5 Benefits Of Raising Chickens | Especially In The City

Nothing beats knowing exactly what you’re putting into your body – and this goes for poultry and eggs as well.  So why not raise your own chickens?  And while there are many reasons why you should, I’m going to focus on the 5 Benefits Of Raising  Chickens | Especially In The City.  The highlights are: 1) home grown organic chickens are allowed to run free and eat their natural diet,  2) home raise get exercise, they’re not as fat,  3) they are free from the growth hormones and antibiotics that the poultry industry uses on factory farmed animals, 4) chicken manure for your garden, 5) and the five reasons to raise them if you live in the city.

Organic Eggs versus Store Bought – what a difference an egg makes. Every couple weeks my generous neighbor delights us with 2 cartons of eggs straight from his coup, and when I open the cartons and see the assortment of colors, it always reminds me of Easter. What a great guy my neighbor is. We’ve entertained the idea of putting up a pen for chickens, making a chicken coup in our yard, but can’t seem to get past one minor little detail – he says NO to raising them, and I say YES. Needless to say I’m still working on it, arming myself with information for the cause.

Now I’m not going to sit and pretend to know the first thing about raising chickens because I haven’t a clue. But I can tell you about the benefits of organic verses store bought. If you live out in the country and have the room for some free ranging, the decision to raise them should be pretty simple just for the health benefits alone. But if you live in the city and are not sure about raising chickens because of your yard space, think again. Did you know that just 3 backyard hens can supply a family of 4 with all the antibiotic and pesticide free eggs they need? They can. But these backyard hens not only provide high-quality eggs, but also serve as master gardeners, organic pest exterminators, and unpaid city workers. Interested in learning more? Then read on.

I know the topic says 5 benefits of raising your own chickens in the city, but I’m going to add 4 more of my own.

1. Home grown organic chickens are allowed to run free and eat their natural diet, which means pecking at worms and insets and putting all those good omega-3s into their system as a result. That equates to you eating good nutritious eggs as well.
2. Because they get exercise, they’re not as fat.
3. And because you’ve raised them, they are free from the growth hormones and antibiotics that the poultry industry uses on factory farmed animals.
4. If your a gardener and grow some of your own vegetables, chances are you need to boost the nitrogen level in your soil. And what better way to raise the nitrogen level than with chicken manure. Manure from chickens and other poultry is an excellent source of nitrogen, potassium, and phosphate.

With that being said, here are the 5 REASONS TO RAISE CHICKENS IN THE CITY, compliments of Patrician Foreman, author of City Chicks: Keeping Micro-flocks of Chickens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-reyclers, and Local Food Producers and Organic Gardening. I hope you enjoy the read – cheers to your health 🙂

#1. Urban chickens as bargain-basement backyard city workers.

Foreman concludes that the most economic and politically compelling reason to keep hens is to recycle food and yard waste, therefore keeping it out of landfills as it composts into an invaluable organic soil builder for your garden. The idea is that you feed your chickens kitchen scraps, they poop out a nitrogen-rich fertilizer, and you compost it with leaves and other untreated yard waste.

In fact, in Belgium, one city is actually giving three laying hens to 2,000 homes in an effort to reduce landfill costs. City officials expect to recover a significant portion of the $600,000 a year the city spends on dealing with this type of household “trash.” According to Foreman, a single chicken can biorecycle about seven pounds of food residuals in a month. If just 2,000 households raise three hens, it could divert 252 tons of waste from landfills annually.

#2. City chickens as a backyard organic exterminating service.

Chickens love to eat protein-packed insects, which works out well because they can serve as the organic pest-cleanup crew in your garden and devour ticks on your property. They also love to eat many weeds, and serve as post-harvest garden bed gleaners, potentially making your work as a gardener very, very easy.

#3. Urban chickens as soil savers.

The health of our food is tied directly to the health of our soil. And chickens perform multiple functions that can turn parts of our boring old yards into fertile garden patches. Their natural scratching and digging tendencies serve them well and can help you create top-notch garden beds. They are expert in mixing manure with mulch to create raised beds, which allow you to grow more produce in a smaller space and use less water, which is particularly useful to urban gardeners. They also act as gasoline-free, noise-free tillers, mixing the top layers of soil with compost or other mulches. (OK, they’re not completely noise-free, but hens sure do make cute noises, adding entertainment value for the whole family!)

#4. Heritage-breed city chickens as an extinction-prevention task force.

Because factory-farm operations prefer pretty much the same type of high-volume laying breeds (or in the case of meat, heavy, fast-growing meat birds), the preservation of rare, heritage breeds is threatened. If we lose these beautiful breeds, we wipe out genetic material from a species, perhaps losing genes that could save the poultry industry one day if the standard production breeds fall susceptible to illness. To learn more about heritage breeds, check out What’s the Best Chicken for You.

#5. Urban chickens as antidepressants.

Ever hear of oxytocin, the love hormone? It’s a stress-lowering chemical in your body that’s unleashed when you hug someone you love, or even pet your dog or cat. And anyone who has raised backyard chickens can probably contend the same effect holds true for hens. Believe it or not, Foreman says, there are actually hens employed as therapy chickens! That’s something to cluck about!

If your set on having your own chickens, but need some information on small flocks and housing them, there are two books out that can answer your questions. Check out these 2 books which can be purchased for amazingly cheap prices.

Keep Chickens! Tending Small Flocks in Cities, Suburbs, and Other Small Spaces
By Barbara Kilarski – Can be picked up for under $10.00

Living with Chickens: Everything You Need to Know to Raise Your Own Backyard Flock
By Jay Rossier – can be bought new or on Kindle for $10.00