The Walden Effect: Homesteading Year 4. Farming, simple living, permaculture, and invention.

Is the backyard chicken keeping trend bogus?

Increase in chicken numbers may be bogus.When times get tough, people get chickens.  You've probably heard the same reports I have about new zoning regulations allowing chickens in cities and about the numbers of backyard chicken keepers skyrocketing.  If our economic system crashes, at least we chicken-keepers can subsist on eggs and an occasional roast fowl.

On the other hand, Slate suggests that the surge in urban chicken-keeping is a bogus trend, invented by journalists who needed to fill some space in their newspapers.  The article made a good point that all of the evidence for the trend appears to be anecdotal rather than based on hard data.

Whether the trend is real or not, we like chickens and think you will to.  So this lunchtime series is a rundown of a few chicken-related topics near and dear to our hearts.  We won't try to reinvent the wheel and tell you all of the chicken-keeping basics, but we will mention some of the fields we're most interested in at the moment.

This post is part of our Chicken Trivia lunchtime series.  Read all of the entries:



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comment 1
I don't know about other cities, but here in Denver the art of urban chicken keeping has exploded. I can speak from first, second and third hand experience. We started keeping chickens this year, as did about ten other people I know. Compare that to the ZERO people I knew before who kept chikens. Anecdotal yes. But also true.
Comment by Everett — Monday afternoon, July 6th, 2009
comment 2
It's good to hear your voice from the front lines. :-) Out here in the middle of nowhere, I haven't seen any increase in chicken production...but I don't get out that much either.
Comment by anna — late Monday evening, July 6th, 2009
backyard chickens

Same as comment 1. altho we live in the county semi rural. Raising chickens has gained popularity in the past 1.5 years here in Rowan county N.C. We recieved 7 sexlink chicks 2 months ago and there growing fast. They already look like teenage hens.I let em free range on our 3.25 acres mostly just in the yard tho. Many people have started to raise chickens this year. Ive learned already to watch out for the coons and possoms,foxes,and coyotes that weve been hearing at night but havent seen yet. Have the 8x10 foot shed turned into the chicken house and the old dog lot into a fenced yard. made the 4 foot chicken run from scrap laying around.Now i have to figure out how to make a sliding door on a rope and a timer,just to make things easier. Thru trial and error i learned that heat in a metal shed will be at least 30 degrees hotter than thee 90 degree heat outside.So i had to cut a vent near the peak, it was then that the fan i already had put in there actually started doing its job. Not bad for not knowing what im doing huh:)

Comment by dav — in the wee hours of Saturday night, July 12th, 2009
comment 4
Smart idea on the vent! I'm curious about how much you have to feed your chickens when they have so much space to range on. Do you have to supplement their forage with storebought feed?
Comment by anna — early Sunday morning, July 12th, 2009
The New Dog
Chickens are the new dog! The rural chicken "craze" is most evident here in Northern Connecticut. We started farming select veggies, got four Buff Orpington's as "pets" and are now enjoying eggs and considering expanding in this direction. What is so surprising to us, is how many people we have meet who also now have chickens as (egg producing) pets. I predict more chickens will rise in stature as noble pets and companions - Mark my words!
Comment by Stephen — late Friday morning, July 17th, 2009
comment 6
"Chickens are the new dog" --- I like that! Very catchy!
Comment by anna — late Friday morning, July 17th, 2009
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