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Originally Posted by MauiGirl  You about said most of what was on my mind after watching my daughter have 13 chickens, and she even had a nice coop in her 2 acre yard. She had several different fancy kinds, some laid blue eggs, most were brown. I was shocked at how much chickens eat.... all your scraps, peelings, and expired fruits and veggies, PLUS tons of food pellets. They must have plenty of clean water daily, which means you have to clean the container because they poop in it. Have you ever smelled chicken poop? It almost made me not want to eat eggs. Fun when they get bird mites, and you have to give them a bath in a 5 gallon bucket of treated water. And if you don't get rid of the mites they can get on you, in your house, your bedding and make life miserable. One hen got a scratch on her leg from the wire, and the others proceeded to peck her to death.
The grand finale in her chicken experience was when the neighbors dog broke into the coop and killed all by 4. Luckily her boyfriend discovered it and cleaned up the massacre before anyone else saw it. Oh, and guess what, she realized she didn't need 13 eggs a day, couldn't even give them away fast enough, and wow.... Costco sells beautiful organic brown eggs for much less than the cost of chicken feed.
Wow..... that was a rant. Guess you know what I think about chickens    |
Ha ha, it sounds like something you really have to be committed to before you can really do it, kind of like owning a Yorkie! One of my best friends in high school, lived on a chicken farm and I helped her wash eggs, so yes I smelled a lot of chicken poop. They washed them in something like cascade dishwasher detergent, at least that's what it smelled like, and that mixed with the poop was very unpleasant. Does she even know what a good friend I was?
Raising chickens is definitely not cost effective, antibiotics, worming medicine, lice dusting, straw, food, it all adds up.