I officially moved in with my boyfriend when I sublet my place at the end of March 2022 and he has chickens! Which means I have chickens! That was easier than I thought crossing off bucket list item #30. Our chickens are named Sally, Chicken, Speckle, and Spaz.
Pros of chickens
- They give you fresh, natural, organic eggs! I can’t tell you how fun it is to go and gather up some eggs and then to eat them. No containers, no waste, just fresh, lovely eggs.
- They’re chickens. They’re fun to look at. One of them will let you pick her up. Two of them are adorable babies.
- It’s fun to make something from scratch.
- They’re still fairly low maintenance pets on the whole.
Cons of chickens
- I don’t think they’re cost-effective. The chickens we have are so cute, but two of them are babies so don’t lay eggs yet, so we still have to buy eggs. Boyfriend has also invested in cameras and heaters and a chicken coop and a greenhouse and food for them to thrive and that stuff ain’t cheap. The chickens themselves cost $25 each, which gives you a false sense of cheapness.
- You worry about them when you leave for vacation.
- And for good reason. They die. Every person I’ve met who has had chickens has a story about how one or many of them died. They’re susceptible to everything, tasty to everyone, and beyond stupid, so they die. We’ve had two of ours eaten by some wild animal.
- When you get them as babies, it’s nearly impossible to tell if you have girls or boys. Roosters are not allowed to live within city limits because they’re loud af, so you buy these babies and you get attached to them and then you have to return them to the farm to supposedly live out their days, but in reality probably to get killed pretty quickly. It’s a terrible process. Speckle above might still turn out to be a male.
- They come into your house when you accidentally leave the door open and they poop on your kitchen floor. Annoying.
- You have to clean their coop if you don’t let them roam around.
- If you do let them out of the coop to run around, they’ll eat all your plants that are still babies.
I know the con list is longer than the pro list, but I love having them!
I love that the third chicken’s name is “chicken.”
That’s the one I named! 😀
They sound cute, but dirty. I love your blog. So glad you are posting more often.
They’re disgusting. Especially the ones with the long feathers.
I love chickens too! My grandparents had a large farm in Canada and I loved the chickens! My grandma would buy 100 chicks every spring. She kept them in a coop with an outdoor enclosure. My sister and brother and I would bring fresh grass to the enclosed baby chicks to supplement the grain they ate. Once they were large enough, about mid summer, she would let the chicks out and they would free range with the older chickens. They would all come back to the chicken coop at night. My cousin took over the family farm and there are no chickens now. I miss the sound of the roosters crowing when I visit. To this day, I still love that sound, and it bring back all the good memories of our family farm. Good for you that you are having such a fun life!
100 chickens! Oh goodness. I’m sure many of them die, but still! 100 chickens!
Hah! I love your honesty of the con list. But anyone who keeps chickens has a lot of reasons for it. I’d still like to try it someday.
I recommend it!
Chickens may be a lot of work, but you seem happy!
Extremely!
Omg, I got chickens during the height of covid. I don’t know, maybe I thought we were entering a zombie apocalapse and I needed to have eggs to survive. Either way, they are really awesome and yes, not super cost effective lol. My son laughs at me because he hears me in the mornings checking on them and talking baby talk while I give them treats lol.
LMAO! That’s exactly why and when Boyfriend got chickens.
“4. When you get them as babies, it’s nearly impossible to tell if you have girls or boys.”
There is a profession called Chicken Sexer and these people amazingly can determine the gender. The interesting thing though is that they cannot teach you how to do it, they can’t articulate what they see that allows them to determine between male and female. I believe it’s known as “perceptual learning”. I first read about this in Joshua Foer’s book “Moonwalking with Einstein” and have seen it in several places since.
Any update on #44?
Isn’t that crazy!? What a cool concept. I’m putting Moonwalking with Einstein on my to-read list.
And yes, #44 should now be crossed off too. 😀
Congratulations Anita….just read all 3 posts together
Thanks!
I’m thrilled that you’re posting more frequently now! I’d love to see a future post on the pros and cons of living in Denver.
Okay!
Oooh! Speckle looks adorable, haha.
When I was a kid, someone told me that if you raise baby ducks, they’ll imprint on you and think that you’re their parent. Do chickens do that too?
I don’t know! We want to get eggs so we can raise them from egghood to adulthood. I’ll keep you updated!
Hi Anita! We also had a Spaz – one of my favoritess, but she died. We’ve had lots of chickens die – two of mysterious circumstances, the rest coyotes and hawk attacks. It’s all worth it for their cute little coos and of course the eggs. My suggestion is to buy them when they’re pullets, about 6-8 months old. You’re slightly less emotionally invested when they die, and they start laying eggs quicker. Fun chicken fact: the average chicken runs 9 mph and the average human can only run 8, which is why you always feel (and look) like a jackass chasing them around the yard.
Since I published this article, Speckle died of mysterious circumstances and Spaz turned out to be a rooster, so my boyfriend ate him.
We’re planning on getting fertilized eggs the next time we’re ready for more because we want friendly chickens we can pick up and my boyfriend wants to eat the roosters that come of it.
That IS a fun fact about chickens and their running speed relative to ours! Thanks for commenting. It’s good to hear from you!