IF, and this is a big IF, you are very handy and can make an excellent coop and run for low-cost, you might eventually make your money back. Otherwise they are basically pets that also give something back to your table without having to die for it, and, in my case at least, make use of an area of garden that isn’t very useable.
The hens themselves will probably be free or cheap. I got all mine from the British Hen Welfare Trust, that rehomes barn hens (we don’t have battery hens in the UK). They cost £1 each and live for two to three years after rehoming - it’s unusual for them to live longer due to the way they were mistreated before. There are similar orgs in the US.
Their eggs are fine, though, and they’re friendly, and man, it is incredibly rewarding seeing those battered creatures, half featherless, peck around in dirt for the first time ever, then gradually grow their feathers back. They’re very friendly, especially if you don’t keep more than four or five hens.
The other advantage of buying ex-batts is that they are definitely female. Roosters crow really fucking loudly. We had a ridiculous drama after accidentally getting what turned out to be a rooster.
Also, in reality, you’re not going to be taking an ex-batt to a vet, even if you’re fond of them. The charity does give advice though. One of my hens, Elvis, survived a fox attack that killed her coopmates, but had a broken leg; we brought her indoors until we could get a coopmate for her, and kept her in a crate, feeding her porrage. She not only recovered, but, a few months later, fought off another fox with no fatalities.
Even pedigree hens don’t cost much (silkies are gorgeous, tiny, and lay teeny tiny eggs that are mostly yolk; you can’t but them without spending a lot of money). People rehome them, too (I rehomed a silkie). And they also sell off their coops and runs - there’s a website called backyard chickens that’s worth checking out.
The effort involved is all the set-up. Get that right, and they’re genuinely extremely easy. Ten minutes a day, some of which is just spending time with the hens. It gets you out in the garden even in unseasonable weather; that’s actually a good thing, especially since it’s for such a short time.
If you get the set-up wrong, your hens will be killed, no matter where you live. Almost every new hen owner loses their first lot fairly quickly.
The only reason I don’t have any right now is because one of my neighbours hates all animals. When she leaves, I’ll get some again. My other neighbours loved them and there’s an area of my garden that’s no good for anything else. We have a problem with foxes, but they’re more manageable than my neighbour.
And although eggs don’t cost a lot, the convenience of having lots of really fresh eggs was actually handy. Want something for dinner tonight, and don’t have much in? Your cupboard probably has some sort of carb, and combined with eggs, it’s a meal. The silkie eggs were a weird novelty but also tasted amazing - with those, you might actually get your money back.
The hen poop is also excellent fertiliser for the rest of your garden. They might even recoup their money that way. I assume fertiliser is cheap in most areas, but if you have hen poop available, you just reuse it with some of the hay it was in, so it saves you time, which saves money.
If you do get some, a tip: write the dates the eggs were laid on the shells, using a marker pen. You will end up giving a lot of them away and people like to know when things go off.
Hens can be lovable, amazing creatures. They have personalities, and favourite people. They put themselves to bed at night, and cuddle up together. I trained them to go to the coop when I rang a bell if I needed them in the coop before nightfall.
But, after the initial set-up, they were actually less effort than any pet except my cats. Even less effort than my goldfish.
