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Keeping Chickens For Eggs

By: Tim Love

Keeping Chickens - Starting Out At Home

Want a hobby that actually rewards your time in eggs, manure for your compost heap, and affection?

With a chicken population of more than 24 billion in 2003, (according to some sources) there are now more chickens in the world than any other bird.

People have historically been chicken keepers mainly as a source of food, with both their meat and their eggs being consumed.

There has been a surge of interest in chicken keeping, brought on by celebrity chefs bringing to attention the dreadful conditions of battery reared chickens, rising cost at the supermarket and the supposed economic downturn.

The thought of having chucks in your garden and the thought of having home eggs from your own poultry, no longer singles you out or causes as many 'home farm' type comments as it used to, of being a modern day Tom & Barbara Good - from the 1970s sitcom television series!

In fact there's something 'modern' in these days of throw away cultures in returning to a more 'self sufficient' lifestyle.

Lots of people are growing their own veg - either in their back yards or on council allotments. Lots of people are becoming worried about what the food they eat actually contains and the buy organic movement seems to be gaining ground every year - forcing supermarkets to provide a more larger selection of organic produce.

Keeping chickens seems to be just a normal progression on this consumer shift.

People seem more and more used to knowing friends and neighbours who keep chucks chickens.

With the offer of a free free range egg as part of the bargain, you'll probably get unlimited offers to take over your chicken keeping duties should you ever need a long weekend break.

Also when you've seen the deep yellow yolk and feasted on the completely different texture of the egg white, of one of your own back yard chucks' eggs you'll never buy a supermarket egg again.

When your eggs are in the frying pan you'll notice the difference too. Fresh eggs don't seem to run as much as eggs bought in a store as they're absolutely fresh.

There's also the plus point that keeping chickens bring a completely new dimension to your back garden - movement, sound and colour. Forget adding a pond, keeping chickens brings so much more!

Each chicken is an completely different and many can be real 'characters' and, if handled whilst they're young, they can be very good pets for kids.

Chicken keeping does require some 'work', and there will be some cleaning out the chicken house and obviously, letting the chickens in and out of their chicken coop at dawn and dusk.

There's also the 'chore' of searching for eggs. This should be done several times per day - just in case your chickens are afternoon 'layers'.

Another thing you need to be aware of when keeping chickens; is 'chicken watching'...

Many hours can be happily spent watching your chickens scratch around the back garden. If you're the sort of person who stares at hypnotising fires, you'll find chicken watching can be highly addictive!

Keeping chickens can be done as budgets allow. If money is no object, then there are many fancy looking made to measure chicken homes that can be bought from numerous chicken keeping outlets.

If money is subject to budget restraints, then a home build hen house can be built for virtually nothing, using scraps of wood found discarded in your garage.

A chicken house just needs to be big enough for the chickens to nest in at night, and large enough to stretch their wings in during the day.

Also somewhere for them to dust bath during the hours of sunlight should be provided.

So whether you're looking to build a chicken house, or buy a ready made chicken run or are just wanting to find out more about keeping chickens as a hobby; a world of chicken keeping adventure awaits.

Article Source: http://www.thecaymanhost.com/articles

www.keeping-chickens.co.uk/eggloo-egloo-or-eglu/

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