Dear All, Today, the NYTimes has an article about keeping chickens in your backyard.  http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/business/04chickens.html?th&emc=th  Is htis article helpful to you? 

Yours in Hiiim, Deb

$1500 for a chicken coop?? Good grief. The problem with the backyard chicken folks that the NYT interviewed (I don't know what else I expected from them) is that these people are trying to raise very small flocks like the commercial guys do and it just doesn't work like that. You can get by a lot cheaper than building fancy coops and buying every tiny bit of food for them. 

I'd have chickens in my backyard, but this town doesn't allow it.  Even if it did, my neighbors would probably complain. 

Its all fine and good to want to raise chickens but there is a "reality check" involved the first time you have to "harvest" one of those chickens. The article doesn't mention that side of it. Its not a lifestyle you can jump into and adapt to, especially if you've been a city dweller. I give them kudos for trying but this gal from Southern California still remembers the first time she saw a deer harvest.

Toni B.:

Its all fine and good to want to raise chickens but there is a "reality check" involved the first time you have to "harvest" one of those chickens.

 

I thought about that, too. The article mentioned that if you couldn't buy meat for the week, you could just go out and kill a chicken. I wonder how many would even know how, much less be able to do it, then eat it? 

Pat:

$1500 for a chicken coop?? Good grief. The problem with the backyard chicken folks that the NYT interviewed (I don't know what else I expected from them) is that these people are trying to raise very small flocks like the commercial guys do and it just doesn't work like that. You can get by a lot cheaper than building fancy coops and buying every tiny bit of food for them. 

Wow! My chickens are not that pampered. We have an old dog pen that DH bought years ago and was not being used, so he got it, and they sleep in an old coop that his aunt gave us because she wasn't going to use it anymore, she hadn't used it in years. So we cleaned it real good and it only cost us the time and the gas used to haul it to our house. We feed them scraps from the kitchen and garden. Mom likes to save them her scraps too. We supplement with feed. We spent a few dollars on a feeder and waterer, but that was used when they were little and now they eat from a pan and drink from an old, but clean, plastic foot tub. Simply can't see the need to spend a fortune for them, that would defeat the purpose. JMHO, but some people just don't get it when it comes to frugality, or rather don't want to get it. Living frugally means that we use our brains to figure things out first, before we spend money at our house. Brain power is free and the more you use it, the more it will offer you.

We do have plans for a winter house for the chickens and have been gathering the things needed to build it. So far we haven't spent any money. If you put the word out for what you want, someone usually will offer it to you for free, just be patient. But then we are not trying to be a factory ooperation. My concern with this article is that if someone is thinking about it, that it could scare them because of the cost. Raising chickens is just like everything else that we do, we make the choice to do it frugally. But that is JMHO.

 My city doesn't allow chickens in the back yard, at this point in time, but Provo, the larger city to the north, just amended their code to allow up to 6 chickes per household in the back yard, so hopefully down the road we may be able to keep som. Fresh eggs taste so much better than those from the store.

Our coop was an old dog pen with nest boxes wired to a wall and some long branches for perches.  We covered it with a truck bed liner, and put tarps on the outside in cold weather.   Since we're in the South, this was really healthier than a closed building.  Of course, if we'd put that up in the city the neighbors would complain about the looks.    Still, you can often find something that will do the job for fairly cheap. 

Good articial debra.   Hi pat when desprate times come people slatter a chicken to eat yes its gross not to me if your hungry wow they go for it..  Congrad on the chickens in the back yard and the heck with what people think they think here in urban area were I live growing the cows are gross I grew up with it yes it might be gross to them but its our food this is the last year we did it because of dads and moms health problems me I could have went three more years then thats that but the cost of feed even chicken feed went up if people are seriouse doing it good for them they don't have to have a fancey shelter just to keep out the rain and wind and from the cold have a flat ramp close to the floor make a box for each hen there you got it but laws and learning how to do it I sudget the 4-H groups or the unnaverity in your area to learn how to do it then have the means land for it then really go for it I have no problem for people to di it in thier yard as long as they clean the mess up then they have it made....