Chicks retail at Tractor Supply for $4 for most breeds, with 6 chick minimums (at least where I'm at). That yields a minimum order of 6 chicks for $24.
The major costs of getting chickens are a coop, and if you're in a place with bears, an electric fence to keep the bears from destroying your coop and eating the chickens contained therein.
You might get lucky for a couple of years (we did), but now we have two fewer chickens and a cock-a-doodle-gulag around our coop.
If you don't already own a hatchet, you may as well get one up front. At some point you're bound to have to put one out of its misery. You may as well not make it wait while you make a trip to the hardware store.
The principle of "buy once, cry once" definitely applies to chicken feeders and waterers. The feeders that hold around 30 pounds of feed are vastly superior to the smaller ones and are worth the investment. The waterers that hold a 5 of gallons and fill via a screw top are similarly superior.
Also: chickens shit everywhere. Forget about carefree gambols through your yard once you have chickens.
