If you're thinking of getting backyard chickens, you're not alone. According to surveys from the American Pet Product Association, chicken ownership is on the rise. It increased from 8% of those sampled in 2018 year to 13% in 2020. While some people end up seeing their flock of backyard hens as pets, most people embark on their chicken keeping journey for one reason: eggs.
While eggs from the store usually come in a choice of brown or white, with a backyard flock you can have eggshell colors in blues and greens, chocolate brown, or covered in speckles. They also have the added bonus that, unlike store bought eggs, you know exactly how the hens laying them have been raised. There are plenty of labels on grocery store eggs, but they can be confusing. "Cage-free" hens are better off than those that spend their lives in small battery cages but are still raised in warehouses without ever setting foot outside. The label "free range" might conjure up images of chickens pecking on grass but it's not regulated when it comes to laying hens and at best usually means hens have access to the outdoors, not that the hens use it or that the outside area be inviting to a chicken. Most farmed hens will still be debeaked — a process where the tip of the beak is cut off to prevent them from pecking each other — and killed when they are considered "spent" at just a year or two old. If you want eggs from hens who have lived a good life, raising them yourself may be a better option than deciphering egg labels at the store. You might even find yourself becoming surprisingly fond of your quirky birds.
