Egg Prices Are NOT by Accident
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I suggest you guys just get hens. Even with a small suburban back yard they will do fine. I think if you give them a back yard space they will forage and do okay as long as you supplement their food supply with some scratch feed grains and food scraps or even ask your neighbors for any food scraps they have to use to make your own organic rich soil and maybe buy off your neighbors by offering free eggs for their silence or cooperation. Hens make less noise than dogs. Actually, i don't know why owning hens is not COMMON among all Americans. I guess it was because eggs were so cheap in a store? Well now it makes sense for most Americans to get chickens instead of useless cats or dogs. Pitch it as "environmental" to get democrats on board.
Hens are permissable where I live in suburb of Denver but roosters are not. My dog keeps the squirrels and rabbits out of my garden and she runs in and out of the house at will. A guy at work told me you need to be careful what you feed the hens because they get gout or something like that. Hens will also clean the grubs out of your compost pile. They're good to have but they do attract rats. It's important to find the balance
Chickens eat snakes, mice, rats, voles, etc. They do eat grubs which is good thing. they eat worms out of my compost but there's plenty of worms.
Chickens help BRING balance. They do not subtract from it. They eat lots of bugs and vermin. They poop much less than cats or dogs. They are practically free to feed. Maybe $20 a month for a whole flock that will yield you 5x-10x that much in eggs. There's really not that many disadvantages.
To me, it doesn't really make sense NOT to have them if your family eats lots of eggs and you have at least 1/4 acre property.
I do have a 1/4 acre and it's better to let your chickens forage. I met a different guy that always bought food for his laying hens and it was no cheaper than eggs are now. It's definitely cost effective if you only supplement as needed. I don't have the same problem with Miller moths and Japanese beetles as my neighbors because the grubs get removed from my massive compost pile
Chickens will destroy a sprouting garden. So if you want a garden and chickens in a limited amount of space, they are tough to deal with..
Also, don’t feed them the corporate scratch feed. You won’t get healthy quality eggs if you do. You have to provide. a balanced diet for them if you want them to produce well rounded nutritional eggs.
If you can do that, chickens are 100%(700% with inflation?) worth having.
I have to wrap my garden beds with hardware cloth because other predators, as well as chickens, will scratch up and tear a garden bed up.
Also, the scratch feed is just to supplement them during winter time when it's tough finding bugs and stuff to eat on frozen ground. The days are shorter and the chickens need more calories to get through the cold nights.
My chickens forage. They have lots of freedom. I lose some to predators occasionally but the chickens with good instincts seem to survive. For example the smarter ones dont perch right by the door to the coop.
They are easier to take care of than a cat or dog. Americans are dumb to have these useless animals when they should have small livestock even in their suburban neighborhoods where houses are on 0.3+ acres
Also to whoever said they bring rats? Nope. You see, now i dont have any rotten food in my trash can. So there's no rats around. The neighbors with trashcans full of uneaten food? THEY are the ones who attract rats. I don't have trash cans of uneaten pizza crust that rats and raccoons and mice and maggots can flourish on. The chickens eat damn near anything especially if i cook it down into a porridge stew. They'll slop that shit up. Also my hogs will eat anything.
BTW, my dog is good at elimination of rats and mice. She'll spend all night in the back yard hunting, she loves it
Serious question...
How do they feel about you taking their eggs? Is there hostility or they are ok with it?
I've always kinda wondered this, I mean it IS their babies.
I don't do it right in front of them.
Also i sometimes leave one egg behind so they don't abandon the nest.
I feed the crushed egg shells back to them.