Ideal Bite

Raising Backyard Hens

Need another reason to get the kids outside?

05.18.2009

Submitted by alara on Sun, 05/17/2009 - 11:00pm.

The Bite:

Out the door they go: raise egg-laying chickens in your own backyard. Yep, right outside your urban or suburban home (check with your town ordinances), you can teach kids to care for a small flock, plus you'll have fresh organic eggs every morning.

The Benefits:

Liberating hens. Each hen needs only 3-4 square feet of outdoor living space - doable even for city peeps - and that's still bigger than the battery cages forced on factory hens.
Shutting out chems. Organic seeds, corn, grains, and fresh greens - the stuff you'll feed your hens - are free of antibiotics, so the eggs will be free from 'em too.
Locking in (really) local food. Gathering eggs in a bucket from your yard, instead of picking up store-bought eggs, saves loads of CO2 emissions and packing materials.
Opening up good taste. Kiddos'll see that eggs don't actually come from cartons at the grocery store. Plus, fresh eggs? Delish.

Wanna Try:

Chicken Keeping - website primer on raising backyard hens; includes resources for buying chicks or hens, plus how-tos on housing, care, feeding, and dealing with predators.
The Chicken Shack - basic henhouse with waterproof roof to keep your egg layers safe from predators (raccoons or the neighborhood cat), plus provide shelter; also matching play yard so they can roam a bit ($165-$199).
Chicken Coops: 45 Building Plans for Housing Your Flock - a guide to DIY chicken coops of all sizes ($14).
All Purpose Organic Chicken Soap - vegetable-based liquid soap lightly scented with green-apple-skin oil to clean and sanitize your chickens, and their eating and living areas ($12/2 pounds).
DIY Bite: Line an old Easter egg or fruit basket with a dish towel to gather eggs.

Timeout

India and Mette Peluce, ages 4 and 8, have a cool "pollo palace" in their LA, CA, backyard - with a special guest. They found a turkey egg in the wild and one of their hens sat on it until it hatched, so now the vegetarian family has a massive turkey who will live out his natural life with the hens. The girls are pictured here with one of their chicks.

Bang For The Bite

If 10,000 Mama Biters raise two hens each in their backyards, we'll collectively generate an average of 600,000 factory-free eggs every month.

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Yankinsheffield on May 18, 2009 at 06:19 AM 1

Check your local area for battery hen rescue charities. In the UK, we have the Battery Hen Welfare Trust (http://www.bhwt.org.uk/index.php). You get to provide a loving home for hens that have never been in their own space. Also, your local petting zoo/children's farm may have hens to buy for a small donation.

Susan Bernardo on May 22, 2009 at 12:26 PM 2

A friend e-mailed me this link because she knows I raise chickens...we have had our little flock here in Encino, CA for two years now and my boys (ages 5 and 11) love them.. Their friends LOVE to come over and do "chicken round-up", pet the chickens. check for eggs, etc. We built our own coop out of scrap lumber...we've learned a LOT about chickens, local predators, life cycles and using chicken poop for fertilizer. Now my son's elementary school has built a coop in the school garden and we hatched chicks (and a surprise duck!) in the school science lab....and several other families have started backyard flocks of tbeir own. We are even starting a 4-H club! Raising chickens is EASY and CONTAGIOUS ;) --Susan Bernardo aka "The Crazy Chicken Lady of Encino"

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Need another reason to get the kids outside?

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Bang For The Bite

Tips Like This

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