Backyard Chickens

The age old question still stands…which came first, the chicken or the egg?  While Rob Ludlow probably can’t answer that question he has answers to almost every other chicken question in the book.  Have chickens?  Want chickens?   Have chicken questions?  Come to the Cal State Flower, Food & Garden Show to get the scoop on everything chicken including their coop.  Rob Ludlow, owner of www.BackYardChickens.com will be a speaker at our show.  There are 72,000 members of BYC (Back Yard Chickens) promoting their new vision “A chicken in every yard”.

According to Rob the three contributing factors to the new trend of backyard chickens are self sufficiency, eggs from chickens raised humanely, and the fact that chickens are a multi-purpose pet.  Here is what he had to say about each:

• Many people want to become more self sufficient and take part in the grow-local and slow-food movements.  Unfortunately most people do not have the resources (land, time, money) to have a huge garden and raise cows, pigs, etc.  Having a handful of egg laying hens in a relatively small yard allows people to participate in these “movements” without having to move.

• There is a preference for eggs from chickens that were raised humanely.  Most eggs come from chickens that are crammed into tiny cages without room to turn around or stretch their wings.  When you collect eggs from your backyard flock you know exactly how they were treated and cared for.

• There is a growing awareness of how fun and easy it is to raise backyard chickens, and realize that chickens are a multi-purpose pet!  Chickens eat the bugs and weeds in your yard, generate fantastic fertilizer and of course are a pet that makes you breakfast!

As I interviewed Rob there were several basic questions that flew through the conversation.

1. Are there more benefits to raising chickens besides just for the food?

There is a growing awareness of how fun and easy it is to raise backyard chickens, and realize that chickens are a multi-purpose pet!  Chickens eat the bugs and weeds in your yard, generate fantastic fertilizer and of course are a pet that makes you breakfast!  Surprisingly, they also have a bit of personality and are always active.  Unlike dogs or cats, chickens are always doing something whether it be interacting with each other or interacting with the environment (which usually involves exploring and looking for food).

     2. If you let the chickens out of their coop to eat bugs won’t they try to fly away?

Not usually.  Chickens are pretty domesticated animals and tend to stay close to their coop which contains their food, roosts, nest boxes, etc.  Once in a very rare case a chicken may jump up on, and over a fence to explore for more things to eat, but this is rarely an issue if you have enough space and things for them to do on your side of the fence.  Also, chickens aren’t very good at flying, and when people have a chicken that likes to explore a bit more than they should you can always trim their wings: http://www.backyardchickens.com/LC-wingclipping.html

    3.  If you choose to let your chickens eat in and around your garden, you can only garden organically then (i.e.- no pesticides)

Chickens are omnivores, so they eat bugs, meat, and they love plants.   That being the case, it probably isn’t a great idea to allow them to spend too much time in your garden, or you may be left with stubs.   Some people let their chickens have brief visits to the garden to scratch around a little, and in those cases organic pesticides would be appropriate and shouldn’t be a problem.

    4.  Do the chickens get upset when you take their eggs?

After a chicken lays an egg it usually leaves the nest to go on with its day.   The only time a chicken will mind you trying to get an egg is when it is “broody” or sitting on a clutch of eggs that she is trying to incubate / hatch.   Many breeds of chickens have the “broody” nature bred out of them, so this rarely happens.

    5.  What if I have outdoor dogs?  Can they get along?

While there are many reports from thousands of chicken owners that their dogs and chickens get along great, we don’t advise leaving them together unsupervised.   Many dogs still have a deep “chase and kill” instinct deep inside and we often see reports of someone saying, “I thought my dog couldn’t harm a fly and when I got home all my chickens were dead.”   Examples here

    6.  Are there plants I can’t grow if I have chickens roaming in the backyard? (what plants are harmful to them?)

Click Here for a great article with oodles of chicken treats (good and bad) and many that can be grown at home.   

You don’t have to be a farmer, have a degree in animals or even be incredibly knowledgeable in the subject to start raising chickens in your backyard.  Do what Rob did, just get interested and go for it.  He got the idea from his brother who lives in a suburban area and got chickens.  Rob found this odd and interesting and then found himself with 5 chicks from a friend who had some eggs hatch.  They have been at it ever since.  Rob’s education background is in business administration, technology and the internet.  Far from an ag degree, everything Rob learned came from reading online and interacting with other experts in the BYC community.   Rob encourages everyone, even those in a suburban city, like his in San Francisco, to raise a chicken; get involved with BYC to help you out & enjoy the “taste of the self-sufficient, rural life”.

By: Joy Sailor