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jacquez45:
vassraptor:
mysevenkids:
penfairy:
a small backyard, a decent fence and the will to make a safe coop for your fluffy dames is all you need to make it happen
they will eat your vegetable scraps and gobble down pretty much any kind of food waste, turning discarded crusts and mushy fruit into big fat eggs full of protein!
and depending on which breed you buy, they will lay an egg almost every day. free, nutritious food every morning! what other pet will do that?
it’s a misconception that eating eggs is inherently cruel, or that you need a rooster for your chickens to lay eggs! all the eggs you buy in supermarkets are unfertilised, which means there is no chance of that egg ever hatching. you’re not eating a potential life, your chickens will lay eggs regardless of whether there’s a rooster around
so only buy a rooster to go with your lovely ladies if you want baby chicks - otherwise, just get some girls and enjoy those omelettes!
the way cage egg farms are run is terrible, and you can’t always be sure that a free range farm is as idyllic as the picture you see on the carton. lots of sad chookies who can’t perch or scratch or eat grass and clean themselves. :(
this way, you will always be certain that your girls are happy, healthy, doing what chicken are meant to do and eating what chickens should be eating, which means bigger and better eggs for you!
you can give eggs to your friends! give eggs to strangers! eggs for everyone!
tiny and furious lawnmowers. chickens LOVE grass, especially clover. if you have a small backyard, they will do all the work of keeping the grass trimmed.
a caution, pls buy your chicken a friend - they will get lonely if you only buy one. my friend had two chickens and one died, leaving Gizmo all alone. she got depressed and stopped laying, so they put her in the rabbit hutch. now she has a best friend bunny called Jimmy and she’s very happy! she often sits on him and purrs.
chickens are good around most other pets - cats and chickens usually regard each other with mutual indifference and disdain, but they generally bond with dogs. however, if you know your pooch or kitty is particularly aggressive, make sure you check it won’t be a problem!
scratch scratch scratch, scratch party!!
one time I was cleaning out the stables and my chicken came over, saw that I was using a big rake and went !!!! scratch time!!! and she started scratching furiously next to me like she was trying to help
they’re very clean animals and will clean themselves every day with a dust bath and a thorough preening
when it starts raining it takes them a good 10 seconds to process what’s happening, then they RUN to shelter
gloriously stupid tiny velociraptor running
peck peck peck. is food? I check! peck. not food!
rip all snails and slugs that live in your garden
they will also go after mice and spiders
chicken poop is great fertiliser! when you clean out their coop, spread the poo on your garden and watch your flowers and veggies grow!
kiddos LOVE chickens!!
seriously, looking after chickens is a great job for little kids - any little fella can fill up their water and give them some food, and collecting a warm, fresh egg every morning is so rewarding for them!!!
hours of entertainment watching their antics
some (not all) like a cuddle! the ladies will let you know what their preference is. they may also gently peck and groom you because they love you.
you can give them fancy names like lottie, ethel and lady beatrice so it sounds like they’re a supporting cast in a Jane Austen novel
in conclusion give a pretty chicken a happy home today
Note/ always compost chicken poop before using it as fertilizer! It is so highly acidic when fresh that it can burn your plants!
Otherwise, good points. Carry on.
i used to be part of a co-op who owned a flock of free-range chickens. chooks are great, having your own fresh eggs is great, if i had a suitable place i would seriously consider getting some chooks of my own, and i’m really glad for my time in that group. BUT. do your research first and think hard about whether chickens are for you:
chickens are loud and smelly. yes, even the hens.
SO smelly
and filthy
they will cost you money. they DO need actual chook feed, you can’t just feed them bread crusts and mushy vegetables. they need vet visits. they need mite treatment and worming. they need a coop (which you will need to keep cleaning. a lot. it keeps coming back to this, i know.)
depending on where you live, you might have trouble finding a vet who can help you
you’re unlikely to end up spending LESS money on backyard chickens than you would on ethically sourced eggs without keeping chickens
especially if you live in the city or suburbs, your local council might not like you to have chickens. and your neighbours might not like it at all.
ditto your landlord
and what happens if you have to move?
you will need the right size of coop and yard for the number of chickens you have. if they’re overcrowded (or even if they aren’t overcrowded but just have interpersonal drama of their own) then they will start trying to solve the overcrowding problem their own way, and it will not be pretty
likewise if one of the chickens is sick or hurt and you don’t take her to the vet in time, they may try to solve THAT their own way, and this won’t be pretty either
sometimes they die suddenly. sometimes they die suddenly in disturbing ways (especially if you’re not familiar with, for example, what happens when a chicken has a seizure and dies)
and then their friends start eating them
depending on where you live and what sort of fences and coops you have, predators (hawks, foxes, dogs…) can get them, and this can also be upsetting (especially if you have kids)
THEY WILL STOP LAYING
THEY WILL STOP LAYING
THEY WILL STOP LAYING
i repeated this three times because it’s the number one reality of backyard chickens that too many impulse backyard chicken owners do not consider
hens don’t keep laying one egg a day for the rest of their life any more than you keep ovulating once a month (if you’re a person with ovaries) for the rest of your life
their laying will slow down and eventually stop, and then you will have a pet chicken who does not produce eggs but does produce noise and feces and conflict with the other chickens and/or your neighbours, and you will need to make a decision about what to do with this chicken
if she’s your pet, not livestock, and you want to keep her whether she lays eggs or not, then fine and good (but she will take up a space in your yard that cannot go to a laying hen, you can’t just keep increasing your flock indefinitely, so you’ll need to accept that. and she might live a long time) so long as you think in advance about whether you want pets or livestock
if you eat meat and are incredibly badass about acknowledging where your meat comes from, and are prepared either to process your own meat or locate someone else who’ll do it for you, that solves THAT part of the problem
if you want to process your own meat in your backyard and you live in the suburbs, your neighbours REALLY won’t like that
like, possible animal cruelty charges level not like it
nobody wants to adopt your non-laying hen as a pet and feed and look after her for the next five to seven years and not turn her into stew
like, okay, maybe somebody does, but the odds are VERY much against that, and if they say they do, chances are they are lying and want a chicken dinner
which, if you’re okay with someone eating your backyard chicken so long as that someone is not you, that is completely fair so long as you understand that’s what you’re agreeing to
the co-op i mentioned had a lot of random people dumping elderly hens over our fence in the dead of night, which was not cool because quarantine and also because we couldn’t afford to keep on feeding non-laying chickens forever, we had enough elderly hens of our own that we’d raised since they were hatched without feeding someone else’s as well
said random people were doing this because they changed their mind about having backyard chickens, or hadn’t thought about what would happen when the hens’ laying years were over, but weren’t able to sell (ahahahaha) or rehome the hens themselves, and weren’t willing for them to become meat and trusted we wouldn’t do that (but didn’t trust us enough to ask our consent before dumping their elderly, new-to-our-flock, possibly-sick hens over our fence. (the new-to-our-flock part is important because of chicken interpersonal drama as mentioned above. think about whether you’d just throw two random cats together without a proper introduction and expect them to get along. like that, but with a larger number of animals.) DON’T FUCKING DUMP ANIMALS.
hens go broody sometimes
if you buy fertilised eggs for your hens to hatch (or have roosters or get a friend with roosters to bring one over to do stud duty) then 50% of your hatches will be male and you’ll need to work out what to do with them (see non-laying hens, above)
it’s unlikely you’ll be able to tell which ones are male for some months after hatching
roosters do not lay eggs
roosters are loud
roosters do not like living in a flock where there’s too many roosters
some roosters are really aggressive
to the hens and also to you and any children you have
said roosters might be the same size as the children if you have small toddlers and large roosters
also, very young children are not safe to handle baby chicks or other fragile animals when they don’t know how to control their own grip strength yet or how hard to hug. ask me how i know. actually don’t ask me, i don’t want to fucking talk about it :(
and i shouldn’t even have to say this, but don’t buy a baby chick for your kids as an easter gift, do not do that
a chicken is for life not just for easter
if you can cope with everything i mentioned and have the space and the funds and can put in the time and work, then yes, good, backyard chickens might be for you. better yet, if you have a local friend who has chickens (or a co-op situation like i found) then offer to chook-sit for a weekend and find out what it’s like firsthand.
I have three chickens, and I feel like 3-4 is manageable for my family and setup and interest level.
A friend has a much larger flock and recently had to get rid of one of her roosters because it attacked her toddler and tried to peck out his eye.
Where she lives, everyone keeps at least one rooster as a flock sentinel because of predation. You will likely lose chickens to predation anywhere but in some places it is worse.
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