Raising Chickens at Home

With the prices in gas and the scares over various contaminants in food, there has been a growing trend towards growing one's one vegetables and fruits at home as well as acquiring chickens to produce eggs. According to a variety of sources, chickens are one of the easiest farm animals to raise and to keep at home.

The majority of people can say that they have heard of people owning their own chickens. This is because chickens are among the easiest, most forgiving creatures for a small farm to manage. Books on chickens suggest that they can suffer from a number of awful parasites and problems but this is only a possibility. The majority of chickens, when raised correctly, are perfectly fine.

One of the benefits of chickens is that they're easy. They'll call anything home, make dandy pets, are pretty much self sufficient in the summer, and will even reproduce themselves for you. On reproduction, it is necessary to provide a basic form of shelter and protection for them to set in.

The one thing chickens won't do for their owners is make money. For the most part, they'll pretty much break even while providing fresh eggs, fertilizer, and hours of entertainment. They'll also do an excellent job of keeping the yard bug free.

While many people do not want roosters around due to their noise, many other people do want a rooster for the simple reason that he'll keep all of the hens laying eggs. Roosters aren't necessary for egg laying but they do provide social structure to the flock. Without a rooster, one of the hens will stop laying eggs in favor of taking on the role of rooster.

In addition to social structure, roosters have been known to defend a flock of chickens from dogs and lead the flock to safety during a storm. An added benefit is that they have colorful little personalities. Unfortunately, roosters do crow, loudly and with style. While some people love the sound of a rooster in the morning, it might not be appreciated by the neighbors.

Many people feel that they must get rid of a chicken once it stops laying eggs but this is not true. If your birds are your pets, it doesn't really matter if they no longer produce breakfast as well. Some people who keep chickens will eat the chickens at a certain point, but those who keep them as pets might not. Even when the chicken no longer produces eggs, it still produces fertilizer and keeps the yard free of bugs.

Raising chicken in the backyard is a good start for future poultry business in the future. Most of the homes in the farms raise chicken without any effort for feeding them and taking over. But if you're residing in urban area maybe you should think twice raising in your home. For me it's not worth the effort raising them.

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