City Chicks: Why - and How to - Raise Chickens

Recently I posted about financial considerations when raising chickens in your backyard. But as anyone who raises chickens in a small way will tell you, it's not really about the money. Fresh, wholesome eggs is usually the biggest reason people begin raising hens, but if you're wondering what other benefits there are, I highly recommend Patricia Foreman's book City Chicks: Keeping Micro=flocks of Laying Hens as Garden Helpers, Compost Makers, Bio-recyclers and Local Food Suppliers. This information-packed title covers just about every reason a person could have for raising chickens in the backyard, from the entertainment value to environmental factors. It also offers plenty of practical advice and how-tos.

If you have any type of garden, one of your favorite chapters will likely be "Gardening with Chickens." Here, the author explains how to safely let your chickens "free range" in your garden without ruining your plants, and how best to handle their manure. (Too much chicken manure in one location makes the soil "hot;" that means it can make your plants sickly - and could even kill them. But properly applied chicken manure is an excellent organic fertilizer.) Foreman's methods are simple. Using a "chicken tractor" (i.e. a moveable chicken coop) or just a fence of chicken wire and stakes, you can direct your chickens into areas where you want them to till (dig), fertilize (poop), and destroy pests (chow down). The author also recommends other ways to keep hens away from desirable plants, including plant fences, poultry portals, and more. Letting chickens feast in your yard is not only good for the garden, it's good for the hens. But garden worms and insects aren't enough to keep hens alive. You'll have to supplement - although you may not need to buy most supplements, as Foreman explains in her chapter on growing food for chickens. It also turns out chickens can eat anything humans eat, so if you don't compost food, or you hate throwing away food that can't be composted (like meat), chickens are terrific recyclers. A unique and super-useful chart is included in this book to help you compare chicken breeds according to how much they lay, how large their eggs are, how good they are for meat, what special needs they might have, what their personalities tend to be, and more. There's also a chapter on creating a comfortable, sanitary, and safe chicken coop, full information on how to raise chicks, ideas on starting a chicken-related business, a chapter on teaching children to care for chickens, two chapters on being your chicken's doctor, information on working with and changing your city's chicken-related ordinances, sensible ideas about egg storage (hint: store bought eggs are months old; fresh backyard eggs last quite a long time), and a great chapter on becoming a "chicken whisperer." I am especially thankful for tips on using chicken manure (although more information on aging manure and using it for compost tea would make the book even stronger) and for insights on such things as how to prevent hens from pecking at each other. (Turns out, they usually just need more protein or oil in their diet.) I also learned how to teach a chicken to do tricks, and that I shouldn't panic if one hen starts trying to mate with other females. (The author rather crassly calls this "dike queens in feathers," but older hens experience hormone drops that encourage them to take over the role of roosters. The author also makes a good case for how clean chickens are. All in all, this is a wonderfully informative book, and a must have if you're raising hens or considering raising them.
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