backyard chickensSomehow or other, it is among the most draw of twenty-first century metropolitan hipness to keep a couple of birds out again. We're mostly talking hens. Exact figures are unavailable, however the trend has become popular enough for a large number of major towns to revise their pet ordinances, thereby opening the legal floodgates for the introduction of urban pet agriculture, an undertaking that most American cities legislated out of existence (largely for health reasons) back in the nineteenth century.This renaissance of foodie affection for the uber-local egg has also inspired its talk about of outlandish rhetoric. Says the mayor of Madison, Wisconsin: "Chickens are actually bringing us along as a community." Says my Austin neighbor and co-owner of Boggy Creek Plantation, Carol-Ann Sayle: "Everyone should have their own henhouse in their own backyard."It's doubtful that the incoming mayor of New York City will agree with either of these sentiments. But no subject. Thousands of other urbanites nationwide--many of these so committed to keeping birds that they do so surreptitiously--are all of a sudden giving a major cluck about yard eggs.Lost in all the enthusiasm will be the drawbacks. Matching to Ian Elwood, of Creature Legal Defense Fund, "the alternatives backyard chicken farming seeks to create--food security, local foodsheds, healthy eating--are all better dished up by motivating more plant based farming." His bottom line regarding metropolitan agriculture is simple: "Let's leave animals out of it."Here are some are five reasons why, as it pertains to chickens, Elwood is onto something.1) Diminishing Development. Hens start laying eggs after about five 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 as they are to carefully turn her into chicken soup. The upshot is a sharp go up in abandoned wild birds. In 2001, according to the Associated Press, Minneapolis' Poultry Run Recovery fielded six cell phone calls from individuals seeking to find homes for forsaken birds. By 2012, that amount come to almost 500.2) Commercial Hatcheries. Raising hens in the yard seems as an obviously humane option to factory farming. In a few ways, it is. However, on this point, two closely related facts is highly recommended. First, the majority of hens luckily enough to flee the factory's power cage hail from the same professional hatcheries that supply manufacturer farms with an incredible number of birds. This commonality not only undermines any pretense of convinced that backyard birds task the industrialized status quo, but it causes a second problem, namely the actual fact that the men chicks given birth to in those professional hatcheries were likely either tossed alive into a grinder or gassed. Guy parrots are worthless to a hatchery supplying egg farms. Household hens might be glorified, but their sweet hen brothers are cured like trash.3) Predation. Garden hens are specially vulnerable to predation. Try out this test: when you learn a good friend gets backyard hens, check in 8 weeks later and have how things 're going. Chances are good that the solution will go something like, "great, but . . . ." Pups, pet cats, snakes, coyotes, possum, hawks, raccoons, raccoons, raccoons. These predators are prevalent and persistent as well as your poor hens, the methods you have come to love as dogs and cats, cannot enjoy their natural defense mechanisms (such as finding a minimal tree limb concealed in dense foliage). They often find themselves captured in some Ritz-Carleton of the coop that turned out to be less secure than advertised and, in their plush safe havens, are wiped out in a manner that makes the slaughterhouse appear just like a day spa by comparison. "What wiped out my birds?" 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 a couple of known reasons for this mistake. For one, the sex of any chicken breast is hard to recognize upon birth, even for experts. Many roosters are accidentally identified as hens and transported to nourish stores, where urban farmer/hipsters flock to buy their stock. Less innocently, many male parrots are tossed into shipment containers as a kind of packing materials, deployed to prevent the hens from banging in to the area of the crate and having their retail value decreased. Regardless, urban ordinances that do allow hens are markedly less accepting of roosters, who are more often than not considered chicken non-grata in urban settings.5) Cost. First-time yard hen owners are enchanted by the thought of free eggs. You shouldn't be fooled. Build the coop, buy the give food to, pay the veterinary, count the hours spent keeping the coop and administering good 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 yard farmer from Merced, California told an online chicken breast discussion board: "Don't inform my partner, but I believe my eggs are costing about $40 a dozen."