We enjoy our chickens immensely. Even though I grew up in the country and my family always had chickens, my husband and I never had any until about a year ago. We "inherited" 8 beautiful red birds from a relative, along with a small coop and run. Sadly, our dogs were really good chicken-killers. We had enjoyed the chickens so much, though, that we got rid of the dogs and got more chickens (along with a chicken-friendly pooch.)
We currently have a flock of 17 hens and one rooster. Two of our hens are setting and we should have some baby chicks in the next couple of weeks. (And by the way, you don't need a rooster to have eggs. Hens will lay eggs even with no rooster around. You do, however, need a rooster if you want your eggs to hatch into baby chicks. :) Just throwing that in because it is a common misconception that hens won't lay if they don't have a rooster.....)
Here are my 10 reasons for keeping chickens:
- It's fun.
While I don't personally consider our chickens to be pets, they are really fun livestock. We do have a favorite hen. She is the buff orpington (one of the yellow ones) that has no toenails on her middle toes. :)
My girls take great delight in catching grasshoppers to feed to the chickens. They also enjoy letting them out of their pen to chase grasshoppers around the yard. And chickens are amazingly easy to herd back to the pen. And if we turn them out late enough in the afternoon, we don't have to herd them, since they always return to the coop at dusk.
My girls take great delight in catching grasshoppers to feed to the chickens. They also enjoy letting them out of their pen to chase grasshoppers around the yard. And chickens are amazingly easy to herd back to the pen. And if we turn them out late enough in the afternoon, we don't have to herd them, since they always return to the coop at dusk.
- It's easy.
Really. It is. We only spend about 15 minutes most days caring for the chickens and bringing in the eggs. (Except those times when I escape to visit the chicken pen for some quiet moments alone. :) Unless I'm spotted by a child or two I may spend quite some lengthy time there all alone just talkin' to the hens. It's usually a very one-sided conversation.)
Actually, once you have your set-up, it really is easy. There is the initial time and money investment of building them a shelter and pen, but once that is done, the maintenance is minimal.
- It's educational.
Our kids have learned a lot by having chickens. Not only about chickens, but about all sorts of things. We learned to build a fence and to build the roof on our dog-kennel-turned chicken coop. We also learned what J-clips are (very useful little things!) and that chicken wire is NOT fun to work with!
- It can be done almost anywhere.
We live in a rural area and have plenty of space for lots of chickens. But you can have chickens even if you only have a small backyard. You have to check your local laws (some cities don't allow chickens; some only allow a certain number of hens) to be sure you are in compliance. There are many different ways to approach it. Just a couple of hens can provide you with a dozen eggs a week. You can find LOTS of information and coop designs on Backyard Chickens.
- It can be done fairly inexpensively.
Once you have the initial investment of a pen or run of some sort and a chicken coop for shelter (and of course, the birds themselves), you really only have the cost of chicken feed. I don't think we are actually saving a ton of money by not buying eggs since we now have to buy chicken feed, but the experiences our family has had and the enjoyment we get out of owning chickens certainly makes it worth it! Plus, my daughters really enjoy selling eggs to their grandmother which allows them to have a little spending money of their own! :)
- It teaches kids responsibility.
My children are learning to care for living creatures.
- Eggs, eggs, eggs.
I typically get 8-12 eggs per day from my 17 hens. It is enough that we almost never run out of eggs and my girls sell 1-2 dozen per week.
And if you've never had a farm-fresh egg, you really don't know what you are missing. They are so much yummier than store-bought eggs! The yolk is rich and golden. MMMM.
And if you've never had a farm-fresh egg, you really don't know what you are missing. They are so much yummier than store-bought eggs! The yolk is rich and golden. MMMM.
- Surprises
And sometimes you get a surprise in the nest box!
That top egg is a whopper! I found it just a couple of days ago. The middle one is a normal "medium" egg. The bottom is a bantam egg. I usually get 1 or 2 of those a day from our 3 bantam hens. But the top one is something that only shows up occasionally. Notice how much it sticks up in the egg carton! I'm guessing this one is a double-yolker! :)
- Baby chicks are cute.
- Life-cycle learning.
But it's not always fun. We lost our cute little baby chicks after just a week. To this guy.
He had eaten lots of eggs and 3 baby chicks. But I couldn't seem to find him. I'd been told that ceramic eggs would kill a snake because they eat the eggs and then can't digest them. He ate 2 ceramic eggs the night he got the chicks. Well, the eggs didn't kill him. But he did spit them out of his nest, leaving a tell-tale sign pointing us to him. His reign of terror is over. The kids have learned that loss is part of keeping livestock. They have learned that part of keeping livestock is protecting them as best we can from predators.
Overall, we LOVE having chickens. Perhaps you'd like to have some too?
Here are some books that might help get you started.
