It seems like everyone these days is keeping a backyard flock . You ’re intrigued , but at the same prison term you ca n’t help but think : “ What ’s in it for me ? ” You ’ve heard all the naysayer complaint — chickens are smelly , loud , speechless — but there ’s still a part of you who wants to get wind first - hired man if there ’s truth behind those rumors . After all , it seems like everyone these day is keep a backyard flock …
If you ’re on the fence about setting up the coop and you ’re looking for someone to push you over into the poulet keeping antechamber , you ’ve add up to the right piazza . We ’ve come up with a list of some obvious and some not - so obvious point for the positive side of your pro - con listing . make the final decisiveness — well , that ’s up to you .
1. Fresh Eggs
Once you have hadfresh chicken eggs , you ca n’t go back ! The penchant is richer . The vitellus are darker and support up taller . Some people say their sunbaked trade good are light and downlike . Until you get some chickens and test out their ball , you ’ll never know for trusted .
2. Healthier Eggs
Research has show that eggs from free - range chickens are lower in cholesterin and higher in vitamins and minerals . Eggs from pastured hens have four to six times as much vitamin cholecalciferol as chicken raised in confinement ( aka the volaille that lay schematic grocery store testis ) . These healthy eggs also have seven times more genus Beta - carotene , three time more vitamin E and two sentence more omega-3 fatty acid .
3. Fewer Bugs
Our visitor are always surprised that we do n’t have many bugs . The mystery of the disappear mosquitoes is no mystery to us : No doubt theses pests are on hiatus because the chickens are doing their occupation , eating them and their larva . We also do n’t have a problem with flea . If you ’re a gardener and want an organic way to keep pestilence populations down , the solution is simple : chickens . Bugs really do n’t have a probability when they ’re around .
4. Preserving Genetic Diversity
bombastic factory farms use a breed of intercrossed chicken to achieve the good provender - to - ballock production proportion possible . Unfortunately that intend many breeds of heritage wimp could become extinct without the service of backyard chicken keeper like you , who take to produce them .
5. Local Food
At a prison term when most food journey an average of 1,500 miles to get to our plate , it ’s refreshing to be able-bodied to eat something that has only traveled a few 1000 .
6. Pets With a Purpose
If your tyke desire darling , but you are n’t unbalanced about the idea of a hotdog or cat or small gnawer , chickens can do twofold - tariff as pet . Gallus gallus are intelligent , and when handled daily from the fourth dimension they ’re hatched , they ’re favorable . They also deplete less than a detent — an add together bonus for your handbag .
7. Getting In Touch With Your Food
Most people have no mind where any of their food for thought comes from . By having a few backyard hen , you will be taking a small step toward food independence and authorization .
8. Free Fertilizer
Chicken manureis outstanding for the garden . And if your chickens lead around your yard , they ’ll fertilize it , too . So long lawn - care servicing !
9. Great Soup
As hens get elder and their egg laying slows down , you may butcher them for stew meat , which is delicious and ca n’t be found in stores . Julia Child lamented the personnel casualty of stew hen from grocery store computer memory in the 1980s as she reluctantly gave directions for have origin out of a young chicken in her book , The Way to Cook .
10. Free Entertainment
Chickens are endlessly entertaining . You ca n’t look out them running around the yard for more than a few minutes without express mirth or being surprised about something that they ’re doing . I ’ll never forget how aroused my children were the Clarence Day they saw a chicken catch a frog or the first fourth dimension they see a chickenlay an nut .
11. Bragging Rights
Whenever your friends complain about any of the above issues ( buy plant food for their garden , dealing with mosquito , eating insalubrious food , keep an eye on too much idiot box ) , you may say that really is n’t a job for you because you have backyard chicken .
