There are a variety of reasons to keep chickens in urban environments. People have been keeping chickens in cities for centuries, and here are some of the benefits when you add chickens into your urban lifestyle:
Chicken eggs are a Local source of protein
If you live in an urban environment you can grow your own fresh fruits and vegetables in your backyard. When it comes to supplying your own source of protein however, it’s impossible to get your dog to lay breakfast each morning or fit a cow in your backyard. That’s why chickens are so wonderful! They are small, easy to care for, and won’t take up your entire yard.
Better Quality Foods
Fresh foods simply taste better! Also, when you raise your own eggs, you know what the animal ate, its living conditions, and how it was treated. No need to worry about food safety, antibiotics, or hormones.
Source of fertilizer
Chicken poop is high in nitrogen and great for your compost pile. Supply your backyard garden with compost made from chicken poop and watch your plants flourish!
Natural pest control
Got cockroaches, tomato horn worms, aphids, grubs, or any other pest you don’t want in your yard or garden? Chickens are great at controlling these pests naturally- no need to put nasty chemicals in your yard.
The following are some posts about our urban chickens:
- Little Ladies
It is funny watching the little chicks grow into hens. The two Cochin that we picked up are especially interesting/cute because of their feathery feet. The other Hens, lets call them the original cast members, Rose and Blanch are not to fond of wa...
- Saturday Morning Chores
[caption id="attachment_1176" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="The Aquaponic Hanging Garden is Filling in Great"][/caption] With all of the gardens and animals that our family has accumulated over the past few years we have a list of chores th...
- Meet the New Chicks!
[caption id="attachment_1160" align="alignnone" width="640" caption="The newset family members"][/caption] At breakfast this morning, Ricky and I decided that it might be a good idea to add a couple of new hens to our flock since the girls are aging...
- Big Egg Small Egg
Big Egg Small Egg, what comes next.. most likely molting. I think that Blanch are Barred Plymouth Rock may be going into her 3rd molt. The small egg, and then the extra feathers may be a tale tale sign that she is ready to shed out of her old feath...
- Backyard Garden Update
I shot the following video this morning from our Backyard. We have been crafting around in our spare time working on the aquaponics garden, finishing up the new chicken coop ad-on as well as building a new rabbit hutch for Dexter, our newest family mem...
- Saturday Mornings With Eli
It is no surprise to us that the other chicken Rose wanted nothing to with this.
- Tropical Chicken Coop Construction - Ch.1
I have been helping our friends build a chicken coop so that they can start raising there own hens and producing their own eggs. The week before I helped them build a compost pile so that they could start composting their yard waist on a larger scale, ...
- In Memory of Dorothy
I am sad, if I were to say differently I would be lying. This morning when I went out to the chicken coop to give the girls more water and food I noticed that Dorothy, our Gold Laced Wyandotte was lying on the bottom of the coop underneath where th...
- Organic Garden Plots
Shade Garden Our shade garden is starting to take off with the rest of our vegetable gardens. This is the the area that is directly outside of our living room where we keep our fish tank and our seedlings. One of the cymbidium orchid plants that ...
- "My Country Pond"
Last Saturday we decided to get out of the house for a little so Lyndsey got on Craig's List and found a lady that sales water plants out her yard in Imperial Beach. We didn't quite know what to expect when we got there, but upon our arrival we wer...
- Yard Work
This past week was so nice out that Ricky and I spent alot of time working in the yard. I am so glad that spring is here and summer is right around the corner. I kind of feel like I missed out on it last year in way because I was so preoccupied with my...
- Stein Family Farm
Eli and I have been attending a Baby Sign LanguageClass for the past 5 weeks at the Harold J. Ballard Parent Center in Old Town. We go once or twice a week and the class is around 3 hours long. Typically we sing songs, do a little dancing, play wit...
- Way To Close For Comfort!
Well we almost lost a chicken yesterday late afternoon at dusk. We had our friend Josh over and him and I were both reading books in our living room while Lyndsey toyed around with some chores in the back room. All of the sudden we all heard the loudes...
- Time To Molt
I guess that it didn't help that there was cat in yard standing at attention in the first garden plot when I noticed that Dorothy our Gold Laced Wyandotte had started seriously molting. Blanch the Plymouth Rock came flying into our patio area as I ...
- The Final Chapter
Another cool photo our buddy Wiley took of Lyndsey in our backyard with Mrs. Rose.I am sure that after this baby is born there will be no more posted pictures of Prego Lyndsey so I am getting them up while I can.Come on baby...you can do it!!!You can s...
- Fresh Veggies & Dirt Baths
It is harvest time in our yard. We are getting the first run of tomatoes and peppers...YUMMY! We have some celebrity tomatoes as well as some heir looms that are starting to come in along with some Anaheim peppers. So far everything has tasted amazing...
- Stone Age Lawn Mower
With all the extra gardening and yard work it had not dawned on me until the other day that I haven't mowed the lawn in over a month. This time of year it needs to be mowed at least once a week, but for some reason this year it managed to stay at a n...
- Whatever You Can Find Buffet
This may or may not be interesting to you, but it still blows my mind. That is how food obsessed my 6 year old Lab is. I can't believe that it still blows my mind, I mean he has bean this way from the first day we had him at 3 months old. I remember th...
- The Case of the Missing Eggs?
I noticed the past few days that are chickens didn't have but one egg in their nesting boxes. I though that perhaps they were just taking a break, but after three days I started to get a little suspicious. When they first started laying eggs about 6 m...
- Urban Chicken Video
We borrowed a friends video camera for the store and decided to practice filming using the hens as our subject.
- There Goes the Salad Mix
DON'T LET THE HENS NEXT TO YOUR GREENS. We knew this but we didn't know how hard they would try to get to them. You see we let the hens in our gardens. They do a great job of eating the worms and bugs, however we have learned that they also like salad ...
- Hen & Puppies
I guess that under normal circumstances we would not do a post that did not have anything to do with us, our lives or our hobbies. However lately our lives has been moving along pretty status quot without anything out of the ordinary to post, so this p...
- Twelve Makes a Dozen
Now that all three hens are laying eggs we were able to collect a dozen eggs to give some away to our friends.
- Twas The Night Before Christmas
Twas the night before Christmas....... and all through the house, Creatures were stirring, swimming, barking and pecking. That would be our Dog, Judah, His new friend Marley, 6 gold fish, three hens, our 1 beta fish Action Jackson, and his two new frie...
- Eggs Over Here, Eggs Over There
All three Chickens are laying eggs. Bringing us to about 15 eggs a week. It took us a couple of days to figure this out because Dorothy, the Golden Laced Wyandotte, is not nearly as vocal as the other two hens. So when she started going through the egg...
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