Backyard chicken farmers: How many are there?

[jdeconto]

Hi, folks. I'm a journalist in NC working on a story about backyard chicken farmers. It definitely seems to be a growing practice. Are any of you aware of any statistics that show the growth of backyard chicken farming over time?

Thank you,

Jesse DeConto
Staff Writer
News & Observer
Raleigh, North Carolina
919-932-8760

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

jdeconto, welcome to the forum and thanks for your interest in our community.

While I know for sure that this is definitely a growing trend (backyard chickens), unfortunately I don't have access to any long term trend data (I became the owner of this site only 6 months ago and don't have access to stats before that time).

I wonder if Cindi (chickchair) has access to any information from ezboard that would show the stats over time.

Please keep us posted on your article (we'd love to see a copy) and feel free <hint> to mention our site www.BackYardChickens.com in your article!

 

[jdeconto]

Thanks, Nifty-Chicken. Do you know how many members are registered for your forum or how many unduplicated hits your Web site gets in a day or a week or a month? Those might be an interesting statistics.

Jesse DeConto

 

[Wolfpacker]

Hey.

Raleigh native here.

Can't wait to see the story. Any idea when it will run? My girls are "inside the beltliners" and boy has their coop's property value risen!

 

[jdeconto]

Hi Wolfpacker,

Speaking of "inside the beltline," have you heard of the Henside the Beltline Tour d'Coop? It's a summer backyard poultry tour.

Jesse

 

[Wolfpacker]

Yes. This year it was on my birthday. It's usually in May. We've been out of town both years they've had it so we missed it.

 

[TreyClark281]

i just got my chickens and i love them but i only got 1 egg from them lol!
they are very quiet birds and are better than dogs, i think lol. you don't have to walk them, you don't have to scold them for getting into the trash, there feed is cheaper!!! and no accidents in the house lol.

 

[EweSheep]

If you talking about "backyard" city folks like me having chickens in the city, yep, there are plenty of them out there. I live in Illinois and have eight pullets of different sizes and breeds. I am hoping someone has some poultry tours going on in our state.

If you got any questions, feel free to ask!

 

[Sharona]

I'm in Illinois too and boy o' boy - a poultry tour!?

I would LOVE that!

 

[Nifty-Chicken]

The backyard chickens movement is definitely a growing trend, especially in the urban / suburban areas throughout the world. Members of our online community often comment on the many reasons for keeping their own backyard flocks. A few of the most common reasons include wanting to feel more self sufficient while knowing that they are getting their food (eggs and/or meat) from a chicken that was treated humanely and ate only what the owners wanted them to eat.

One of the ways we notice the tremendous growth in small flock raising is by the growth of our 7 month old community message board at www.BackyardChickens.com/forum. It already has 3,000+ members and is growing by about 18 new members per day! Per "Google Analytics" the BYC forum and site see 3,000 "Absolute Unique Visitors" per day and 2.5 million pageviews a month.