I was at the farmers market the other day, buying peppers and onions to make an omelet, and after my one dollar and 30 cent bill I was thinking "I wish I had a chicken coupe". I'm in a condo situation right now and although sell prices are high, buy prices are higher. I can't really do that where i live now but I'm just curious what its like. I heard from some people there are eggs every day. I could totally live off eggs and veggies and occasional bread. What is that like to have that every single day? Do you feed them or do they just graze? Are they "free range"? Do they eat bugs instead of grain? How does all that work? do you have some crazy rig built so they can be outside and safe from predators at the same time? I'd love to see some pics and hear stuff about it. Thanks
You are allowed 4 hens and 1 rooster per household under our local zoning rules but I have never bothered. A dozen eggs will usually go bad before I use them all. I don't think it would be worth it for me. Plus we have lots of dogs, cats, about a half dozen foxes, and occasional pushes in from coyotes in my neighborhood. The chickens probably would not last long. One of my brothers used to do it out in the country but he ended up with way more chickens and eggs than he could rid of and eventually downsized his flock to zero.
I really should. I've heard it said that chickens are the gateway drug to freedom. Once you have a steady supply of nutritious eggs for free, you kinda want more of that self sufficiency. I don't have chickens yet. Working out of town a lot makes it difficult to have animal dependents. But then again, chickens arent exactly helpless. We go to Yuba City, CA pretty regularly for work, and there's chickens just living everywhere. They seem fine with no one taking care of them. Prolly the winters here would not be good for them...
Reminds me of a lady I used to work with. She kept trying to raise guinea hens. She just couldn't figure out how hers kept disappearing because the man down the road had a bunch and his flock was continuously growing. I told her the answer was real simple---every time she bought a dozen, the man down the road's flock increased by a dozen LOL. If they can avoid predators, free-range birds don't really need humans. There are always plenty of bugs to eat.
Except for about 6 years of my educational pursuits living in dorms and apartments I’ve had chickens my whole life. I can’t eat store eggs. They are watery and pale and tasteless. As a kid our chickens were free range. The coyotes got a few here and there, but as the birds were shut up at night (they naturally go to bed at dusk) losses were minimal. Here in Nebraska where I am now, we used to free range. But we got overrun with red fox about 12 years ago and it became impossible to have them out running all over during the day. Now they are in a large run next to the chicken house. It’s more work feeding them but we grow almost all the feed so it’s not a big deal. We get about 18 eggs a day and end up bartering some. I can eat 6-8 a day in the winter but not so much in early summer. When the bell peppers, onions, jalapeños, and tomatoes etc. get plentiful from the garden I’ll go back to a half dozen eggs scrambled and topped with veggies for supper many nights. Also make a lot of bread pudding and other baked goods that take eggs. Also custards etc. You can get rid of a lot of eggs if you cook much. Chickens are pretty easy to care for. Well worth the trouble especially if you like eggs.
