Hurricane Irma was looming over Savinly editor Rain Turner when she piled her two teens, two little dogs, a 4-foot ball python tucked in a pillowcase and a dog crate holding their two chickens into her compact Scion xB.
The mismatched crew drove north from St. Petersburg to Gainesville, Florida, looking for safety. Though the three hotels they stayed in over the ensuing fortnight were pet-friendly, Turner and her family weren’t certain how two clucking hens would be received, so they devised a plan for checking in and out at each stop.
“With a blanket draped over the crate, we pushed through the lobby and started talking loudly, singing and stomping our way to the elevator to drown out a soft but constant clucking,” Turner recalled. “Our six ridiculous bird parades probably looked crazy, but they were one of the few bright spots that kept our minds off the damage at home.”
Since Turner bought Blackstar and Jareth (named in tribute to the late David Bowie) as chicks in June 2017, the hens have become a cherished part of the household. The chickens hang out watching TV indoors and even tolerate being stroked (the family always washes their hands afterward).
Aside from the amusement they provide, the hens are turning out to be financially beneficial for Turner’s household.
The Rising Price of Store-Bought Eggs
Before she made a 1,000-mile move to Florida the previous year, Turner used to buy pasture-raised eggs from her friend Karla in Ohio. Because she trusted the producer, Turner knew the eggs were raised without cruelty or hormones, and Karla charged only $1.25 per dozen — “just enough to cover the feed.”
After moving to Gulfport, Turner realized how much of a bargain those eggs had been. An organic, free-range carton was running about $6, and there was no certainty the hens were local or treated properly.
“One afternoon after grocery shopping, we stopped at a nearby pet store for dog food, and there was a bin of chicks for $6 each,” Turner said. “They were so friendly and fluffy, my teens fell in love. I started looking up local chicken ordinances on my phone — turns out, backyard chickens were allowed in our neighborhood!”
That was all Turner needed to bring two adorable chicks home.
Initial Costs to Raise Two Chicks
Turner faced several one-time expenses for her new feathered family members, but they were modest compared with adopting a dog from a shelter.
She bought a feed trough for $13 and a gravity waterer for $8, and she built a small run using chicken wire and metal stakes for $30. For her birthday in July, her husband surprised her with a $200 chicken coop. “This is who I am now,” Turner laughed.
Turner already owned a heat lamp and a birdcage for the chicks, items that together could cost anywhere from $50 to $100 if bought new.
Ongoing Maintenance Costs
After the initial outlay, Turner discovered it doesn’t cost much each month to keep two hens healthy and vocal. She buys a 25-pound bag of feed for $18 and a 5-pound bag of scratch (dried corn and seeds) for $6 monthly, adding up to $24. She uses free newspapers to create bedding material for the coop.
Occasionally the flock might need veterinary attention or replacement gear, but those expenses, distributed over several years, remain small.
Perks of Keeping Backyard Hens
Although the hens required some startup money, Turner is already seeing returns. Blackstar, at around five months old, started laying an egg daily, totaling more than two dozen eggs monthly.
When Jareth reaches that output (she’s begun laying but not consistently), the Turners expect to collect roughly 60 organic eggs (five dozen) each month — a retail equivalent of $30 — yielding about $6 monthly profit after feed costs. But Turner says the money isn’t the only reward. The comfort of knowing her eggs come from free-roaming, humanely treated hens is worth a lot.
Although it will take a while to recoup the initial investments, Turner has noticed some indirect savings from caring for chickens.
“We anticipated eggs and cuddles, but discovered other bonuses. They consume a ton of bugs in the yard,” she said — which matters in the Tampa Bay region — “and they help keep the grass trimmed by constantly pecking. Our lawn rarely needs mowing, and whatever droppings they make get rinsed into the soil with the rain.”
For context, the national average yearly cost of pest control is $177; the average annual expense for lawn mowing is $148. Turner even uses crushed eggshells to discourage slugs in her garden and adds ground shells back into the feed, saving about $6 a month that would otherwise go toward oyster shell supplements for calcium.
Raising hens also let Turner’s family contribute to local projects — via manure. Turner says they plan to donate chicken compost to the Gulfport Food Forest, a neighborhood effort to grow fruits and vegetables in Gulfport’s parks and downtown spaces. “By composting kitchen scraps with the coop waste,” Turner said, “we’ll supply the community gardens with much-needed fertilizer this season.”
Blackstar and Jareth also offer another craft-friendly resource: feathers. Being crafty, Turner fashions boho-style earrings using beads and the feathers the hens lose naturally.
For readers curious about egg labels, check out our guide on cage free vs free range vs pastured eggs to better understand what those terms mean when you buy eggs at the store.
The Downsides of Raising Backyard Hens
Keeping poultry involves more than tossing a bag of feed outside once a month. Like any companion animal, chickens demand physical work and daily attention.
“If I’m not out there right after sunrise, they’ll cluck until I do!” Turner said. And while they can roam free in the yard much of the time, the family must constantly watch for predators. “Everything wants to eat them. The biggest stress is the vigilance and effort needed to keep hawks, neighborhood cats and other threats from getting them.”
“We actually saw a hawk dive into our yard to try to carry one off. We were blissfully swimming one minute and then racing out of the pool to scare the hawk away while our chickens ran for cover in tall plants.”
Turner added that caring for chicks is especially demanding. They needed to remain under a heat lamp, and their bedding had to be refreshed multiple times per day. As adults, the hens’ coop needs a deeper clean roughly once a month — and the family has to collect eggs every day.
So, are backyard chickens worth the upfront cost, labor and potential hurricane-evacuation logistics? For people who want responsibly produced eggs, they can be financially advantageous over the long run — particularly if you consume eggs often or sell them at a neighborhood farmers’ market. But the true payoff seems to be the experience: the joy of raising an unconventional pet and the satisfaction of tending to them.
The Turners enjoyed the adventure so much that they recently adopted a third chick, Sweetums (named after another Jim Henson character). Turner’s plan for sneaking three full-grown hens through Florida hotel lobbies next hurricane season? “We’ll have to sing even louder.”
