Is It More Affordable To Buy Eggs Or The Actual Chickens?

While inflation has not affected the price of Arizona Iced Tea, the same cannot be said about eggs. Recent Avian flu outbreaks have affected the availability of eggs, causing their prices to skyrocket. As of January 2025, the average egg price in the United States was $4.95 per dozen, with some grocery stores charging up to $8-10 per dozen. With those kinds of prices, you may have wondered whether it's cheaper to just keep chickens.

While there's something very appealing about never having to go further than your background for ingredients the next time you want to make the perfect cheese omelette, buying your own chickens may not be the money-saving hack that you think it is. The internet has done the math, and it seems that owning your chickens costs the same amount, if not more than simply picking up eggs at the grocery store — even with the current sky-high prices.

While buying a chicken is cheap — around $20 if you buy one at egg-laying age (half that for chicks) — a recent YouTube video highlights how the start-up cost for a basic chicken coop could be upwards of $1500 once you throw in fencing, construction, and accessories. The average American eats just over 284 eggs per year (around 24 dozen). Depending on where you buy your eggs, even if you're paying $10 per dozen, you only spend around $240 annually. In other words, if you consider the start-up costs, it would take over six years before those eggs become "free."

While enjoying farm-fresh eggs all year round certainly sounds great even if it's got a lot of up-front costs, people on Reddit have also chimed in about the price of keeping chickens. Chickens need decent feed to thrive, and it's typical to pay as much on feed alone per annum as one might on store-bought eggs. That doesn't take into account the unexpected fluctuation of costs. Depending on what part of the country you're in, your costs will vary wildly — you may need to winter-proof your coop, spend more on feed, protect your flock against inclement weather, and so much more.

Another thing to consider is that laying chickens are the most productive within their first two years of life. While they can still lay eggs as they age, you'll have to bring in new chickens to keep production up, which adds to costs. To get your money's worth, you might want to consider eating your chickens as they age (slow cooker butter chicken, anyone?), which might not be realistic for people who've kept the birds as pets.

If you don't find the above option appealing, you might want to consider scoping out egg prices at a grocery store chain that's beating inflation. As they say, everything that comes up must come down. We hope that includes egg prices.