Keeping Chicken In The Garden – Chickens are a unique and interesting animals to raise. Unlike most household pets they produce something edible. In fact keeping chickens in the garden for pets can pay off in the long run by being a source of eggs and meat. This food will be fresher than what is purchased in the stores and with little effort can also be organic, truly cage-free, and anything else you wish.
Garden fertilizer
By keeping chickens in the back garden you can rotate between where you plant your garden and where the chickens roam around.
This allows the ground to both rebuild nutrients in the dirt and gives the chickens a change to do their business. This combined with their constant scratches will add extra fertilizer through the year.
Organic eggs
If you have ever bought organic and/or cage-free eggs you know they are expensive. These eggs can easily sell for 2 or 3 times the price of regular industrial farm eggs. Producing organic eggs and poultry is quite easy and cost effective. All you have to do is let them graze on chemical-free grass and feed them organic feed.
The personalities of chickens
If you have been around pets and other animals you will know that they often have their own personalities. Rearing chickens or raising hens are no different. Each of the chickens will have their own distinctive personality traits. You will be tempted to spoil them, pet them, and show them off to your neighbors and friends. Perhaps even give them names. Along with this chickens can be pleasing to look at, as each chicken will have their own plumage with varying colors and patterns.
Help the Earth
A benefit of raising chickens at home that has been recently come to light is by helping create an environmentally friendly backyard. Chickens love to roam around, grazing on your lawn and eating garden pests. This helps prevent the need for chemical pesticides and helps decreases lawn care. You can add to that that chickens turn everything they eat into organic fertilizer and even spread it around. Chickens along with worms produce some of the highest quality fertilizers. This eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers. All you need to provide is a good environment, food, water, and some free afternoons to enjoy watching them.
Low-maintenance
Whether raising chickens for meat, eggs, or both, compared to many of the other household animals that can be cared for as pets, are rather easy to care for. All they really require is to make sure their food is well stocked every day and the waterer remains full of fresh water. When they reach maturity and begin laying eggs, you will need to collect the eggs on a regular basis. Finally, their coop will need to be cleaned every other day or so and the coop bedding should be changed out every 3 to 4 weeks depending on the weather.
