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What do chickens actually cost?

The honest cost of a UK back-garden flock. Including the coop, not just the feed. Change every price to match your own setup, and see whether it ever beats shop eggs (spoiler: usually not, and that's fine).

Your flock

How many hens?Three is the beginner minimum.Breed (sets eggs/year)Eggs per hen, per yearBreed-dependent; the winter drops output.

Organic feed

Setup (one-off)

Coop£Run / fencing£Starter kit (feeder, drinker…)£Per-bird purchase price£~£25 for point-of-lay. £0 = you already have them.

Running costs

Feed price£Per kg. Check your own bag. Prices drift.Bedding, per hen/year£Vet / health reserve, per hen/year£Shop price per egg (for break-even)£What you'd otherwise pay per egg.

I want to sell surplus eggs

Cost per egg, year one

105.3p–107.9p

Including the coop and everything you buy up front. The honest figure. Ongoing cost once you're set up is 37.9p–40.6p per egg.

Setup (one-off): £485
Running cost: £273–£292 / year
Year-one total: £758–£777
Eggs per year: 720

Break-even vs shop eggs

At this feed and egg price, home eggs never pay for themselves. You keep hens for the hens, not the savings.

What this assumes

Feed use is swept over 36.5–44 kg per hen per year (≈100–120 g/day), which is where the cost range comes from. Source: British Hen Welfare Trust (checked 2026-07-09).
Every price is yours to change. The defaults are typical UK figures, not a promise.
Cost per egg is your total spend ÷ eggs laid. Hens lay less in winter and as they age.
The legal notes cover England; Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland differ.

Why the cost per egg looks high

We count the coop. Most "cost per egg" figures quietly leave out everything you buy up front (the coop, the run, the feeder) and divide only the feed by the eggs. That gets you a flattering number that was never true. We show both: the year-one figure with setup included (the honest one), and the ongoing figure once you're set up, side by side.

It rarely beats shop eggs. And that's the honest answer. On most realistic inputs, a small flock never pays for itself against 30p supermarket eggs. People keep hens for far better reasons than saving money. A calculator that pretends otherwise isn't worth trusting.

Every number is yours. Feed prices drift, coops vary wildly, and breeds lay differently. The defaults are typical UK figures with a checked date. But change any of them and the answer updates. The one thing we estimate for you, feed use per hen, is swept across a sourced range so the cost comes out as a band, not a false-precise point.