Raising Backyard Chickens

Will chickens change your life? To quote:

Ludlow, who is also co-author of such backyard-chicken-themed books as “Raising Chickens for Dummies” and “Building Chicken Coops for Dummies,” says people are increasingly interested in becoming more self-sufficient, and that chickens are easier to raise than cows, pigs and even large gardens. You can have a handful of egg-laying hens in a relatively small yard without drastically changing your lifestyle, he says.

There’s also increasing preference for eggs from chickens that were raised humanely, Ludlow says. When you collect eggs from your backyard flock, you know exactly how they were treated, fed and cared for, he explains.

A third element driving the backyard chicken trend, says Ludlow, is growing awareness of how fun and easy it actually is to do. “[Chickens are] a multipurpose pet,” he says. “They eat bugs and weeds in your yard, generate fantastic fertilizer and [even] make you breakfast.” (Read more.)