the chickens started producing in September 2023. They are finally earning their keep again. I could likely blame myself for not offering them artificial lighting. A neighbor has a light on a timer and never saw a drop in production.

There are just some things that I hold back on for fear I may end up spending more on the chickens than they are worth. And that is what brings me to my topic today. Not surprisingly, more and more people are getting into raising backyard chickens. They are seeing the when a major supplier is struck by avian flu. They want to know where their food comes from.

Backyard flocks are not immune to the virus, and many of the reports we see come from those smaller operations; they just don鈥檛 make nearly the same impact as a commercial operation, which can see hundreds of thousands of birds over an infection.

As people are hoping to get into raising chickens they, of course, seek out advice. My advice is going to be quite different from what I heard from a recent interview, in which the source said raising chickens is not for those looking to save money.

Michael Johnson / Agweek

Yes, chickens cost money. Feed costs money. Housing costs money. But spend that money wisely.

The source suggested that to get started in raising chickens you鈥檇 need to spend, on average, $6,500 on a chicken coop. I don鈥檛 even know what else she said after that because I was baffled at that figure. So I looked up prebuilt chicken coops online. Sure enough, the first search didn't yield anything over $1,000. So I searched harder to find this starter coop for beginners.

There further down in my search was a Smart Coop for $1,700. This thing is actually pretty cool. It is weather and predator proof. It鈥檚 elevated with an automatic door, dual camera system ( so you can watch your chickens on your phone 24/7) and solar power. It鈥檚 made for 4-6 chickens. Not bad, but I think my chickens deserve better. I searched for 鈥渇ancy chicken coops.鈥�

My eyes landed on the 鈥淐utest Coops鈥� website, which features luxury chicken homes. This is obviously what the source thought was the right kind of coop. These coops, which look more like guest houses, are custom-made based on your color and style preference, the number of chickens, the type of cupola and how many windows and doors you want.

You can buy a coop that looks like a church chapel. Or there鈥檚 the 鈥淐halet鈥� version, with timber beams spanning across a deck. Surely you鈥檙e chickens deserve such treatment. It will cost you upwards of $10,000.

My point is, yes, you can pay astronomical prices and buy absolutely unnecessary things for our chickens. But unless you live within a city where your coop must match your home in color and style, you can get by with a bargain of a structure and the chickens don鈥檛 care.

This is just me, but I utilize an old insulated spear house for a chicken coop. I built a full glass door for the winter months, which I switch out for a full screen door in the summer months. This is weather-proof and so far predator-proof. That being said, even the so-called predator-proof structures cannot keep out predators as the door opens.

Ask around about old sheds, fish houses and the like. Their owners often are happy to be rid of them if they are unused and it's a small investment to customize it to the chicken's needs.

The chicken run they enjoy most of the year is made from an old trampoline wrapped in chicken wire. No, it鈥檚 not as beautiful as those other versions, but all of these items were free. And that is helping to make raising chickens worth keeping chickens.

I don鈥檛 skimp on everything. They have good sturdy feeders and waterers that will hold up through the elements. I want to make sure that they always have access to food and water. I buy good feed, though I could save quite a bit by processing my own. Allowing them to free range helps with some of that feed cost. A rainwater catch system is going in soon that will keep extra fresh water on hand (as long as it rains.)

They say that chickens are the gateway to owning more farm animals. I can tell you that if you find yourself having to take out a loan to own a handful of chickens, you might want to get a second or third job before you bring home anything with hooves.