A Reprise of the Benefits of Raising Chickens

      

These are Silky chickens.

      I wrote this first post in June of 2013.   Since I have spent a big portion of this Summer raising and caring for new chickens, and many others have as well as a source of eggs during our COVID-19 lockdown, I thought I would repost it.  Enjoy.


     There is a trend in the United States permitting those in quasi urban and suburban neighborhoods to own chickens.  Most of them have restrictions sufficient to prevent all night cackling, and I have read that many cities outlaw roosters, but I see the change in zoning to allow at least some chickens,   as a good thing.  Chickens allow families to have eggs, often in abundance, and that alone, can make them very worthwhile. Chicken manure when composted can be some of the best fertilizer.
          Chickens can also be incredible pets.  We have raised several injured chicks by hand who were simply thrown away by the feedstore, and each of them grew to be intelligent, cooperative and loving creatures, and one of them was a congenial rooster.   At our maximum here we had one hundred chickens. We presently have about fifty and they are either Rhode Island Reds or Bantams.  Many mornings I eat a large hard boiled brown egg fresh from one of the hens.    Linda from the blog  Practical Parsimony can vouch for what fantastic companions chickens can be. 


 

I love this one.  It looks like it has a screen door.

This one has a greens tray for growing greens for them, or for you.

This coop can be moved around your yard, permitting your grass to recover, and allowing your hens weekly fresh grass.

              Many of the pictures above which have appeared on this particular blog post were taken by, and were constructed by

     Laughing Chickens.     


   They are custom built, but are available to be constructed and sent via UPS in modular fashion, so that they can be easily assembled all over the country.    They are also constructed of reclaimed wood.

You can e-mail the owner at:          duck@laughingchickens.com


 You can call Duck at     (415) 295-4696


You may see additional and larger pictures at the Williams-Sonoma catalog online.

         

         Or, you can use all of this as inspiration, and build your very own


http://www.freechickencoopplans.com/

http://smallfarm.about.com/od/farminfrastructure/ss/sbscoopbuild.htm






    We have so many eggs at the moment , but they decrease in Winter.

This is what we do with them:


*Have eggs for breakfast.   (We all have low total cholesterol)

 * Make a variety of different quiches, and freeze them in the freezer as quick dinners or lunches.
    (We make Quiche Lorraine, Broccoli and Cheddar, Chive and Cheese, Veggie and Herb)

* We cook them and add them to dog, and sometimes cat food.  Our animals are long lived and have great coats.

* Eggnog when the season is right.

* Give or trade some to friends.

*Make your own egg custard.


Egg custard recipe
(Although we use white sugar instead of brown in this, and we use less.)

This allows you to walk inside and collect eggs without a lot of bending or squatting.

The original post is configured slightly differently and has some additional information. It appears at:
  
    https://rationalpreparedness.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-benefits-of-raising-chickens.html