Keeping Chickens In The Back Garden
We’ve been keeping chickens in the back garden for just over three years now. So we thought we’d stop and reflect on what we’ve learnt along the way.
Our ‘keeping chickens’ experiment started as just a thought, a dream, a figment of our imagination of how much grander life would be if we had our ‘own back garden flock’; a desire (like it would seem very similar to thousands of other people’s these days) to move further away from the food dependencies that we have built up and reliance we place on big business to do the ‘providing’ for us.
For us deciding to keep chickens seems to have been a long drawn out process and started several years before we actually took the plunge and started out with our back garden flock.
Like most people interested in keeping chickens in their garden, we did a lot of reading and online research. There’s loads of good chicken keeping books out there to dip into, willing chicken keepers, who are generous and free with their advice and chicken breeders who are only too happy to help you along the way with pearls of chicken keeping wisdom.
But as with most things in life though, the more you ruminate over a topic, the more knowledge you gain, the more you weigh up the pros and cons, the more you seem to place barriers in the way of just getting on and doing it etc; nothing can actually replace the decision to just go and do it. When the idea is fixed, don’t let if’s and but’s stop you - if you have decided that keeping chickens in your back garden is a reasonable practicality for you, do it!
Get all the practical chicken keeping stuff sorted; like sourcing a chicken coop, or building a chicken house yourself. Find a chicken breeder and decent chicken keeping supply source locally or online. Decide which breed or hybrid you’re going to have – start with something easy like ISA Browns for example. Then just jump in! There’s nothing like waking up in the morning, trotting down to the end of the garden and finding freshly laid eggs in your chicken coop.
It’s been said time and again that there are few hobbies you can have that are actually as rewarding as keeping chickens in the back garden. That’s before you even consider that it can also be financially rewarding!
A great example of this is our brother and sister-in-law who are more ‘organised’ than us, and who actually made a record of all the initial and on going ‘costs’ of keeping chickens in their back garden. It worked out for them that each of their six chickens turned a ‘profit’ of £10 – 15 per year when compared to the price of buying eggs in supermarkets!
Now obviously this profit isn’t a ’money in their pocket’ type of profit, as they don’t actually sell their eggs on – preferring instead to keep friends and neighbours supplied with free back garden eggs as bribes; for looking after their chickens when they’re on holiday, or gifts for people who’ve come round to visit etc.
But when they compare the cost of eggs bought at the shop, with what they give away, and what they actually spend on their chickens; feeding, housing and cleaning them etc, they do actually come out with a ‘profit’ on their ‘hobby’ of keeping chickens in their garden – and you can too!
This is before you actually take into consideration the ‘joy’ the chickens will bring to your life, through owning them and keeping chickens in your own back garden.
There’s nothing quite as hypnotising as watching chickens go about their daily routine in the garden. If you’re the kind of person who loves to stare at a ‘real’ fire, then you’re going to find that you lose great portions of the day just staring at your chickens. There’s something soothing and relaxing about it… I know, I know, you think I’m mad! But just wait and see and tell me I’m not right. You’d pay through your nose for this kind of treatment at a health spa!
So when all is said and done, basically what I’m trying to say is don’t be one of those people who dreams of keeping chickens, sure be practical and ensure that you have the time, space and actual inclination; but don’t let the gremlins of doubt stop you from taking the decision to do it, once you’ve made your mind up!
Keeping Chickens In The Back Garden
