It's not something many people give much consideration: raising your own chickens.
Although not many people do it, it's actually something worth considering.
You save money in more than just a couple ways by raising your own chickens.
For starters, chickens provide a plentiful supply of fresh eggs.
Unless you're vegan, you probably use eggs in your kitchen.
By harvesting your own eggs, you get to enjoy fresh eggs for free.
Eggs produced by free-range chickens are higher in nutrients than eggs produced at farms.
In terms of freshness, it doesn't get better than using eggs laid by a chicken in your own back yard earlier in the day! Raising your own chickens also allows you to harvest them for meat which adds further savings to your grocery bill.
If you're not up to the task yourself, there are meat processors who can do at an affordable rate.
Even if you do decide to use a processor, you'll still wind up saving money over buying chicken at the grocery store.
Another cost effective upside to raising your own chickens is to hatch baby chicks and sell them.
This is quite a lot easier than you might think.
It takes about three weeks to hatch a chick.
You need at least one rooster for every 10-12 hens and some laying boxes with straw for the chicks to lay their eggs off the ground.
When these elements are in place, the chickens know what to do.
You can keep the offspring yourself or sell chickens to others interested in raising their own chickens once they see how much money you're saving.
Finally, chicken droppings make great fertilizer.
Because they are very potent, you don't need to use much for your lawn and garden.
The money you save on fertilizer will easily pay for a meat processor to harvest your chickens.
Chickens also aid your lawn and garden by eating unwanted bugs.