The Perks Of Raising Chickens at Home

The Simple Joy of Owning Chickens

It is hard to describe the feeling of owning backyard chickens, especially to one who has never owned them before. Coming home to see them out scratching around for insects, worms, and any other morsel they can find is a peaceful thing to watch. Having them run to the door when you open it in the hopes you have food for them, can be hilarious to watch.

When friends come over and look out at your pets, they can’t tell them apart from each other, but you can. Because you know that each one of these incredible creatures has a distinct personality, some incredibly shy others really bold, some can be rather obnoxious and you know them all by name and by sight.

When we first purchased our flock of 5 we knew literally nothing about raising chickens. We learned a lot through trial and error, (and that is a painful way to learn) and a lot more reading everything we could that might help us keep and protect our flock.

That flock grew to 20 in two years and we knew each of them. Some hatched naturally out in the coop, the pump house or under a board near the front steps. Others were hatched in our incubator inside the house. We owned a variety of breeds, mainly for egg production and sold farm fresh eggs for a while and showed a few of them in the local fair.

Whether you purchased your chickens for eggs, for meat or just for a pet or two, you want to make sure that your birds are happy and healthy. This book will explain the details of what you can expect, what you will need to do, and some ways that keeping chickens can not only save you money, but also make you a little bit of money as well.

Getting fresh eggs is one of the main reasons people choose to raise chickens. What is one of the most frequently asked questions about chickens and eggs? It is this, “Do I Need a Rooster to Get Eggs?” The answer to that question is absolutely not! Hens will lay eggs with and without a rooster present. You may want a rooster for other purposes, but we will discuss that later.

Fresh Matters!

How old would you guess the eggs are that are in your local supermarket? A week? Two weeks? Three? Nope. On average, the eggs in your supermarket are more than a month old.

They are preserved immediately through refrigeration and shipped out to areas hundreds of miles from the farm you see illustrated on the egg carton. When you crack open a store bought egg, you’ll note a pale yellow yolk in the center, surrounded by a thin layer of the white portion of the egg.

One reason it is so easy to crack those store bought eggs? It’s because they are so old!

Crack open a true farm fresh egg, from your chicken, laid that day or the day before and you will see an immediate difference from the eggs you are used to from the store. The shell will be harder and it may be more difficult to crack without piercing the yolk inside. It takes a little practice to get it right. There is a very real and different feel to farm fresh eggs.

Healthier

There are distinct health benefits to choosing farm fresh eggs over store bought too. The fresh eggs have as much as a third less of the bad cholesterol than store bought. They are lower in saturated fats and had more vitamin A and E and contained more beta carotene and omega-3 fatty acids.

Vitamin A helps your immune system, the reproductive system and aids the cells in your retina. Vitamin E helps with the health of your skin, eyes, nerves and muscles and acts as an antioxidant to protect you from free radicals.

Beta Carotene helps protect your cells from damage from free radicals, it provides a source of Vitamin A, and helps your immune and reproductive system.

All of these are found in farm fresh eggs at a higher concentration than in those store bought eggs. And since none of these can be supplied by your body, they must be supplied in your diet.

Tastier 

There is only one way to experience the difference in taste between the farm fresh eggs and store bought. That way is to visit a local farmer’s market and purchase a dozen fresh eggs. Buy a dozen from the store.

When you get home, cook both and taste. You will find that the farm fresh eggs are richer, more full in flavor and firmer than the store bought. Once you have tasted farm fresh eggs, it is difficult to go back to store bought. There is that much of a difference!

Insect Control

A flock of chickens can make short work out of a bed of termites or a fire ant mound. One of the major surprises we had when we first got our flock of chickens was the little amount of time it took for them to scratch through and eat just about every fire ant in the yard.

Chickens love insects! They will often chase a flying insect across the yard and leap into the air to snag it for a snack. Sometimes they are successful! A flock of chickens will eat a nest of ground wasps, pluck a spider from its web and chase a bumblebee with fervor!

You won’t need to use chemicals on your lawn because the chickens will take care of those pesky bugs for you. And it’s probably a good idea not to use the chemicals anyway if you already have chickens as you don’t want any of your pets to get sick.

One easy and cheap way to provide food for your birds is to take advantage of the short life span of most insects. Raising crickets and attracting flies that lay eggs that grow into maggots are just two options that we will discuss a little later.

Fertilizer

Chicken poop is one of the richest natural fertilizers for plants. It is extremely high in nitrogen, and also contains plenty of potassium and phosphorous which is an essential part of most vegetable plants growth.

You have to use caution though, because the nitrogen levels are so high, you can end up burning your vegetable plants if you use chicken poop that has not been properly composted.

To properly compost the chicken manure, gather the bedding that you line the coop with, preferably hay, shredded newspapers, or grass. Never use red cedar for coop bedding! Scoop the manure and bedding into a compost bin.See instructions in back on how to build a compost bin cheaply.

Water it thoroughly and turn it every few weeks to help the composting process. This process takes a minimum of six months or you can wait up to twelve months for ideal fertilizer for your garden.

If you use it too soon, you could end up killing your garden. For a faster way to compost chicken manure you may want to look into getting a compost drum or bin. The spinning compost drums processes manure into compost at a more rapid rate than the old turning method.