Ten Reasons to Keep Backyard Chickens

Ten Reasons to Keep Backyard Chickens

10. To broaden your culinary arsenal.

Letโ€™s face it, when you have a flock of chickens, youโ€™re rollinโ€™ in the eggs. Take me, for example. I have flock of 14 hens. In a typical day, oneโ€™s broody, oneโ€™s molting, and a couple of others are otherwise takinโ€™ the day off. Iโ€™m still collecting about ten eggs per day. Thatโ€™s a heck of a lot of eggs for a family of two to work with. So in the past year, Iโ€™ve done the following: scramble eggs, fry eggs, poach eggs, four-minute eggs, whip eggs, coddle eggs, quiche eggs, six-minute eggs, soufflรฉ eggs, freeze eggs, temper eggsโ€ฆ you get the point. I promise you, I wouldnโ€™t have mastered the five-minute #unprocessed hollandaise sauce if I didnโ€™t have my chickens. With your own flock, you too, can be master of the egg.

Soufflรฉ

9. To eat fresh food.

So to reiterate: commercially packaged chicken eggs are already 3-4 weeks old by the time you buy them. Then think about how long they sit in your fridge before you actually eat them. Tip: Check for a three-digit number printed on the side of your commercially packaged carton. That number corresponds to the calendar day that the eggs were collected. 001 = January 1, 002 = January 2, and so on. Do a Google search to see what day that number corresponds to, then determine how โ€œfreshโ€ your eggs really are. In summary, backyard chicken eggs are the freshest eggs youโ€™ll ever get your hands on.

8. To flex your entrepreneurial skills.

So maybe you donโ€™t have the time or desire to make 1,001 things with chicken eggsโ€ฆ So how โ€˜bout makinโ€™ some money with your surplus?! When I started out, the goal was to have three chickens. I wonโ€™t tell you how I got to fourteen (#chickenmathfail), but thatโ€™s how many Iโ€˜ve got, so at the end of every week, I usually have about five dozen eggs. Keeping one dozen for myself, I still have four dozen eggs to offload. Then I tell everyone I know that the eggs they bought from the market are likely already a month old (See also: To eat fresh food). After I let them process the surprise, I slide into my sales pitch: โ€œYou can buy my pastured, free range, not to mention FRESH!!! and colorful chicken eggs for just $5/dozen. I collected them this morning. All proceeds go towards feeding and housing the ladies.โ€ Then I mention my eggs are cheaper than Whole Foods. BOOM, sale! Done. And as of today, $190 cash in the basket.

Dozen Eggs

7. To supplement your doggieโ€™s diet.

If you have a dog, and youโ€™re all crazy-balls over her diet like I am with mine, youโ€™ll want to save your eggshells. And if you keep chickens, youโ€™ll have lots. Toast the eggshells in the oven, grind them down, then add a tablespoon to Fidoโ€™s #unprocessed dinner, and KA-POW! Your dog has all the calcium she needs for strong, healthy bones. Then experiment on how to make dog treats using eggshell powder. Or, ask me for the recipe. (See also: broadening culinary arsenal).

6. To give your kids responsibility.

In my kingdom, itโ€™s never too early to teach a kid about responsibility, and egg collection is a wonderful daily (or twice daily) chore. Should you choose to pay your kid five, or even ten cents an egg, youโ€™ll still come out ahead. Want to dish out more responsibility? Teach โ€˜em about gardening. Get together to fill some empty eggshells… Add soil, plant seeds, give them some water, and watch something grow.

Chicken Egg Crafts

5. To fuel your compost bin.

If you compost, you know you need poop. Lots and lots of poop. Most people get it by buying bags of cow poop, but if you have chickensโ€ฆ guess what?! They poop! They poop a lotโ€ฆ So all you gotta do is scoop it up and add it to your pile. Done, BAM, ecology at its finest.

4. To cure you of the blues.

The next time you have a bad day, go outside and pull up a stool. Then just watch your chickens for a bit. Better, stick an iPhone in their faces and watch them ham it up for the camera. At my house, observing the fluffy butts is called โ€œchicken tee-vee.โ€ An episode of just 10-15 minutes is enough to free me from all of my woes. Bonus: itโ€™s cheaper than cable and available all day. Unfortunately, DVR doesnโ€™t work here.

Chicken TV!

3. To source your own protein.

An average-sized egg contains about 6 grams of protein. Wouldnโ€™t it be awesome if you could get this out of your own backyard? And if you also have a produce garden, think of the combinations and permutations of food ingredients you could put together to make something edible. Then challenge yourself to see what you come up with (See also: broadening culinary arsenal), and take pride in knowing just how much youโ€™ve reduced your grocery bill.

2. To cut back on your landscaping expenses.

Chickens spend all day pecking and scratchingโ€ฆ pecking and scratching. In the process, they have a magical ability to eradicate any garden of the peskiest weeds. So give your gardener a day off, and put your chickens to work. In just a short amount of time, your weedy patch will become a barren brownscape. When youโ€™re ready to re-plant, skip the dirt turning and the fertilizing; the chickens will have done all that already. Bonus: the extra chlorophyll in their diet (from eating all the greens) will turn your egg yolks from medium yellow to dark orange.

First two backyard chicken eggs

1. To be the coolest kid on the block.

Itโ€™s true. Once youโ€™re in the club, youโ€™ll be everyoneโ€™s best friend. Long-lost family members will show up on your doorstep, friends will surface from the shadows, neighbors will lurk over their fences. And everyone will ask the same question: Can we have some chicken eggs?! (See also: flex your entrepreneurial skills.) Feel free to impress everyone with all of your chicken-keeping trivia. Did you know that a chickenโ€™s earlobes determined their eggshell color? Red lobes = brown eggs. White lobes = white eggs. Blue lobes = blue eggs. Or that Roosters are so chivalrous that they stand-by at feeding time to let the ladies eat first, or that theyโ€™ll throw their bodies down over a hen to protect her when a hawk is flying overhead? Did you know you could even clicker-train a chicken to recognize shapes and colors? Or how about the fact that their pecking order is so well-established that they roost in the same spot, every single night?

Finally, let me reiterate that chickens are all-around awesome to keep around the yard. Want some eggs?! Iโ€™ll be happy to sell them to ya for $5/dozen. You should know that they were collected this morning.

Morning Eggs

Want more chicken fun? Check out this guest post from the 2010 challenge: Backyard Chickens Have the Good Life.

About the Author

Kim Burnell is a Southern California-based event hostess, recipe developer (and curator), edible-garden keeper, and backyard-chicken warrior at theย Rustic Garden Bistro. In between hosting cookbook/author launch parties, supper club dinners, and living room jazz concerts, Kim blogs about her latest recipe triumphs, gardening gems, and fourteen chickens. Behind the scenes, sheโ€™s scouting properties to run a Bed and Breakfast, complete with a gourmet brunch, cozy bistro, edible landscaping andโ€ฆ backyard chickens! Connect with Kim onย Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.

A photo of Andrew Wilder leaning into the frame and smiling, hovering over mixing bowls in the kitchen.

Welcome to Eating Rules!

Hi! My name is Andrew Wilder, and I think healthy eating doesnโ€™t have to suck. With just three simple eating rules, we'll kickstart your journey into the delicious and vibrant world of unprocessed food.

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October 31, 2012 6:52 pm

I just wrote about our fall chicken harvest, in case anyone is interested in what happens …later to the hens.

http://www.simplebites.net/our-fall-chicken-harvest-boo-contains-real-life-farm-to-table-images/

Laurah Graham
Reply to  Aimee @ Simple Bites
November 8, 2012 6:46 am

There are far more humane ways to deal with harvesting chickens. The pictures of the little bitty house and the men smiling while they hold them by their legs before killing them makes me sick…let alone the thought that someone actually SLEEPS with either of them.

t
Reply to  Aimee @ Simple Bites
January 27, 2013 6:24 am

Absolutely disgusting !

Aimee your post is absolutely disgusting !

How evil can people be ? What is there to smile about slaughtering living beings who have been supplying you with food for months.

Unbelievable !

Kelsie
Reply to  t
February 1, 2013 1:44 pm

When your starving and have no way of obtaining any food you’ll be glad if you have a chicken cow or pig to harvest.

Susi
Reply to  Aimee @ Simple Bites
April 14, 2013 10:20 am

Aimee we just started our chicken journey and this was very informative thank you.

SDR
Reply to  Aimee @ Simple Bites
April 7, 2014 4:52 am

Awesome article Aimee. We all need to understand where our food comes from. Those chickens lived a much richer, more comfortable life than many do in large scale farms. Holding them by their feet does not hurt them. A very quick end (as opposed to some agribusiness methods which are much more slow and painful) is a blessing. We have to stop knee jerking with our emotions and instead say “Ok, now let’s look at this rationally. Where did I think meat came from? The chicken dies, but everything dies. The chicken had a great life of being pampered by a human. The chicken died super quickly and did not realize a thing. They did not die by disease or more cruel methods of harvesting.” I understand that some people are extremely tenderhearted, but other people are practical and understand where meat comes from. They are brave enough to take… Read more ยป

Tanya
October 29, 2012 8:57 pm

Can I have your dog treat recipe, please? =)

And thanks for the awesome post!

Chicks on DL
October 28, 2012 9:30 am

We have four hens on a residential 70×100 lot. We have plenty of eggs and they make less noise than the neighbouring dogs. We installed an auto door so we don’t have to let them out or lock them in at night. If we are out of town, my Dad comes by once a day to check food and water for the chickens and our cat. I think he likes them as much as we do! It helps that we always keep him supplied with eggs. The four hens give us 18-20 eggs a week.

Tammy
October 27, 2012 9:39 pm

We currently live in an suburban area, not really an ideal situation for chickens, but in a fews years we would like to find a place with a little land. I like the idea of keeping a few chickens for eggs. I have a couple of questions. How much does it cost to feed your 14 chickens and do they need a rooster around to be kept happy or is that only if you want baby chicks?

October 26, 2012 7:43 am

Hey Kim – So great to meet you this week! Guaranteed our ‘hood wouldn’t allow it but if I lived closer to you, I’d buy a dozen from you every week. We love eggs in our house – check out my #unprocessed post – you’ll see ๐Ÿ™‚

My favorite of the top 10, by the way, is for sure the chicken tee-vee.

By the way, we do have wild turkeys roaming our neighborhood – my dog loves to bark at them and they also make for great tee vee, but no nutrition.

October 19, 2012 6:26 pm

We have three chickens and I’m totally in love with them. I LOVE that you added that watching them makes a person feel better because it totally does. I tell people all the time that my chickens bring me peace ๐Ÿ™‚

We have always had ants coming under our sliding patio door and this year…no ants! The chickens hang out on the back patio a lot and they took care of the ants for us. So I guess that’s #11 ๐Ÿ™‚

Sincerely,
A fellow chicken fan

October 19, 2012 6:02 pm

Wonderful post and beautiful pictures! I especially like the seedlings growing in the eggshells ๐Ÿ™‚

Donette
October 19, 2012 9:37 am

We just moved out of town and have 7.5 acres that we would love to include chickens. Do you have a book that you would suggest to get started? We need all the help we can get!

Julie V.
October 18, 2012 2:49 pm

Friends of ours recently moved to Ohio this year to try out the farming lifestyle, and he recently acquired four hens. My mom always wanted chickens, and I’ve brought up the subject once or twice with my husband. One of my questions, though, is how do you care for them when the weather gets cold? We live in East TN, so winters aren’t too bad, but we did have a fairly big snow (for us!) in 2011. I’ve enjoyed reading your 10 reasons, and I think it would be amazing to have fresh eggs, and natural fertilizer, and something fun to do with our son! Plus, there’s a place just up the road from us that sells these cute chicken coups, complete with a little front porch, so we’d be able to get a little place for them. Thanks for the info!

griner
Reply to  Julie V.
October 15, 2014 6:19 am

I live just across in WNC (east TN, 30 minute mountain roads drive)…I have had other breeds, but now stick with Barred Plymouth Rock….provide them plenty of space protected…put up plastic sheeting to cut wind and wet, last winter got down to -8 degrees, weeks below 10 degrees, they did fine.

Shannon T.
October 18, 2012 1:39 pm

We have 6 girls in the backyard and just love them. They are interesting, and funny. Collecting fresh eggs everyday is really a blessing, and they do a fantastic job of keeping the spider population down!