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Are you thinking of adding chickens to your homestead or backyard? Chickens make a great starter animal for new homesteaders or someone just wanting to know where their food comes from.
Here are my top 5 reasons for adding chickens to your homestead or backyard (where allowed).
Eggs.
Maybe the most obvious reason to raise chickens. Once they start to lay, you’ll have a steady supply of fresh eggs. You’ll also know what is or isn’t in your fresh eggs.
We don’t throw away anything we can reuse around the homestead. I was the eggshell let them dry and powder them to add into our garden or compost pile.
Natural Pest Control.
Chickens are omnivores and love to rid spaces of bugs. You can let your chickens’ free-range to help control the ticks and other bugs in your yard. Chickens enjoy grasshoppers, termites, caterpillars, worms, slugs, fly eggs and pupae, beetles, weevils, spiders, centipedes, and snails. If you consider it to be a pest, your hen will probably enjoy it for lunch.
Natural Fertilizer.
When you have animals, you have manure and manure equals black gold. Once composted chicken manure is some of the best fertilizer for your garden and lawns.
Natural Tillers.
Chickens are excellent tillers for your garden. Their natural scratching and hunting for bugs eliminates weeds and helps break up the ground. Several homesteaders have made little chicken tunnels for the chickens to help with weeds and bugs. I wouldn’t just let them free-range in the garden they will eat and dig up all your plants.
Low Maintenance.
In my experience chickens are one of the easiest animals to keep and care for. After they’re fully feathered out and settled into their coop, you’ll only need to spend around 20 minutes a day caring for them.
Making sure your hens have plenty of food and water, throwing out scraps, and checking for eggs. It’s the first outside chores my kids get the responsibility of doing, plus they love gathering the eggs, especially when you have hens that lay a variety of egg colors.
A bonus of raising chickens is the entertainment they become. Each chicken has its own little quirks and personality which really come out when you throw a can of worms in the pen. They all fight for the bugs. They also can become friendly just like a pet if you play with your chickens from the time you get them.
These are my top 5 reasons for raising chickens. What are your reasons? Did I leave anything out?
I would be so lost without our chickens! They do so much good for our homestead – from compost to bug control! And, like you said, they really are so low maintenance! Plus, they are just fun! I really enjoy just sitting and watching them do their funny little bird stuff! 😀
I enjoy watching them do their funny bird stuff too! Especially when they are fighting over a bug or piece of grass.
I want to get chickens so bad! I just dread the thought of winter care (maybe I can talk the kids into that part!)
I have my kids do them in the winter lol. Plus the chickens are so much fun my kids like taking care of them.
We had chickens for a few years and loved it! They are so entertaining and you can’t beat the egg quality and knowing exactly what they ate! Unfortunately, we have less than a quarter acre and our kids got to the age where they needed a swing set so we gave them to my sister. One day I hope we have some again! Great post!
Hopefully, your sister is close enough to still get a few eggs from now and then. I know sometimes I have eggs running out my ears!