Benefits of Backyard Chickens

With food security concerns and grocery stores having empty shelves, lots of people are turning to local farms, planting victory gardens and buying out farms stores of day old chicks. Having your own backyard chickens can not only add to your food security, but also provide some other amazing benefits. ​

Eggs
Even if you do not want to raise your chickens for meat or want to have a rooster, you can still have a few laying hens to provide a supply of eggs. Each hen will lay one egg every 26 hours. However, this will slow down in the winter if you live in a cold and northern climate. 

Meat
While you can just keep chickens to lay eggs, you can also raise chickens for meat. Either old layers turned into stew hens or a couple of broilers for baking, roasting or frying. 


Bug Control
There is nothing a chicken likes more than running around and eating bugs. Having a few chickens in your backyard will help keep down the bugs. 

Kitchen Scraps
All those kitchen scraps and veggie peelings? Give them to your chickens to turn into eggs, meat and fertilizer. Just don’t give them potato peels, they don’t sit well with them. 

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Garden Fertilizer
What goes in must come out. In the form of rich manure, perfect for composting into rich garden fertilizer. For free. 

Teach Kids 
What better way to teach kids where food comes from then raising it in the backyard? Or teach kids responsibility by having them help care for chickens. Kids might enjoy it so much that they want to enter 4-H to learn more and show at the local county fair. 


Food Security and Autommity 
Not only will you be able to rest easy knowing you have your own supply of fresh eggs and meat, but you get to control exactly how you raise your chickens. Want Organic eggs? Then choose organic feed and no antibiotics. Soy free? Choose a soy free ration, you might have to look harder but they are out there. 

With so many amazing benefits to having your own flock of chickens, you will wonder why you didn’t get your own flock of hens sooner. Want to learn how to start your chicks? Head to our blog post Your Guide to Starting Chicks ​

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