Chickens!

First, before getting poultry of any sort (if you live within the city limits) make sure to check out the city codes for keeping animals. Even if you live in a metropolitan area you might be surprised to find out that you can legally keep poultry (although the number of which may be limited.) If you rent be sure to check with your landlord– because there’s nothing sadder than a homeless family and their little chicken.

For our city, the number is not limited there are specifications as to the distance we must keep poultry enclosed from the property line.

Because of our lifestyle the number of chickens we keep is limited to a single chicken, Elle, a gold laced Wyandotte. In exchange for food, shelter, love and devotion Elle provides our family with bug control, high nitrogen poop, hours of entertainment, and an almost daily egg.

Make a decision before buying a chick or chicken as to whether or not you’re going to eventually eat it. This will affect not only the type of chickens you may buy, but also how your family interacts with the chicken. Our family doesn’t eat pets, and even if Elle never lays another egg, she’s safe from the stew pot– therefore we feel it’s appropriate to bond with her as much as we would any other pet.

Also plan out carefully the living arrangement of the chicken. A single chicken can do quite happily with a medium sized pet carrier in the summer (so long as she has an enclosure to stretch her legs and forage around for tasty insects during the day) but in the winter she’ll need a heat source or insulated area to snuggle up on the coldest nights. She’ll also need protection from animals that want to play with her, eat her or eat her eggs. Make sure that raccoons, cats, dogs, and weasels can’t or won’t have access to her and that her enclosure is safe.

To prevent brooding take her egg out as soon as she lays it. If there’s no rooster to fertilize the egg it’s pointless to let her brood because the eggs will never hatch. Take the eggs and rinse them with cold water, put them in the fridge to enjoy later.

As pets, chickens are pretty straightforward. Training a chicken to come to its name, sit, or do tricks is no more difficult than training a puppy (actually, it is arguably easier) once you get over the idea of chicken as “livestock” and embrace the idea of “pet.” As with any bird, the more you handle a chicken the more comfortable with being handled and affectionate it will be.

Chickens can also wear a figure 8 halter (like those used for cats and rabbits) make sure it’s adjusted so that the large band goes under her wings, should you choose to leash train her. And, just as an aside– get used to the idea of people asking you about your hen or giving you funny looks (don’t worry, eventually the neighbors will quit staring.)

As for the cost of keeping a chicken, the amount you’ll save in insect spray, fertilizer (if you garden) and eggs definitely outweighs the food, shelter, and bedding costs of a chicken so they are very economical creatures to keep.

For more information about keeping chickens go to:

Backyard Chickens

Bird Hobbyist (pet chicken page)

Path to Freedom (Raising Chickens in the City Project)

Filed under food, goofing off |