Chickens are HOT!

Chickens are all the rage. Urban, suburban and rural homeowners from every part of the country are ordering chickens in all sorts of fancy breeds. Competition over the cutest coops is escalating rapidly and people are signing up for classes on how to raise healthy and happy flocks in smaller spaces!

Why the sudden craze? Home-raised chickens, like homegrown vegetables seem to put us in touch with a past of a more rural nature. Besides providing food they give us a sense of self-sufficiency. Whatever the urge to gather the feathered flock it recalls a simpler time when we are more connected with nature and our food as part of it.  Let me comment on the ‘simpler’ statement. After all is said and done it’s much simpler to go to the grocery store and buy a dozen eggs notwithstanding there’s a much better use for a Jacuzzi tub than as an abode for a small flock of chicks. But so much less satisfying! Our gardening advisor Jeff Oberhaus suggested that by the time he deducts the cost of his chickens, feed and hen-house his eggs cost him about $9.00 a dozen! And he has to collect them himself! 

One chicken will lay an average of 300 eggs in a twelve month period.  With four chickens it looks as though I can anticipate twenty three eggs a week.  Since I would never consume that many it's a great way to share with family and friends or sell at the local farmers market.

My main goal, as with the garden itself, is the higher quality of food value, the organic nature of raising my own produce, and the future independence it can bring. The nutrition benefits are outstanding. In contrast to grocery store eggs, home-raised eggs have twenty-five percent more vitamin E, seventy-five percent more beta-carotene, significantly more omega-3 fatty acids and a third more vitamin A.

So, The Author’s Garden gains four chicks and I delve into research to learn what I need to know. I'll give you all a heads up on the books I find most informative.  Stay tuned for more adventures with Henrietta, Blackie, Priscilla and Dot and their benefits to the garden. In the meantime the Jack Russell’s are scheming and dreaming about take-out chicken!

More about the coop design and how it fits into the garden in future blogs!

Photos by Susan R. Stoltz copyright 2010