Short answer: a small flock can cover its own feed, and it can come close to paying for itself if you sell some eggs and keep the coop going past the first flock. What it can’t do right now is beat the grocery store on your own breakfast. Store eggs got cheap again.
In September 2026, a dozen grade A large eggs averaged $2.27 in U.S. cities, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A year before that, in September 2025, the same dozen was $3.49. Meanwhile the University of Maryland Extension’s backyard layer budget, updated in August 2026, puts a home-raised dozen at $3.37.
I’ve kept a laying flock for eight years, twelve hens right now. I don’t keep my birds to save money, and they’ve never saved me much. But you should know the math before you buy chicks because you’re mad at the egg aisle.
The Store Price Fell, and That Flips the Answer
Back in the summer of 2025, the BLS average sat near $3.60. July was $3.60 and August was $3.59. At those prices it was easy to look at a coop and figure it’d pay for itself by the second year.
Then the price slid. December 2025 came in at $2.71, January 2026 at $2.58, and by September 2026 it was down to $2.27.
That’s the number your backyard eggs have to beat if you’d otherwise buy the cheap carton.
If you buy pricier eggs, use what you actually pay. Pasture-raised eggs from a farm stand aren’t the same purchase as the cheapest dozen in the cooler, and it’s fair to compare your eggs to the ones you’d really bring home.
What a Dozen Really Costs: Maryland’s 10-Hen Budget
Maryland’s budget is an honest one, because it counts the boring stuff. It follows 10 hens raised from chicks and kept for three years. Over that time it counts 895 laying days at a 70% egg yield, which already takes 20% mortality into account, for 522 dozen eggs.
Total expenses over three years: $1,759. Divide that by 522 dozen and you get $3.37 a dozen.
And that’s before labor.
Labor is the part nobody wants to price. The budget figures 20 minutes a day for the feeding and watering, plus collecting and washing the eggs, which comes to 361 hours over the three years. UMD leaves it out on purpose and says plainly that valuing labor would discourage backyard producers. Fair enough. Just know that if you paid yourself even five bucks an hour, your eggs would cost more than double.
The $500 housing line is a simple chicken tractor with a run. My first coop cost more than that and was worse in every way, so treat $500 as a floor, not a promise. Some folks build for less out of scrap. Some spend a lot more.
Feed Is the Number That Swings It
Feed is the biggest expense in egg production, UMD says, and their table backs it up. Layer feed alone is 47 bags at $15 each, $705 of the $1,759. Their feed conversion is 4.5 pounds of feed per dozen eggs.
That gives you a quick check you can do at the feed store. Take the price of a 50-pound bag, divide by 50 to get the price per pound, then multiply by 4.5. At $15 a bag, feed runs $1.35 a dozen. At $20 it’s $1.80. At $25 it’s $2.25, and at $30 it’s $2.70.
So here’s the ugly one. If your layer pellets cost $25 a bag, the feed in a dozen of your eggs costs about what the store charges for the whole carton.
You can trim it a little. UMD says buying feed in larger amounts lowers the cost, and letting hens graze or eat garden and table scraps can cut the feed conversion slightly. They’re also clear that hens should always have good layer feed in front of them. Scraps are a side dish, not a ration.
The cheapest fix is the one nobody counts: stop feeding rats and sparrows. UMD’s list of basic gear includes rodent-proof feed storage for a reason. I keep my bags in metal cans, and my DIY chicken feeder ideas are mostly about cutting the waste that never makes it into a hen.
The Coop Only Pays Off If You Keep Using It
Here’s where the math gets friendlier. Of that $1,759, about $675 is startup: $500 for housing, $75 for a feeder and waterer, $50 for feed storage cans and $50 for a brooding heater. Spread across 522 dozen, the startup alone adds about $1.29 to every dozen.
Take the startup out and the running costs come to $1,084, or about $2.08 a dozen. That’s 19 cents under the store’s $2.27.
Not a fortune. But it’s the first time the backyard dozen wins.
What’s left in that $1,084 is the stuff every flock eats through: $705 of layer feed, $200 of electricity, $60 of chicks, $49 of chick and grower feed, $45 of bedding and $25 of egg cartons. Feed is about two thirds of it. After the coop’s built, the feed bag matters more than anything else you buy.
UMD says the same thing in its own words. Those items last several years, so if you keep layers longer than three years, with more flocks in the same housing, the cost per dozen goes down. Bigger flocks get cheaper per bird too, because more hens share one coop. The flip side is that a three-hen flock carries the whole coop on very few eggs.
So the honest version is this. Your first flock pays for the coop. The second flock in that coop is where the eggs start paying for themselves, as long as a raccoon or a rotten floor doesn’t make you rebuild.
Molting, Short Days and Lost Hens Pull the Average Down
A 70% yield sounds steady. It isn’t, day to day. UMD’s budget figures about 200 days over three years when the hens aren’t producing because they’re still growing or they’re molting, and it assumes you’re running supplemental light in winter to keep them laying.
That light is part of the $200 electricity line, along with the brooding lamp, plus heat and hot water for washing eggs. Skip the light and you’ll probably save some power and get fewer winter eggs. My birds slow way down every winter. The feed bill doesn’t slow down with them. If yours have quit on you, here’s why chickens stop laying in winter and what to check.
Then there’s that 20% mortality, which is already baked into the yield. In real life that’s two hens out of ten, and it rarely shows up politely at the end. A predator that takes three birds in spring wrecks the year’s numbers far worse than any feed price.
Lock the coop every night. It’s cheaper than any spreadsheet trick.
Selling the Extras: Who Buys, What to Charge, What the Rules Say
Ten hens at 70% give you about 7 eggs a day, 49 a week, a little over 4 dozen. If your house eats two of those, you’ve got two dozen a week to move.
UMD values the eggs at $6.00 a dozen in its example and says your price should cover your costs plus a reasonable profit. Let’s run it. Their flock costs about $586 a year and lays about 174 dozen a year. Keep half, 87 dozen, and sell the other half. To cover the whole flock from sales, you’d need about $6.74 a dozen. At $6 you’d come up about $64 short for the year, which means your own eggs would cost you very little.
Who buys them? UMD lists neighbors, church groups, schools or local 4-H clubs, plus community markets, roadside stands and social media for pickup or delivery.
Most backyard sales I know of start with one neighbor and a cooler by the gate.
Now the rules. The federal FDA Egg Safety Rule covers producers with 3,000 or more laying hens, so a backyard flock is nowhere near it. That doesn’t mean there are no rules. UMD says to check with your state and local authorities before you sell a single egg, because the rules can cover licensing and labeling, plus packaging, storage or sanitation. Many states, including Maryland and Delaware, also require backyard flocks to be registered with the state Department of Agriculture.
Buyers come back for clean eggs in clean cartons. UMD says eggs should be cleaned and sanitized before they’re sold, and my notes on keeping fresh eggs clean and stored right cover the daily side. Wash your hands after the coop too. Hens can carry salmonella and look perfectly healthy.
Where I Land on It
Keep hens because you want hens. Fresh eggs, bugs out of the garden, compost for the beds and a reason to be outside every morning. At today’s store price a small flock won’t beat the cheap carton for your own kitchen, at least not with its first coop.
If you want it to pay, price your feed bag before you buy chicks, sell about half your eggs at a price that covers your costs, and plan to keep the coop for more than one flock. Do those three and the eggs are close to free. Skip them and you’re paying about $3.37 a dozen for the privilege, which honestly I still think is worth it.
Related read: How to Raise Chickens for Eggs — Instant PDF download. Secure checkout by Stripe