When Times Get Tough, People Get Chickens

When my neighbor announced she was going out of town for the week, I offered to feed her dogs.

“Thanks,” she said. “But what about my chickens?”

Without a good excuse handy, I found myself standing in her hen house with a woven basket, feeling like a kid at Easter looking for melted M&Ms in the hot sun… my entire egg-hunting experience until that day.

After some quick lessons about feeding the chickens, collecting their eggs, and staying away from the rooster, I was horrified when I saw them drive out of their driveway on their way far from those birds.

But after taking my two children there every day after school, I began to enjoy uncovering the gorgeous eggs – speckled ones, blue ones, brown ones, even green ones. They were larger than the stark white ones I got from the grocery store – so large, in fact,  I couldn’t fit some of them into the store-bought cartons.  Plus, the sound of the chickens, their cartoonish movements, their bright feathers all worked together like avian Valium...  peace without a prescription.

I'm not the only one catching "chicken fever."  Author Susan Orlean wrote a beautiful article in September's New Yorker called, "The It Bird: The Return of the Back Yard Chicken:"

Chickens seem to be a perfect convergence of the economic, environmental, gastronomic, and emotional matters of the moment. In the past few years they have undergone an image rehabilitation so astounding that it should be studied by marketing consultants.

It may have started with Martha Stewart's "Entertaining" (published in 1982) which featured her flock of individually named pets, whose eggs later became the basis for her paint colors.

But the benefits of fresh eggs don’t end with an aesthetic appreciation: Fresh food simply tastes better -- the cheesecake I made with freshly laid eggs was just amazing – and eggs are a great way to create your own chemical-free protein. Chicken excrement is a rich source of fertilizer for your plants and is slippery, as I found out to the endless delight of my children. Additionally, chickens eat pests and aerate the soil.

It's possible to earn a regular source of income by selling eggs to neighbors, especially now that the “locavores” lifestyle (eating food grown locally or within a certain radius of  home) has become popular.  When my children sent text messages that they had fresh eggs, 4 dozen sold within twenty minutes.

Until the nineteen-fifties -- when inexpensive, year-round eggs became available at grocery stores -- many folks kept a few chickens in the yard. They were cheap and easy that children could do it as their chores.  After suffering a period of time when people preferred modern living, the chicken craze is back. 

Orlean quotes Bud Wood, owner of McMurray Hatchery whose hatchery has been sold out of chickens even before they're ready to ship for the past two years.  The last time he remembers being this busy was 1999, when the Millenium bug threatened to shut down the world as we knew it.  Which makes a lot of sense.  On average, four free-range chickens cost only about eleven cents a day, which makes them the perfect pet for challenging economic times.

"When times are tough," Mr. Wood said, "people want chickens."

But how to get started with such an endeavor? Although you might be surprised at how “chicken-friendly” some cities are, check with your local ordinances first. A website called UrbanChickens.org details how city-dwellers can partake in raising chickens.  Most local libraries have instructions for chicken pens, which can be as simple as a plywood constructed box or as complicated as a barn. (Or, a combination of a wooden box that looks like a barn!)  Some chickens are raised free-range, allowed to roam freely to eat a more natural diet. These are the easiest and least expensive to care for since they feed mainly on bugs and grasses and don’t eat as much feed.

Urban dwellers can use brightly colored pens called “eglu cubes” which are easy to move, secure, and can house up to ten chickens. Very modern and clean, these pens fit in quite nicely in the neighborhood.

And speaking of the neighbors, did you realize that roosters are not necessary for egg production? My first exposure to roosters dashed my stereotypical impressions of the genteel Foghorn Leghorn bird gently awakening the neighborhood in the morning. Even though it was three o’clock in the afternoon, the rooster – when not strutting around or mounting the hens – was cock-a-doodle-dooing every fifteen minutes. Your hens (and neighbors) would be quite content without a rooster around.

Are you considering using chickens as an opportunity to teach your children about food, animals, “pecking orders,” and the good ole capitalistic laws of supply and demand? The Yahoo discussion group called Chickens 101,  YardPoultry, and My Pet Chicken can all help you become a "chicken person."

There's no better time.  As people are throwing around the words “global economic meltdown,” it's appropriate to reorient your kids’ lives toward something other than the newest iPhone application.

Working together as a family to grow your own food and make extra money fosters a “we’re all in this together” spirit and helps eradicate the sense of entitlement that all-too-easily takes hold of our families. Plus, it’ll give you a new sense of accomplishment as you sit down around the breakfast table to partake in fresh, fluffy omelets. 

Better than melted M&Ms any day.

Click the video below to see how one Los Angeles resident began raising chickens because she felt so "disassociated" with her food.