Chickens – One Step Closer to Nature

If you do it right, the answer will be yes. Backyard chickens wouldn't have become so popular if the pros didn't outweigh the cons. Chickens are pets with benefits! Like owning any animals, there is a learning curve and many common-sense solutions and tips that can make your first year raising chickens and future chicken-keeping adventures a great success. The benefits of raising backyard chickens are vast. Is it worth it to raise backyard chickens? Raising backyard chickens is worth it monetarily and for the earthy experience of raising your own food, enjoying eggs that are superior to factory farmed grocery store eggs, the sheer joy of collecting eggs, the movement and personality chickens bring to your yard, the opportunity to learn and problem solve as your great-great-grandparent farmers would have, the benefit of chicken manure bedding as compost in your garden, the benefit of chickens as compost helpers in your garden during the off-season, eggs to sell or share with neighbors, the increased time you and your children will spend outdoors, and efficient pest and tick-removal from your property. If you sell your extra eggs, you will easily break even on feed, while also enjoying all the non-monetary benefits of raising backyard chickens. All but a few months of the year we have more eggs than we can use. We sell the extra eggs to our neighbors who happily pay us $5 a dozen. I have so many people ask me to buy our eggs that I wish I had more to sell and not for the money, just for the joy it brings people in our neighborhood who come to buy fresh eggs. Regardless of how many chickens we keep, we have found that the extra eggs we sell easily pay for feed and pine shavings for that week. The more chickens we keep, the more feed and bedding we need and also the more extra eggs we have available to sell, and so it has always turned out the same: the extra eggs we sell pay for the feed and bedding, plus we get to enjoy farm fresh eggs every day and the experience of having the chickens in our yard. At certain times of the year (when there's a lot of sunshine) the hens are laying more eggs and also when a new batch of young hens (young female hens are called pullets) begin to lay their first year there is always an over-abundance of eggs to sell. At certain times of the year the surplus of eggs is vast and it's fun to make extra cash from all those egg sales. Many of the benefits of raising backyard chickens are not necessarily monetary, though some of them certainly are After many years of keep backyard chickens, our family does not feel chickens have been a financial burden in any way. What other pet pays its own way each month in egg sales and gives you dozens of other benefits around your property? Chicken manure and bedding help the garden We break even on feed and bedding by selling the extra eggs, and we also have been richly rewarded by recycling the chicken bedding from the coop as compost for our garden. When you keep chickens you will need bedding such as pine shavings to use in your coop. Your chickens will poop on it and eventually you will rake it out and either put it in a pile to age and break down for a while, or if it's the offseason for your garden (fall through early spring), you can simply dump it into the garden to age there. This is what we have done for years and we have a fabulous garden. I used to buy manure and compost for my garden every year, and since owning chickens I no longer have to pay for compost or manure. It is a benefit of owning backyard chickens. Backyard chickens are a richly rewarding hobby, though generally not a lucrative money-making enterprise. We have found that the eggs we sell to a few neighbors each week easily pay for the feed and bedding of our hens, however, it's not usually possible to bring in huge profits because of the limitations of space in a typical backyard setting. If you were to have too many chickens in your yard, it would quickly turn into a barnyard and not feel like a backyard. It is possible to make a lot of money selling eggs if you wanted to buy an acreage and set up a free-range chicken operation to sell eggs, sell free range birds as meat, breed chickens, or sell fertile eggs or chicks, but for most backyard chicken owners, that's not really the point. The benefits of raising chickens in your backyard are more comprehensive than just rolling in the dough from egg sales. It's an opportunity to dip your toe in a new lifestyle - A backyard farmer lifestyle. You get to learn the skills of animal stewardship on a smaller scale than a farmer, and the chickens add so much to the dynamic of your yard. Egg sales are only going to bring in an extra amount of money that would be really exciting for one of your kids, but not an amount that is super profitable to you. It is just a fun benefit along with all the other joys of keeping chickens. How much money do I make from my backyard chicken egg sales? Depending on the time of year I sell between 2 dozen and 7 dozen eggs a week for $5 a dozen, so between $10 and $35 a week, which is $40 to $140 a month selling my extra eggs from a cooler in my front yard, depending on the time of year (hens lay less eggs during the winter). A bag of feed is an average of $15 and a bale of pine shavings to use as bedding is about $5. I use about two bags of feed a month and two bales of pine shavings, so about $40 total. So I always break even, and some months I even make a little money. How many pets can. you say the about? I think it is really fun. But not a lucrative enterprise, like I said. Yet I still firmly stand by the affirmative that backyard chickens are worth it. Raising your own food and getting in touch with nature Besides having a garden, keeping chickens is one of the first experiences many of us everyday people (not farmers) have with raising our own food. There is something so inherently satisfying when we take steps in our lives to bring us back into line with nature. It feels so right to let the chickens out early in the morning, collect beautiful eggs in the afternoon, and using chicken manure to compost your garden. We have become so distanced from our food chain that we are truly out of touch with how nature works. You get reconnected with the circle of life in a hurry as you raise baby chicks yourself or delightfully observe a brooding hen hatch and care for tiny fluffy chicks. You learn the facts of life about roosters and make hard decisions about aging or sick chickens. You realize that the the things that chickens eat matter and that the way they are raised determines the health, quality and taste of your food. Beautiful Chicken Breeds No longer do chicken owners just have a flock of just Rhode Island Reds laying brown eggs or White Leghorns laying white eggs. Chicken keepers today have access to hundreds of beautiful chicken breeds with striking feather patterns, unique personality traits, and that lay a myriad of beautiful and uniquely colored eggs. The chickens are living art and you will find yourself collecting them like kids collecting Pokemon cards. Each spring when you get the urge to order baby chicks to add to your flock you will find yourself on My Pet Chicken's website browsing through the beautiful chicken breed. I am amazed that every breed has different mannerisms and every hen a delightfully different personality. Chicken Math "Chicken math" refers to a chicken keeper's phenomenon - the urge to collect more chickens. Why do you think chicken keepers would want to keep getting more chickens? Because they are a joy. Because they are "worth it!" We have found this chicken math to be real! We love getting new breeds of baby chick to add to our flock in the early springtime. Read to the end of the article to learn about how to order chicks the right way so you don't end up with too many roosters. (Troubleshooting tips to ensure a happy successful first year raising chickens make up the second half of this blog post). Fresh Eggs, beautiful eggs... Fresh eggs are truly a delight. If you forget about all the other benefits of raising chickens, this alone makes it 100% worth it for me. Not only are they more nutritious but they taste so much better than any eggs you can get from the store. Even the so-called farm-raised eggs from the store are nowhere near as fresh as the ones you collected from your coop this morning. It's nice knowing what the chickens were fed and how they lived. I feel like my hens have a great life and I enjoy the eggs as much now as the first day. Not only are fresh eggs delicious, but they are also beautiful! Shades of creamy white, tan and chocolate brown; blueish-greens and olive ...never has this rainbow of egg color options been as available to backyard chicken keepers as it is now. I have fallen in love with not only colorful eggs but also egg baskets and holders! I love the wire and wicker antique egg baskets I have found at antique shops and estate sales and I have an impressive assortment of nifty egg-holding and carrying devices. They all make me smile and take me back in time to when everyday life was filled with simpler things needed for everyday tasks such as collecting eggs. (I'll have to write more about my baskets and treasures and share some pictures of them another time! Pure joy!) The joy of collecting eggs never gets old It feels like finding buried treasure in your back yard every time you reach your hand into a nest box to collect eggs. After many years of chicken keeping it is my 11-year-old son's job to collect the eggs from the coop after school, and lock the chickens up at night, and he never complains about it. Occasionally I sneak out and collect the eggs before he does just because it's so fun to gather eggs and carry them back to the house. Be creative to minimize upfront costs Baby chicks only cost a few dollars generally, more for some fancy breads, so in that sense chickens themselves don't cost much. But of course, there are upfront costs to getting started with chickens, such as buying or building a coop or ...very easily turning a backyard structure you already have into a coop, as we did. We turned one of our old sheds into a spacious coop with only the addition of a roost made by a few 2x4s, a chicken ladder to the window, hardware cloths across the existing windows, and a few nest boxes made out of things we already owned around our house. It was surprisingly easy to make a spacious high-quality chicken coop. Besides sleeping in the coop at night and lay eggs in during the day, your chickens need someplace to meander about during the day and scratch for bugs (a hilarious thing to watch, even years later the comedy hasn't dimmed for me at all). Some people let their chickens free-range, some build a chicken run, and some use chicken tunnels. We use chicken tunnels that we built to channel our hens around the entire perimeter of our yard. The tunnels even lead the hens to the garden seven months of the year where they kindly rid the garden of plant waste and pests. The bedding that we throw in the garden from the coop, in addition to their manure and some grass clippings, turns into compost and adds nutrients and organic matter to the soil. This great setup has enabled me to have the most productive garden in the neighborhood. So I also get to sell organic veggies next to my egg cooler. Learning and Growing = Solving Problems The growing pains of raising chickens are still part of the benefit too. Learning what to do with sick chickens, too many roosters, and how to keep your hens safe are all part of the learning curve of keeping chickens, but also are part of the adventure of being a part-time farmer. Most of us will never make the jump to living on a real farm, though many of us have at one point in time or another dreamed about it, and raising chickens in the backyard can satisfy that desire for the majority of us. The experience of taking care of any animal is eye-opening and there are real lessons to learn and even sometimes growing pains involved as we learn and problem solve and adjust things. This is a good thing. It keeps us grounded and increases our appreciation for the hard work and sacrifice it takes to raise animals and food on a larger scale. It helps us put a higher value on food raised the right way and we may find ourselves thinking the food at the farmers market is worth maybe even a higher value then what they are charging! Now that we know all that is involved in the lifestyle of growing and raising sustainable sources of food our perspective matures and we put a higher value on local and sustainably grown food. After a few years of chicken keeping the question, "is it worth it to keep chickens?" has changed in context for me. It's no longer a question that is simply asking "can I make money or save money from raising chickens in my backyard?" to more of a comprehensive list of why someone would want to keep chickens and what is good and hard about it. In our family, we see it as part of a whole lifestyle that may or may not be desirable to a certain person, and the question has more of a holistic base to it now. SO, IS IT REALLY WORTH IT TO KEEP BACKYARD CHICKENS? The answer is definitely a YES! Is everything about keeping backyard chickens easy? Now that is just plain silly! Is everything about getting a puppy easy? Is cleaning a fish tank enjoyable? Do you like scooping kitty litter? Every pet and animal is going to have some work involved and some less pleasant aspects to consider. The people who love dogs feel the joys of having a dog outweigh the trials of the puppy stage and other challenges that can come from owning a dog. It is no different with chickens. While keeping chickens is generally quite easy, there are some challenges to raising chickens that you will need to solve, and just like with any animal you own, there is some problem-solving needed and hard things to deal with from time to time. Would I still recommend keeping chickens after dealing with the good and the bad of chicken keeping year after year? Absolutely! In fact, I find that the longer we have had the chickens the more I have learned and it gets easier and easier the more we know. Many problems get solved as we learn and change our set up and once we have dealt with a problem once, we have the knowledge in the future if we face a similar problem again. The Pros Outweigh the Cons and People Love Their Chickens The funny thing to me, and what inspired me to write this blog post in the first place, is that the few naysayers that write articles about keeping chickens not being worth it STILL KEEP CHICKENS! Now, why are they still keeping chickens if it's not worth it? ...the truth is that it IS WORTH IT to them, they just would rather write about the negative aspects. They have chickens and have had them for years, yet are trying to scare new chicken keepers away from it by telling them only the parts that can be challenging. This gets more clicks on their webpage title so they write negative headlines. There are challenges to having a puppy, a pet fish, or any other animal. Chickens are domesticated farm animals. They have evolved to be dependent on humans and they really do interact with their owners in a rewarding way, much like any other pet. I call to my chickens and they come running across the yard to see what treat I have to share. The care of chickens is really interesting and does require experimentation and problem-solving in your backyard space. I have found the problem-solving process to be rewarding and would love to share our chicken-keeping solutions to help other would-be backyard chicken keepers have a fair knowledge of what some of the obstacles of chicken keeping may be and what some of the many possible solutions to those obstacles might look like. Some of the reasons the naysayers may give for scaring you away from keep chickens include: chicken poopyard damagerodentssick chickensroostersPredators I'll share our family's easy solutions to all of these obstacles. These problems are only intimidating if you don't have an idea of what the options are to avoid them for the most part. We have faced and solved all the above issues fairly easily. Common sense is a valuable asset! Chicken Poop - use it to your benefit If you keep chickens in a chicken run, they will poop in the chicken run. If you keep your chickens on your lawn, they will poop on your lawn. Chickens poop a lot and this is truly shocking to all of us the first time we realize just how much they poop. Now, remember, this can be an asset if used properly. And if you have a large yard you may not mind the chicken poop. For me, perpetual poop in the yard was a problem, but we figured out a solution. We started out letting our chickens roam the yard because we wanted free-range chickens. It went great for a while. It was spring and the chickens were eating the ticks and other bugs and we truly enjoyed them wandering around and scratching for bugs in the yard. It is surprisingly enjoyable to watch chickens explore and scratch for food. But after a few months we, like all first-time chicken owners, were shocked at the amount of chicken poop in the yard. Because we have three young boys that also play in the yard, the poop was an issue. Yet we didn't want to build a chicken run that would take up our yard space and prevent the chickens from wandering and scratching for food, though if you have the space, a large run would solve this problem. I researched our options and discovered the delightful invention of chicken tunnels. Chicken tunnels are like long chicken runs that channel your chickens only to the parts of the yard you want them in. We built easy to make chicken tunnels that run right along the fence line of our property, giving the chickens extra room under the trees and channeling them into our garden during the offseason. Having the tunnels along the fence line is visually pleasing and most people who come into our yard don't notice the tunnels until we point them out. It is pure genius. Whoever invented chicken tunnels in a genius. Every backyard chicken keeper should thank them! The chickens get tons of exercise, dig for worms all day, satisfy their curiosity by having many places to go, and the chicken poop stays in the tunnels along the fence line. The chickens can be channeled into the garden during the offseason. A bonus is that the chickens eat all the weed along the fence so we don't have to weed trim. They are our built in weed trimmers. Chickens can be an asset to your lawn if you use moderation For a few weeks during the spring and fall, we do have our chicken's free-range in the yard. It is great for bug control as they eat up all the ticks, to fertilize the grass, and their feet aerate the lawn as they peck and scratch for bugs. We call the tunnels and the process of letting them out at certain times "limited free-range". The combination of the chicken tunnels and the visits to the lawn in the spring and fall has been a very satisfactory answer to the chicken poop problem. Also when we see rain is in the forecast, we let them roam the yard for a day or two because we know a heavy rain will wash away all the chicken poop and it won't build up on the lawn. It is the perfect balance for sharing your backyard with your chickens. The lawn is preserved, yet gets max benefit from the chickens, and the chickens get all the benefits of free-range with the added protection of the tunnels from hawks and other daytime predators and nuisances such as dogs and kids chasing them. I was surprised that my chickens love the chicken tunnels. Really. It's funny and very surprising. On days when I let them in the yard, if I leave the tunnels open as well many will voluntarily wander back into the tunnels. I think they like the sense of security and having their own turf. The tunnels were easy to make and worth every penny. The joy extends to my neighbors who get to see the chickens wander up and down the fence line and enjoy tossing them spent items from their gardens. Chicken tunnels are one great solution to chicken poop in your yard. If you have a coop like ours that you actually walk inside to collect the eggs you are going to want chicken boots to wear inside to protect your normal shoes. We also just keep a great little boot scraper by our back door. The best one I've found to keep your shoes and boots clean with chickens is this coil boot scraper. I'll try to come back and post a picture of ours. Easy Chicken Tunnels I'll try to take some photos and add an in-depth how-to post on our chicken tunnels. The essence is we buy a roll of welded wire fencing (I buy it at Tractor Supply and like the Redbrand the best, though I've used others) at least 48 inches tall and however long of a stretch you need (25 ft, 50 ft or 100 ft depending on the size of your yard). Roll the wire out, using cinderblocks to hold it open while you cut the wire in the length you need for one stretch of tunnel. After you use wire-cutters to cut the right length, you stand on the wire and use your feet to stand where you want to bend the wire up one-third of the height and use your hands to pull the wire up towards you. You've now created on side of the tunnel. Then you do it on the other third and now you have formed a three-sided tunnel. Flip it over and then use garden staples and a hammer to attach the tunnels to the ground. (If you have no idea what a garden staple is, this is the 12" ones I use and if the soil is rocky in certain areas of the yard, I use these 6" ones. I always try to put a 12" one in the ground first and only use a 6" if I hit rocks.) You can use the tunnels to channel the chickens anywhere in the yard you want them. If you have an area of the yard you don't use, you can use that area as a chicken run and use the tunnels to get your hens from their coop to that part of the yard. Easy Rodent Prevention If you throw chicken feed all over the ground or use feeders that spill feed into your coop or yard, you will attract rodents. There is an easy solution: No-spill feeders. We learned that by using no-spill feeders we have had zero rodent problems. We invested in these awesome no-spill feeders that are designed for the chickens to stick their head inside to eat. They don't let any feed get wasted. Maybe that is why our feed doesn't cost us very much. There is no waste so we don't go through it very quickly. Many chicken owners use a trough stye feeder and there is a lot of waste because chickens tend to scratch the food out of the trough style feeders and it ends up all over the ground. This wastes feed and attracts rodents. We also use a chicken-waterer made by the same company. It keeps the coop dry, the water clean, the chickens healthy, and we don't have to refill it very often. If you want to throw kitchen scraps to the chickens, do it early in the day so they have time to finish them before evening and never throw it in their coop. Throw scraps in the chicken run, tunnel, garden, or yard, depending on where your chickens spend their days roaming. Avoid throwing scraps out in the evening, and I repeat, never in the chicken coop. Keep your chicken feed in metal cans with metal lids. Never throw chicken treats or chicken food on the floor of your coop. The no-spill feeders and a clean and secure coop go a long way to preventing any rodent problems. Rodents aren't attracted to chickens, just easy access to food. Avoiding Sick Chickens There are some major things you can do to avoid sick chickens such as: Start your flock by buying baby chickens from a certified hatchery. You will begin with healthy chickens. keep a clean dry coop never ever bring new chickens into your flock except for baby chicks that are from a certified hatchery (avoid getting chickens on craigslist or taking one from a friend or neighbor). Chickens get a flock immunity and bringing in outsiders usually results in sickness and problems that they quickly share with the rest of your flock. Just say no. buy quality chicken feed and invest in feeders that keep your coop clean and dryI'm just going to say it one more time...coop security. Don't use old coops from craigslist or old nest boxes someone gives you. 90% of chicken issues can be avoided if you buy certified chickens and don't bring in chicken issues from other places. Sometimes chickens get sick or old and you are going to learn about the circle of life. Losing your first chicken is sad but after that first loss, you realize that it is very natural and that your bird had a very good life for a chicken! You wrap it up in a bag and put it in your dumpster just as you would meat from your grocery store. No big deal. Well, it does feel like a big deal the first time, but you will grow in a way that your great-great-grandparents would be proud of you for. You can do hard things and once you've done them they become easier. A great resource if you ever do have a sick chicken is a website called backyardchickens.com. It is full of forums and questions and answers by experienced chicken keepers who are friendly and helpful and know absolutely everything you could ever want to know about caring for chickens. It's like having a thousand helpful neighbors all willing you help you out with your new hobby. Roosters You don't need a rooster in your flock for your hens to lay eggs. I just wanted to clear that up right away in case you didn't know. Hens lay eggs regardless of the presence or actions of a rooster. In fact, I suggest backyard chicken owners to just keep hens in most situations. Hens are quiet and docile, perfect for the backyard setting. If you have a property with a lot of privacy and space you may enjoy keeping a rooster eventually and having fertilized eggs you can hatch if you get really into raising chickens. Otherwise, most of us backyard chicken people are just wanting to enjoy fresh eggs and the peaceful clucks of hens bumbling around the yard. Roosters can be a problem for those keeping backyard chicken keepers if they don't use some common sense. Roosters can be a noise problem if you have neighbors close by and they may be against the zoning ordinances in your area. Hens are almost always allowed these days. If you do keep a rooster so you can have fertile eggs, you can end up with too many roosters if you are not wise. Roosters don't generally get along with other roosters once they are mature, so you have to have a plan for what to do with the extra roosters. For some people, it's a no brainer, and for other people, it's a big problem. At certain times of the year sites like craigslist can be flooded with those wanting to get rid of extra roosters, yet a flock owner only needs one or maybe two roosters, so unless someone is going to eat the extra roosters there is just a fact of life that most extra roosters are killed. Many people kill their extra roosters themselves or give them to someone who will use them for meat, but for those who didn't grow up on real farms or with this skill or mentality, this can be something we aren't capable of, especially in the beginning. It's easy to avoid this problem. If you buy "straight run" chicks (which means they can be either sex) you will end up with more roosters than you want, so always buy "sexed" chicks or "pullets" (young female chickens). This means you are buying chicks that you know are hens. Also, remember, if you buy fertile eggs and hatch your own chicks, they will also be "straight run" and you will end up with any number of roosters. The easiest way for those keeping backyard chickens to avoid unwanted roosters is to either order your chicks on mypetchicken.com or other reputable online hatcheries or to buy sexed chicks from your local feed store. Some places even take back roosters in case of an error. Avoid the temptation to hatch fertile eggs under a broody hen unless you have a plan for what you will do with extra roosters. Always avoid picking up straight run chicks from craigslist. Just don't, for many reasons. They are not certified disease-free and can bring problems to your coop such as mites or lice. Just get your chicks from the right place and get sexed chicks and you will not have any headaches. If you do occasionally end up with a rooster you don't want, you can likely give it away on craigslist. Just don't get in the habit of thinking you can hatch eggs and give all your extra roosters away. This is generally frowned upon. A common belief is if you're going to breed chickens you need to be responsible and prepared to cull the extra roosters yourself. If this isn't you, as it isn't most backyard chicken folks, just stick with hens. Easy answer! Like I said, common sense solves most problems. Predators This problem can be 99% solved by one simple action implemented from the beginning: Use hardware cloth and never chicken wire. This is the hardware cloth we used. (I ordered it on amazon because I could get a big roll of it and my Tractor Supply only carried small rolls. You're going to use it a lot and be happy to have it so just get a big roll upfront.) I did get the rest of my fencing and feed at Tractor Supply though, such as the welded-wire fencing for my chicken tunnels. I have not idea who invented chicken wire but shame on them for such a misleading name. Chicken wire is great for keeping chickens where you want them, but is completely ineffective at keeping chickens safe from predators. Never use chicken wire on any portion of your chicken coop, chicken run, chicken fencing or chicken tunnels. You can almost rip chicken wire apart with your bare hands. It rusts away and the welds break with the contact of a little dirt or water over time. Hardware cloth, on the other hand, is 99.99% effective at keeping your chickens safe. Backyard chickens are worth it! As you can see, for every naysayer's negative comment against backyard chickens there is a commonsense solution. I learned from experience, by making my own mistakes, but you can learn from my backyard chicken experiences and have great success in your chicken-keeping adventures! My family has loved having backyard chickens. They have brought us a lot of enjoyment in addition to the healthy yummy eggs. The experience has helped my children as well as myself grow in understanding of what is involved in sustainable food systems and helped connect us to our food and to Mother Nature. It has been "worth it" in every sense. Even the so-called negatives of chicken keeping have become positives as we have grown in understanding, maturity, and problem-solving abilities. Not only all that, but chickens have also helped my family take one step closer to nature. We spend more time outside because of the chickens. They add movement and personality to our yard. They are beautiful and they are entertaining. They make us laugh and sometimes shake our heads. We go outside to let the chickens into their tunnels in the morning, collect eggs in the afternoon and walk out together at night to lock the coop up safe and sound. Backyard chickens let us have a taste of farm life! We got the experience of raising our own food without buying a farm. They enabled us to feed our family healthy, sustainably produced food. So to answer your original question: Yes! Backyard chickens are worth it! Wishing you an exciting future of backyard chicken keeping adventures! -MJ