h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Why Keep Chickens?

People keep chickens for different reasons. Some keep a few hens for eggs, and see them primarily as livestock. Others keep a few hens as pets that pay rent with eggs. Yet others don't see individual chickens as pets, but have realised that they see the flock as a whole as a pet*. Chickens are also helpful in the garden, as long as they can be kept out at key times. They eat insects, and some will eat slugs and snails. Other small garden pests may be hunted down, as well. Chickens can also be quite decorative, and some people do keep them chiefly as lawn ornaments--which can be a good retirement for senior hens who have slowed down laying* or a nice place for extra roosters to live*.

Not everyone that raises backyard poultry owns just a few hens. After all, some people have really big backyards. People with higher numbers of birds are less likely to see all their chickens as pets, though there may be special individual birds that are. If someone is able to have larger amounts of poultry, they are more likely to raise chickens for meat as well as eggs. Many people who do so, when accused of being cruel for raising their own meat, will point out that they make sure that their birds have a wonderful life with a bad few minutes on one day, as opposed to living in overcrowded conditions for their entire lives*. Larger flock keepers are also more likely to breed chickens--not least because many urban and suburban areas do not allow roosters! Some breeders breed to simply replenish their own flock, while others breed to sell to others. Some breed for egg production, some for meat production, some for appearance, and some breed to the Standard of Perfection (http://www.amerpoultryassn.com {until/unless I find a better link}).



*Which does make culling* individuals because of illness, behaviour, or any other reason a bit easier, because it's for the health of the flock.

*Culling is getting rid of a member of the flock in any way, rehoming as well as killing. Obviously, however, one would not rehome an ill bird.

*Chickens don't really stop laying, per se--the length of time between eggs simply increases as hens age. As the interval increases, so does the size of the eggs.

*Several roosters can live together peaceably if there are no hens about, and roosters are usually more colorful than hens.

*This sentence is the closest this entry is going to get to discussing large scale factory-farm chicken keeping vs. backyard chicken keeping.

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Busy day, plus technical difficulties, so I haven't had a chance to read other journals yet today. I'll start once this posts.

"Lawn ornaments"!

I had no idea that egg size was due to the age of the hen. I learned something new today!

I can't believe there are people out there who think it's cruel to raise your chickens as meat. Brave, maybe. There's no way I could kill a chicken. But that's as close as you get to the circle of life, surely?

Deb

Your journal brought a smile to my face, Amy. I think baby chicks are really cute. Adult chickens are less so.

When Batty had a stray hen living in her yard, she noticed that the hen could fly into the branches of a tree when the neighbor's dog chased her. Do you worry about your chickens flying away, Amy?

Egg size isn't *all* down to the age of the hen--breed also has a good deal to do with it. But I *do* get bigger eggs from my red sex links (I don't know how old they are--when I got them last fall, all the lady could tell me was that they were older than the wyandottes I got from her, which were almost old enough to start laying, and probably would've been, had the days not been getting shorter...) than someone with red sex links that started laying this year/

The people that think that it's cruel to eat something you've raised are often the same ones that think that meat comes from the store, and it gets there already wrapped. Then there's my girls, who might just lead a revolt if the chicks end up being males (too early to tell yet) and I don't choose the rehoming method of culling...

I'm not worried about my chickens flying away, because they all see their coop as home (probably be more about that, suitably devoid of first-person, in one of the later chunks) Plus, when I first got them, I clipped the feathers on one wing (each) to keep them from going over the fence.

Clipping just one wing? Not sure about that. Both wings so they can get two/three feet up and out of trouble but not the neighbor's yard (hope I spelled that right). One wing gives me a mental image of your chickens constantly spiralling around the coop. Say it ain't so, Amy

I, too, did nt know about older birds laying bigger eggs. Cool.

We used to have a pet rabbit when I was a kid. In Russia, rabbits are kept for food. People had a lot of difficulty with the idea that we hadn;t, in the fullness of time, eaten Snowy.

Clipping one wing still allows enough lift to get up to roosts and what-not (I'm speaking of just cutting feathers, here, so everything's back to normal after the next molt--or, if the hen's not actually done molting when you get her, you could be surprised a month or so later when you see that that hen you clipped has 2 full sets of primaries again. Not at all personal experience, nope, nuh-uh...) but not enough balance to get over fences. If you clip both, the combination of lift and balance can get a determined bird over a fence.