backyard chickensSomehow or other, it has become the draw of twenty-first century urban hipness to keep a couple of birds out again. We're mostly discussing hens. Exact amounts are unavailable, however the trend has become popular enough for dozens of major locations to revise their animal ordinances, thereby opening the legal floodgates for the emergence of urban canine agriculture, an effort that most American places legislated out of existence (mostly for health reasons) back the nineteenth century.This renaissance of foodie love for the uber-local egg in addition has inspired its talk about of outlandish rhetoric. Says the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin: "Chickens are actually bringing us alongside one another as a community." Says my Austin neighbor and co-owner of Boggy Creek Farm, Carol-Ann Sayle: "Everyone should have their own henhouse in their own back garden."It's doubtful that the incoming mayor of NEW YORK will trust either of the sentiments. But no subject. Thousands of other urbanites nationwide--many of these so focused on keeping hens that they do so surreptitiously--are all of the sudden giving a major cluck about backyard eggs.Lost in every the enthusiasm will be the drawbacks. Relating to Ian Elwood, of Pet animal Legal Defense Fund, "the solutions backyard chicken farming seeks to create--food security, local foodsheds, healthy eating--are all better offered by encouraging more plant founded farming." His bottom line regarding metropolitan agriculture is simple: "Let's leave family pets from it."Here are some are five explanations why, when it comes to hens, Elwood is onto something.1) Diminishing Production. Hens start laying eggs after about five calendar months. Creation, however, wanes at the age of two. Hens can live for more than ten years. Many backyard hen owners are as hesitant to keep a non-productive hen because they are to carefully turn her into hen soup. The upshot is a sharp go up in abandoned birds. In 2001, based on the Associated Press, Minneapolis' Chicken Run Save fielded six telephone calls from individuals looking to find homes for forsaken birds. By 2012, that quantity reached almost 500.2) Commercial Hatcheries. Raising hens in the back garden seems like an obviously humane alternative to factory farming. In a few ways, it is. However, on this point, two directly related facts should be considered. First, the majority of hens luckily enough to flee the factory's battery cage hail from the same professional hatcheries supplying stock farms with an incredible number of parrots. This commonality not only undermines any pretense of thinking that backyard birds task the industrialized status quo, but it contributes to another problem, namely the actual fact that the male chicks created in those professional hatcheries were likely either tossed alive into a grinder or gassed. Guy birds are worthless to a hatchery offering egg farms. Home hens might be glorified, but their sweet fowl brothers are cared for like trash.3) Predation. Back garden hens are especially vulnerable to predation. Try this experiment: when you learn a good friend gets backyard hens, check in two months later and have how things 're going. Chances are good that the solution will go something similar to, "great, but . . . ." Canines, cats, snakes, coyotes, possum, hawks, raccoons, raccoons, raccoons. These predators are prevalent and persistent and your poor hens, the ones you have come to love as house animals, cannot engage their natural body's defence mechanism (such as finding a minimal tree limb hidden in dense foliage). They often times find themselves captured in a few Ritz-Carleton of the coop that turned out to be less secure than advertised and, in their plush safe havens, are killed in a manner that makes the slaughterhouse seem to be just like a day spa in comparison. "What wiped out my hens?" It's an all too common question. And there are 23,900 answers being offered on Google.4) Roosters. There's in regards to a 5 percent chance that your hen will grow to be a rooster. There are always a couple of reasons for this mistake. For one, the sex of the hen is hard to identify upon labor and birth, even for experts. Many roosters are unintentionally discovered as hens and sent to supply stores, where urban farmer/hipsters flock to buy their stock. Less innocently, many male birds are tossed into shipping and delivery containers as a form of packing material, deployed to avoid the hens from banging into the side of the dog crate and having their retail value lowered. In any case, urban ordinances that allow hens are markedly less accepting of roosters, who are generally considered chicken non-grata in metropolitan settings.5) Cost. First-time garden hen owners are enchanted by the thought of free eggs. Don't be fooled. Build the coop, buy the supply, pay the veterinary, count the time spent maintaining the coop and administering good care, make up the neighbor's youngster for nourishing the hens when you go to the Hamptons for the weekend, and then grab a calculator. The results? As you backyard farmer from Merced, California informed an online poultry community forum: "Don't notify my wife, but I believe my eggs are costing about $40 a dozen."