Where's the money in raising chickens?

[Fidel]

I'm just starting my game and having a hard time making money. It seems like the obvious way to get going is by raising chickens, but they're basically a zero net business because they eat as much in a day as I make from their eggs, sometimes even more.

I thought all chickens would always lay an egg everyday, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I'm getting 7-9 eggs a day from 10 very healthy chickens, which earns me $42-$54 a day. But those 10 chickens are eating $60 worth of grain between them in just over a day. Factor in gas and I'm lucky if I break even. Even if I'm earning any profit at all, it can't be more than a few bucks a day, which makes it impossible to earn enough money to do anything else.

All I've been able to do to earn any money so far is sell lumber and meat, but I want this to be more than just a lumberjack and hunting simulator. What am I doing wrong here and how can I actually make money from chickens?

[Vetter]

How do you make money from chickens?
- Well, you don't.
Once you get a grainary, where the cost of feed goes down and start using the eggs for
cheese and meat production. The eggs will give you an extra $10 - $15 per cheese wheel
or meat product. Until then it's a waste of time, money and energy.
- The big money makers at the beginning of the game are oil derricks and honey.

[RetroACE135]

If you can afford it, buy a female goat, a bunch of lumber to build a trough/water trough and pen, a small bucket and a milk can.

You can get milk from goats twice a day (About 5 units each time), and can fill that can in less than four days with just one goat (milk cans can hold about 42 units). If you buy a male goat to breed with her, then you can get baby goats for "free" (minus feed costs).

If you then buy a portable cooker and a pot, you can then make curd (it takes 4 units of milk to make), which can then be aged into cheese after about a realtime hour by putting it into an aging cabinet (no eggs or mold needed, but they increase sell price when added). For one cheese aging cabinet, you can age six wheels of cheese in one go. You can then sell that cheese for tons of cash compared to the raw milk.

Just one goat can produce enough milk over two days to fill an entire cheese cabinet.

I've been raising goats on my ranch, and they are great little animals.

It also might be worth it to make a few small and large garden plots to help with days that you can't make cheese. You can even have an "open air" garden with no worries of anything eating your stuff. You don't actually need to build the greenhouse to place plots, and I am unsure if the greenhouse gives a bonus to growth time yet or not.

Have fun, and hope this helped!

[Fidel]

Thanks for the tips! I've been using quests to supplement my income in the first few weeks, and I'm finally at the point where I'm breeding enough chickens and pigs that I'm starting to see some profit. But these all seem like great ways to get even more money flowing in.

[martinthomas2009]

honey or oil, but i find honey is alot easier to do. Also we started by buying 2 pigs put them in a large area and just let them go at it, u will have babies galore very quickly, then you can just take adult pigs to the best burger and sell the pork, wether you wait till theres a multiplier for pork or not your money will soon go upwards.