I think I can afford the lifetime cost. Some of our hens are rescued battery hens as well so I'll take the financial hit for the good karma.

Thanks for this. Appreciate counterbalancing anecdotes of egg farming without butchering.

In the UK, a big sack of feed for chickens costs around £12, and that will feed 15 chickens for a week (roughly). So I could be wasting 80p/week per unproductive chicken.