They aren't too expensive. For a good dual-purpose breed, might be a few coppers, for chicks or as much as a silver for pullets raised and just starting to lay. Takes a little less than a year for a pullet to go from hatching to egg-laying - nine to ten months, judging from when mine started to lay. I'm judging from what mine cost as chicks and .. okay, I'm making an educated guess.<br/><br/>A small flock of hens lays a lot of eggs. My five are already laying at least an egg a day, which means I fill an egg carton /very fast/. So, a family might keep five or six hens and a rooster (only one. With that few, you only need one), so they never run out of laying hens and eating roosters. Caponising a rooster, by the way, is really easy, if you know how. And capon is nummy.<br/>.. um. Sorry. I keep chickens IRL. I know a few things. >.><br/>If they have more than six or so, they're probably bartering spare eggs in the summer, and rationing them in the winter when the hens aren't laying as heavily (or at all).<br/><br/>I don't know from pigs, goats and cows, so ... eh. You're on your own.