Why raise chickens in an urban setting at all? While I was writing an article about choosing a chicken coop design, a question came to mind. Why bother? Why bother raising chickens at all? I can get eggs from the local Hutterite colony for $4.20 per dozen (plus tax of course) at the grocery store. I have to build and maintain a coop and hen house. Feed and water them. Then, even after all of that, they are only going to lay eggs for 8 months of the year. Unless I add supplemental lighting to the house. That’s an additional cost. So what is the allure of it all? Why bother?
Organic Fresh Eggs?
I watched a news magazine show a few years ago that did laboratory tests. The result was that the small flock that was kept as natural as possible had a much higher nutritional value than any other egg. So having fresh eggs in the yard has benefits that way. I think that they can only be considered “organic” if the chickens are raised on fully organic food. I can’t guarantee that at this point. That was the dream with the human children when they were first born. That hasn’t happened. So, to think the chickens are going to be fed all organic food is not realistic. We try our best. I can say that.
Help in the garden?
Chickens can help with pest control in the vegetable garden to point. They will pull out small plants, so it is all about timing. Also, they are very much prey animals, so I have to be around when they are just in the garden. When they are in their enclosure that’s okay, but to just let them out in the garden is dangerous. We can feed them kitchen scraps also, much like the worms. We will have to separate out what the chickens can eat so we don’t feed them things that will harm them. Part of the composting system.
This aught to be good. The kids are just getting a handle on sorting the recycling and composting food scraps. Now they have to sort the compost into worm compost, chicken compost, outside compost pile, and non compostable trash. It’s good they learn this stuff early I guess. So it’s normal to do it.
Teach the kids where their food comes from?
Speaking of the kids, having chickens is a good lesson for the kids to learn where their food comes from and what it looks like to tend to “livestock”. Give them more of an appreciation of where their food comes from. Not to mention where it goes, as we feed the chickens and worms our food scraps. Most places they go it all goes into the garbage bin.
Companionship?
This may be a stretch in all honesty. Though I don’t plan to eat these chickens. (The egg production is what I am going for more than the meat.) I don’t plan on cuddling with the birds on the couch either. I guess, like having a dog, you can say you are talking to the chickens, not yourself.
Why Raise Chickens In An Urban Setting? – Cost Comparison
Okay here is the brass tacks. Assuming I can build this coop and henhouse for next to nothing with the materials I have collected. And, forgetting the cost of collecting and storing and cleaning up the building materials. What is it going to cost me to keep these birds?
Right now at the local grocery store I can get local eggs for $4.40 per dozen. That is $0.37 per egg. I’m not going to lie, that is going to be hard to beat purely on the cost of eggs. We usually go through approximately 18 per week I would say, on average. That equates to $6.60 per week or $343.16 per year.
Knowing what I do (which isn’t much), I think that I can get 2 bags of feed for just over $50. That included the 2 different types of basic food. That does not include any special food like meal worms or anything like that. It also doesn’t include any “scratch” or anything. I would be able to buy 6 rounds of that food per year to cover the egg production.
Oh ya, I also have to buy the chickens. I forgot about that. They are about $15.00 per bird. I wonder if I can adopt some from someone. I can buy a few dozen eggs for 45 bucks.
Begs the question again.
Why raise chickens in an urban setting? Why not just buy the freaking eggs?
Save the hassle of chickens.
The most interesting thing at this point is that none of these cost points are really deterring me from the idea of having chickens. I just really want to give it a go. However.
Why Raise Chickens In An Urban Setting – The Reality Of The Situation
The reality of the situation is that chickens are animals that need to be cared for everyday. They need to be fed and watered. They need their living area tended to everyday and they need to be let out in the morning and let back in at night. That takes effort and commitment and time. So, what it comes down to as far as getting chickens and keeping them here at the urban homestead, is that we are alone here. If I want to take the kids camping for the weekend, or go to my folks place for a week, there is no one to look after the chickens. That is a problem.
The last house had kids and people around that we knew that could look after the chickens if we wanted to go away for a few days. Unfortunately, because of our schedule in the new house this past year. The kids and I haven’t been able to meet to many people in the community yet. So, having chickens would mean staying home to look after the chickens. Which is a pain.
Automation
I could look at automation. I could design a system to feed and water the chickens automatically. Along with something to open and close the door of the hen house. That would help somewhat. The fact still remains that those systems would need to be monitored to ensure they are working. Also, there is a cost to building and implementing those things. It might make sense if I were going to get a bunch of chickens and try to make some income from the eggs. But since I am only looking at getting enough chickens to provide us with eggs, I don’t see the benefit to the cost.
So, Why Raise Chickens In An Urban Setting
I still would very much like to give it a go. I would like to raise chickens and collect eggs and have them around doing their chicken-y things. But, I think the timing is not right for chickens at the moment. At least not this year. It’s not really the cost, but the time commitment. I would rather be able to take the kids camping and not have to worry about getting the chickens looked after. Being able to get inexpensive eggs from a local farm also, makes it hard to justify the hassle. Maybe next year.