I need your pros and cons of owning your backyard flock!

[Attack Chicken]

I'm doing a powerpoint on keeping a backyard flock of chickens. I own chickens myself but I would like to hear what everyone else thinks about keeping chickens. Tell me your goods and bads of chicken keeping!

I am hoping to convince some people to go ahead and start a little flock of their own. Thanks everyone!

 

[TheNo-NameChick]

Pro's- fresh eggs daily!
Amusement

Cons- cleaning coop
start-up expense

 

[For-The-Love-Of-Chickens]

Pros:
Children learning responsibility
Eggs
Entertainment
5 am morning wake up call from our roo
Eat bugs and dandilions


Cons:
Finding someone you trust to care for them so you can go away- feeling "tied to the coop"
Unexpected expenses for things like mites, lice, worms, injuries, predator attacks, etc.

 

[danielle82]

Heres my pros and cons

Pros ~Knowing where your meat/eggs come from, the health of the birds producing them
~Something to watch while you drink morning coffee

~Teaching your children responsibility and compassion
~Your own compost
~More opportunities to learn things


Cons ~Worrying about predators
I

 

[goldielocks]

Here are my pros and cons

Pros:

Having little fluffy things excited to see you each time you go outside.

Entertainment

Good Eggs

Colorful Eggs: Terra cotta red, chocolate brown, blue, mint green, aqua, olive green, pink, cream, light brown, med brown and speckled brown.

Roosters crowing and watching the sun come up over the pond.

Cons:

Daily up keep of coop cleaning and water filling, which is really a small chore for what they give back.

I am one of those clean freaks so water must be changed out twice daily and feeders are full 24/7, scraps a couple of times a day and then playtime each evening while being watched. Cleaning the coop twice weekly. So far so good on the predators. We have our coop and run built like fort knox. No chicken wire here.

 

[debilorrah]

The only con I can come up with is cleaning the coops.

 

[Bedste]

Pros

Grandkids have fun helping out when they come over or spend the night
teaching tool for kids
FRESH eggs
Wake up cockledoodledooooooo
Fertilizer for plants and gardens
Free Ranging helps keep down the bugs
very relaxing to watch-theroputic
make cute noises talking to eachother
fresh meat
Dog feels protective and responsible to keep preditors away

Cons

having to kill extra roos
flies
preditor awareness
Dog occasional jealousy

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

CONS? Are there cons? LOL I never found any yet. Even cleaning out the coop is not that bad.

Our biggest thing when it comes to pros is the MUCH healthier eggs for your family. If you look up the vitamin info you will see that Farm fresh eggs (free ranged) will have way less bad cholesterol and more of the good, more omega 3, and much more of the heathier vitamins then the caged ones. AND your chickens all have personalities as well and really do become part of the family. Heck our birds join us in our picnics LOL

Oh and we can't forget about the WONDERFUL fertilizer they make for a very lush garden

I also have not seen a spider in my house since they have run of our yard. The go up next to the house and eat anything near it

Less woodticks on our dogs WAY less! We live out in the county on 20 acres and the dogs used to have TONS of ticks on them. Not now. I think I pulled off three ticks this whole year.

Oh I know there are more pros but I have to sit and think. LOL

 

[Feathered Wings]

Pros

You get to see little chicks hatch

Fresh Eggs

Profit you can sell what you hatch or sell their eggs

They eat lots of bugs

They don't mind eating leftover vegs

Entertaining

You meet lots of wonderful chicken owners who become friends


Cons

Cost of feeding them

Cost of housing and up keep

Coop cleaning

Predators always seem to be lurking

Noisy roosters

Mean rooster

Euthanasia

The heartache that you have when one passes or one is lost to a predator

 

[ducks4you]

Silly AttackChicken!!---didn't you vote?!?!?!?
https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=232357

Lots of "other" reasons to find here.