A feral hen and rooster pair roam the streets of Key West, Florida.
1: Why Keep Backyard Chickens?
Since you’re holding this book in your hands, you’re likely already aware of the chicken revolution taking place in backyards across the country. Homeowners, renters, families, couples, college graduates, nine-to-fivers, aspiring farmers, artisans, and countless others are cramming nest boxes onto balconies and turning idle potting sheds into chicken coops. Each year, more and more cities are overturning ordinances and allowing chickens to come home to roost within their limits. There’s no doubt about it: There’s a bona fide chicken craze underway.
Who Is the Backyard Chicken?
The Why of keeping chickens is probably better answered by asking the Who question. Who is the chicken? This humble ground fowl, the most iconic of American farm symbols, wears many hats, whether she lives on 50 sprawling acres (20 ha) in the country or in a 50 sq. ft. (4.6 sq. m) backyard in the suburbs. She was actually once rather common in American homes. Most families kept a few laying hens until the convenience of supermarket eggs simplified the householder’s duties, and small flocks were replaced by Big Agriculture. The chicken is, in fact, the cornerstone of any good permaculture system, and she is becoming the very foundation of awakening our flawed food system. By learning a bit about who she is, you may come to understand why so many are becoming smitten with her endearing ways.
A Prehistoric Being
Gallus gallus domesticus is first and foremost a bird. More specifically, she is part of a class of ground fowl that includes other domesticated poultry such as turkeys. Likely descended from the Asiatic red jungle fowl, recent evidence suggests that she is the infamous tyrannosaur’s most closely living relative alive today.
This would be reason enough for me to keep chickens (tiny T Rex roaming in my backyard? Sign me up!), but it’s probably not convincing enough for most. Let’s see what else she can do.
Get Hooked on Breakfast
Homegrown eggs are not just any eggs—they are the healthiest, freshest, tastiest ones you will ever have, hands down. The vast majority of chicken keepers start a flock for these incredible eggs, and it’s no wonder. The eggs laid from backyard flocks that forage for part of their diet are higher in omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins A and E, and beta-carotene than store-bought eggs. They’re also higher in folate (the naturally derived version of folic acid) and vitamin B12. Pastured eggs are lower in saturated fats than their supermarket counterpart and have nearly half the cholesterol. They are humanely sourced, since you are raising the chickens yourself, and they are as local as it can possibly get.
All female chickens lay eggs, but through generations of selective breeding, breeders have homed in on birds that lay exceptionally well, creating the great laying breeds we have today. Some breeds are veritable egg-laying machines, cranking out an egg or so a day for the first year or two, with the frequency dwindling as the hen gets older. Among this class of workhorses are docile birds that have great personalities and make wonderful family pets. Despite some hens being better layers than others, all hens lay eggs with varying frequency—and contrary to some misconceptions, hens do not need a rooster to lay eggs (but you will need a rooster if you want the eggs to be fertilized for hatching). Under the proper conditions and with dark, dry, soft, and cozy nest boxes, your chickens will continue to lay eggs well into their twilight years.
This is where you’ll get hooked. Warm eggs, freshly laid and sourced straight from your backyard, back deck, or patio cannot be beat by any measure of the imagination. Watching your hens lay their first eggs is nothing short of witnessing the miracle of life. But tasting them? Well, that can be downright heavenly.
Keeping chickens will give you fresh eggs that are more nutritious and have less cholesterol and saturated fat than store-bought.
Better Eggs, Fewer Bugs (the Natural Way)
Some large-scale egg producers like to tout that their hens are “fed a vegetarian diet only” on their cartons’ packaging, but in reality, chickens are anything but vegetarians. They are, in fact, ruthless hunters, with worms, grubs, and other insects high on their list of menu choices. Chickens will even chase and kill small rodents and snakes if given the opportunity. They really are like tiny dinosaurs. More common, though, is their ability to forage on grass, in gardens, and in pastures for their choice of seeds, greens, and bugs. This variety in diet is what contributes to saffron-colored yolks and those ultra-nutritious eggs mentioned earlier. Simply put, variety in your birds’ diet converts to nutritional variety in your eggs. The healthier your birds are, the healthier your eggs will be.
Nutritious eggs aren’t the only reason to let your birds range freely, though. When left to their own devices, chickens will scratch and peck at the earth until they have foraged for every last kind of bug—especially garden pests, such as slugs, Japanese beetles, cabbage worms, and those that carry diseases, like the common deer tick. Even mosquitoes make the list. Just your chickens’ presence around your home will keep pests such as mice, rats, and snakes at bay. And they do all of this without the use of harsh chemicals, pesticides, or toxins. Chickens are, without debate, the most efficient, natural insect and pest control there is.
The Great Recycler
We know that chickens will eat just about anything, and as such keeping chickens means you have a reliable team of enthusiastic garbage disposals at the ready. Your flock will contentedly gobble up everything from cooking scraps and kitchen leftovers to grass clippings and spent garden plants. While turning over your compost piles, they’ll eat any vegetation, fruits, or vegetables that aren’t too far past their prime. Chickens aren’t very picky, but, because no creature is infallible, there are, of course, some toxic foods and poisonous plants that can be harmful to chickens. We’ll cover those, and more on food and nutrition, in chapter 7.
The Fertilizer and Garden Helper
The chicken is an excellent producer of chemical-free, organic fertilizer. Long past her reproductive prime, a chicken will continue to produce manure in copious amounts (for better or worse), even when she has slowed down laying eggs. High in phosphorus and potassium, but especially in nitrogen—the critical elements for healthy, fertile garden soil—chicken waste is one of the most perfect manures of the animal kingdom. It is easy to harvest from the coop for use in composting, and your flock will naturally spread it on the land as they range freely or forage in movable coops.
Chickens will also happily aerate your compost pile through their pecking and scratching. Just make sure they have access to it and that there are no dangerous chemicals or garden waste that have been treated with pesticides, fungicides, or synthetic fertilizers in it. Not only are these dangerous for your birds, but these toxins could also pass through their bodies, into their eggs, and into your breakfast.
Chickens make quick work of clearing weeds and grasses if you need bare soil for a garden space or other project. Just fence your birds in that spot for a week or more, and they’ll happily demolish any greens, leaving behind aerated, fertilized, and gently tilled topsoil ready for planting.
Your Insurance Policy
Keeping your own flock of laying hens means you have your very own sustainable and reliable source of food, no matter what may be happening in the larger food or transportation industries. Our food travels far and wide to get to us;