Many vegetable gardeners probably consider keeping chickens at some point—backyard chickens are a lot of fun and the eggs they produce are a delight. With the current price of groceries, there’s been a surge of interest in both veggie gardens and backyard chicken keeping. While we approve of both of these things—gardening is for everyone—chicken keeping is a bit more complex than growing vegetables. There’s more to consider both positive and negative, so let’s dig in and learn a bit about the pros and cons of keeping chickens in our backyards and gardens.
Keeping Chickens at Home
We’d like to say right up front that this is not a definitive guide to keeping chickens; there’s a lot more to be said on that subject than fits in a single blog. We recommend checking out the resources presented by the USDA and the online community “Backyard Chickens”. Both go into much more detail and provide more thorough advice than we can here. Our goal is to give you a basic introduction to the pros and cons of keeping chickens and some of the things you’ll want to consider before putting together a backyard flock for your own garden. Please bear that in mind and do some outside research to find the answers that are right for you and your potential birds.
The Pros of Raising Chickens
There are a lot of wonderful things about having chickens in your back yard or garden:
· Chickens are fun! These lively little birds bring a particular kind of vibrant joy to gardens and backyard spaces. They run around, play, socialize, and explore their spaces in ways that are both heartwarming and fun to watch. Like any other pet, chickens can make life a lot better if appropriately cared for and loved.
· Chickens make eggs! It sounds obvious—this is part of why we have domesticated chickens—but chickens do make eggs. How many, how often, and how large are all dependent on the breed, age, and conditions of the chicken in question, but most breeds of chickens lay pretty regularly. Fresh eggs almost every day is a real bonus to having backyard chickens.
· Chickens help our gardens! Carefully tended, chickens can be a real boon to our garden spaces. They eat bugs and other pests, help keep weeds down by consuming their seeds, and produce manure that—after composting—can add much needed nutrients to our soil. Tended properly, backyard chickens can make for a healthier and more productive backyard garden.
The Cons of Raising Chickens
Sadly, keeping backyard chickens isn’t all fun and games. There are some down sides to chicken keeping that we should all consider before bringing some home:
· Chickens are messy—and noisy! Like all animals, chickens produce waste and they can produce a lot of it. Put rather crudely, chickens poop a lot and all that feces has to be cleaned up by someone regularly. This isn’t a 100% bad thing; chicken coop is a great addition to a compost heap. But it can be smelly, needs to be cleaned regularly, and it’s one of those chores that’s easy to put off. Chickens also make a lot of noise, especially early in the morning, and that can be an issue for those of us with neighbors close by. Some local laws forbid keeping chickens in residential areas due to the potential for mess, noise, and other disturbances.
· Chickens need medical care—and it can get gross! Chickens are living beings, and like all living beings they’re prone to physical ailments. Chickens can get lice, worms, and other infections that require medical care. That medical care is generally delivered by their owner, and keeping chickens healthy requires regular care and attention to each bird. For those of us with busy schedules or who are away from home a lot, chickens may not be the right choice.
· Chickens need space—and plenty of company! You may see some website or other sources claiming that chickens only need 4 square feet/0.37 square meters of coop space per bird. Keeping chickens that way would be cruel, and the reality is that chickens need about 4 square feet/0.37 square meters per bird inside their coop—the secure house where they sleep at night—with an additional 10 square feet/1 square meter per bird of outdoor space to run around in during the day. Both of these spaces need to be secure—well built or well fenced in order to keep the birds safe and keep predators away. It can be a big investment; remember you have to clean all this too. As for the number of birds, the minimum number of chickens is two or three. These are social animals who need company from their own species and having just one chicken is neither fair nor kind.
Backyard Chickens and Gardens
This next bit is neither a pro nor a con, but rather a consideration for potential chicken keepers who also have gardens. Chickens like to scratch in the dirt, digging into it with their feet and beaks in search of food, in order to create a space to take a dust bath, or just for fun. They can and will scratch anywhere, including in your veggie garden, among your flowers, or in your landscaping. If you’re going to let chickens run around your yard—a wonderful thing for both them and you—it’s wise to take steps to keep them out of your garden spaces. Simple fencing or netting can do the job pretty well if mounted in a sturdy fashion. Just be careful that your birds can’t get tangled in it, as this may result in injury or at least a very upset chicken!
Are Chickens Right for Me?
We can’t tell you if keeping chickens is the right choice for you. All we can say is that chickens offer many wonderful things as backyard flocks and pets, but they also come with a lot of responsibilities for their care and health. If you’re considering getting your own home chickens, do some reading both here and at the sources we offer above and remember to put the welfare of the animals first. Gardening is for everyone but keeping chickens might not be; at the end of the day let’s err on the side of making a safe and humane decision.
We’re not experts but some of us at Gardzen have kept chickens before. If you have questions, please reach out in the comments or via email and we’ll help get you pointed in the right direction.
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