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.
Looking for a sale didn't go so well. I needed to do a lot of research if I was going to raise our chickens on a budget. So I did. In the end, I foudn that I could use items we had around the house or could access easily to make raising chickens cheaper. This was after spending hours and hours researching do-it-yourself chicken-raisin' items on the computer.
Feeders, Waterers, and Nesting Boxes can all be made out of 5-gallon buckets. You would be surprised how many chicken-raisin' items you can make for free or close to it on your own. When they are finished with them, many bakeries sell their empty icing buckets for $1 each. That is where we found ours, the local bakery. They gave us the buckets for free. You can't beat free. If I can do it, you can do it. I know what your thinking.. this is going to be hard. I promise you, it isn't.
An initial investment of approximately $10.00, compared to hundreds of dollars? Yes, it is possible. That is if your local bakery doesn't give them to you for free. For five hens you will need five nesting boxes, a waterer, and a feeder. Two 3-gallon buckets and seven 5-gallon buckets will make just that.
Now that you know it is possible to have a very minimal start-up cost are you ready to learn how to make your own chicken-raisin' supplies?
Before you buy Feeders, Waterers, or Nesting Boxes for your chickens, check out Alana Jo Couch's step-by-step photo tutorials on how to create these for free.
