My husband wants to get chickens. Yes, real, live fowl to live in our yard. Why you ask? For the cuteness? Um, not so much, because while they are cute as babies, they are ugly, ugly animals as adults. For the eggs of course. Yes, my city dwelling husband thinks that now that we own 13 acres of land we should have chickens. Good grief Charlie Brown.
I can see his point. We are a family of six. When we have say, scrambled eggs for breakfast or dinner, it takes a DOZEN eggs to feed us all. I am now buying the 18 pack of eggs. I don't even know how much it costs; I just grab them and put them in the cart. Given the economy, maybe having chickens is a good idea. It sounds like a great idea. But then I gave it some thought and came up with these objections.
1. Bird flu. Can we get bird flu from the chickens? Probably. Not something I want.
2. Who is going to care for the chickens? The husband who is working 10 hours a day, or the wife who is home all the time? Hmmmmmm.
3. Chickens get killed by weasels, coyotes, etc. A co-worker of his had 3 chickens killed recently by weasels. That isn't going to be easy to explain to my children.
4. Speaking of the children. I don't want them playing with the chickens, or in the chicken poop, or anything else disgusting like that. Eww. Granted, we'd build them a coop, but they'll still need exercise.
The list could go on. Our neighbors up the road are getting chickens too. That gave my husband even more reason to want the chickens. If Becky can get chickens, so can I, he reasoned. It was a look of glee in his eye while they chatted about chickens. I don't get it. I too am a city dweller, living in the country. I lived in Boston without chickens. I lived in New York without chickens. I grew up in Maine, WITHOUT CHICKENS. This is just something I can't wrap my head around. Now a cow for the milk.....that's a different story.
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Stay at home Mama to four~girl, boy, fraternal girl twins~who's trying to balance being a Mama and being myself. Some days I do it well and other days, I let the coffee do the talking. Feel free to drop me an e-mail.
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6 comments:
Not only will you have to contend with all of the mentioned issues, but then with cost of feed, housing, the damn rooster noises, and what to do with the hens when they are old and don't lay? Will you kill them yourself or do you have a local butcher who'd process them for you?
(And let me tell you, one of the last lucid conversations I had with my southern granny about the "right" and fastest way to kill a chicken is seared into my memory -- thanks Grandma!).
What would he want next? I know. You should get goats. They'd at least keep the lawn trimmed for you. But do it after you have the garden firmly fenced up.
I have to tell you if I could fit a cow, apple orchard, and chicken flock in my 18' x 12' "backyard" then I would eliminate 50-70% of our grocery bill. Of course, then I'd have to hire someone to take care of the flock, milk the cow, and pick the apples...
I think your strongest point is who is going to take care of these chickens. Make him wait a few months to see if he really wants them (see how high grain prices go) and by then it will be getting to fall and there's no point in getting livestock in the fall with winter coming...you see where this is heading? You can put it off for a full year!
If I had the energy (ha) I would have chickens and goats and grow vegetables and have fruit trees...
It's a nice dream.
My aunt and uncle are in the chicken business. (They sell their eggs), but are getting out of it (partly because of government interference) and partly because the cost of feeding them is so high! I guess grain is going through the roof. So that might help the decision making. :)
LOL, your husband sounds like mine. He comes up with these crazy ideas all the time. For the last 2 years he's been trying to talk me into getting pigs. Ya, NO, I don't think so. They're dirty and....just dirty...yuck NO! Chickens are cute, but I don't blame you, I wouldn't want chickens running around our yard either. Good luck.
i have a thing w/ chickens anyway--well, the dead ones that we eat. it's the skin and meat and bones, i can't think about it too much. but no, i don't think i'd want them in my yard either. maybe you could buy your eggs from the people who just got chickens? maybe they would be cheaper? friends of mine bought two cows onces, tbone and ribeye. they kept them on their land and then eventually in their freezer. yeah, i couldn't do that either.
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