backyard chickens
Somehow or other, it is just about the mark of twenty-first century metropolitan hipness to keep a bunch of birds out again. We're mostly talking hens. Exact statistics are unavailable, but the trend is becoming popular enough for a large number of major towns to revise their dog ordinances, thereby opening the legal floodgates for the introduction of urban creature agriculture, an effort that a lot of American locations legislated out of living (mostly for health reasons) back in the nineteenth century.This renaissance of foodie love for the uber-local egg in addition has inspired its share of outlandish rhetoric. Says the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin: "Chickens are really bringing us together as a community." Says my Austin neighbor and co-owner of Boggy Creek Farm, Carol-Ann Sayle: "Everyone must have their own henhouse in their own garden."It's doubtful that the incoming mayor of NEW YORK will agree with either of these sentiments. But no matter. A large number of other urbanites nationwide--many of these so focused on keeping birds that they actually so surreptitiously--are all of a sudden giving a major cluck about yard eggs.Lost in every the enthusiasm will be the drawbacks. Relating to Ian Elwood, of Pet Legal Defense Finance, "the solutions backyard chicken farming seeks to create--food security, local foodsheds, healthy eating--are all better dished up by stimulating more plant centered farming." His bottom line regarding urban agriculture is easy: "Let's leave animals from it."What follows are five reasons why, when it comes to chickens, Elwood is onto something.1) Diminishing Creation. Hens start laying eggs after about five a few months. Development, 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 as they are to turn her into rooster soup. The upshot is a sharp rise in abandoned birds. In 2001, in line with the Associated Press, Minneapolis' Chicken Run Rescue fielded six telephone calls from individuals looking to find homes for forsaken birds. By 2012, that number reached almost 500.2) Commercial Hatcheries. Raising hens in the yard seems as an obviously humane alternative to factory farming. In some ways, it is. However, upon this point, two meticulously related facts should be considered. First, nearly all hens fortunate enough to escape the factory's power supply cage hail from the same commercial hatcheries supplying factory farms with an incredible number of wild birds. This commonality not only undermines any pretense of thinking that backyard birds concern the industrialized status quo, but it leads to a second problem, namely the fact that the men chicks given birth to in those commercial hatcheries were likely either tossed alive into a grinder or gassed. Male parrots are worthless to a hatchery offering egg farms. Home hens might be glorified, but their lovely chicken brothers are cured like trash.3) Predation. Backyard hens are especially vulnerable to predation. Try this test: when you learn that a friend gets backyard hens, check in two months later and ask how things are going. It’s likely that good that the response will go something like, "great, but . . . ." Puppies, cats, snakes, coyotes, possum, hawks, raccoons, raccoons, raccoons. These predators are prevalent and persistent and your poor hens, the methods you attended to love as dogs and cats, cannot engage their natural body's defence mechanism (such as finding a low tree limb concealed in thick foliage). They often find themselves caught in some Ritz-Carleton of the coop that turned out to be less secure than publicized and, in their plush safe havens, are killed in a manner that makes the slaughterhouse appear like a day spa in comparison. "What killed my hens?" It's an all too common question. And there are 23,900 answers on offer on Google.4) Roosters. There's about a 5 percent chance that your hen will grow to be a rooster. There are a couple of known reasons for this mistake. For just one, the sex of any hen is hard to recognize upon birth, even for experts. Many roosters are inadvertently discovered as hens and sent to give food to stores, the place where metropolitan farmer/hipsters flock to buy their stock. Less innocently, many male wild birds are tossed into shipment containers as a kind of packing materials, deployed to prevent the hens from banging into the aspect of the crate and having their retail value reduced. Regardless, urban ordinances that allow hens are markedly less accepting of roosters, who are more often than not considered chicken non-grata in metropolitan settings.5) Cost. First-time backyard hen owners are enchanted by the idea of free eggs. Don't be fooled. Build the coop, choose the supply, pay the vet, count the hours spent retaining the coop and administering health care, compensate 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 garden farmer from Merced, California informed an online fowl forum: "Don't inform my partner, but I believe my eggs are charging about $40 a dozen."
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Somehow or other, it is just about the mark of twenty-first century metropolitan hipness to keep a bunch of birds out again. We're mostly talking hens. Exact statistics are unavailable, but the trend is becoming popular enough for a large number of major towns to revise their dog ordinances, thereby opening the legal floodgates for the introduction of urban creature agriculture, an effort that a lot of American locations legislated out of living (mostly for health reasons) back in the nineteenth century.This renaissance of foodie love for the uber-local egg in addition has inspired its share of outlandish rhetoric. Says the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin: "Chickens are really bringing us together as a community." Says my Austin neighbor and co-owner of Boggy Creek Farm, Carol-Ann Sayle: "Everyone must have their own henhouse in their own garden."It's doubtful that the incoming mayor of NEW YORK will agree with either of these sentiments. But no matter. A large number of other urbanites nationwide--many of these so focused on keeping birds that they actually so surreptitiously--are all of a sudden giving a major cluck about yard eggs.Lost in every the enthusiasm will be the drawbacks. Relating to Ian Elwood, of Pet Legal Defense Finance, "the solutions backyard chicken farming seeks to create--food security, local foodsheds, healthy eating--are all better dished up by stimulating more plant centered farming." His bottom line regarding urban agriculture is easy: "Let's leave animals from it."What follows are five reasons why, when it comes to chickens, Elwood is onto something.1) Diminishing Creation. Hens start laying eggs after about five a few months. Development, 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 as they are to turn her into rooster soup. The upshot is a sharp rise in abandoned birds. In 2001, in line with the Associated Press, Minneapolis' Chicken Run Rescue fielded six telephone calls from individuals looking to find homes for forsaken birds. By 2012, that number reached almost 500.2) Commercial Hatcheries. Raising hens in the yard seems as an obviously humane alternative to factory farming. In some ways, it is. However, upon this point, two meticulously related facts should be considered. First, nearly all hens fortunate enough to escape the factory's power supply cage hail from the same commercial hatcheries supplying factory farms with an incredible number of wild birds. This commonality not only undermines any pretense of thinking that backyard birds concern the industrialized status quo, but it leads to a second problem, namely the fact that the men chicks given birth to in those commercial hatcheries were likely either tossed alive into a grinder or gassed. Male parrots are worthless to a hatchery offering egg farms. Home hens might be glorified, but their lovely chicken brothers are cured like trash.3) Predation. Backyard hens are especially vulnerable to predation. Try this test: when you learn that a friend gets backyard hens, check in two months later and ask how things are going. It’s likely that good that the response will go something like, "great, but . . . ." Puppies, cats, snakes, coyotes, possum, hawks, raccoons, raccoons, raccoons. These predators are prevalent and persistent and your poor hens, the methods you attended to love as dogs and cats, cannot engage their natural body's defence mechanism (such as finding a low tree limb concealed in thick foliage). They often find themselves caught in some Ritz-Carleton of the coop that turned out to be less secure than publicized and, in their plush safe havens, are killed in a manner that makes the slaughterhouse appear like a day spa in comparison. "What killed my hens?" It's an all too common question. And there are 23,900 answers on offer on Google.4) Roosters. There's about a 5 percent chance that your hen will grow to be a rooster. There are a couple of known reasons for this mistake. For just one, the sex of any hen is hard to recognize upon birth, even for experts. Many roosters are inadvertently discovered as hens and sent to give food to stores, the place where metropolitan farmer/hipsters flock to buy their stock. Less innocently, many male wild birds are tossed into shipment containers as a kind of packing materials, deployed to prevent the hens from banging into the aspect of the crate and having their retail value reduced. Regardless, urban ordinances that allow hens are markedly less accepting of roosters, who are more often than not considered chicken non-grata in metropolitan settings.5) Cost. First-time backyard hen owners are enchanted by the idea of free eggs. Don't be fooled. Build the coop, choose the supply, pay the vet, count the hours spent retaining the coop and administering health care, compensate 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 garden farmer from Merced, California informed an online fowl forum: "Don't inform my partner, but I believe my eggs are charging about $40 a dozen."4 Benefits of a Mixed Flock of Backyard Chickens
My Backyard Chickens
