is there any way you can just go on a smaller scale, that is if you really want to keep chickens? I thought about starting out with 10-15 chickens but re-thought the number of them and started with 2, now I have 4 and that is so manageable for me...i'm getting between 4 to 5 eggs a day, cleaning is easy and i actually enjoy going out to the pen every day as watering and feeding is not a chore and the flock is small enough that my kids can manage it when I don't feel like going out there....sorry about the craziness you're experiencing though...