10 Reasons To Add Laying Hens to your Backyard
There are so many reasons to add laying hens to your backyard. We have had chickens for about eight years off and on due to different moves. I love having chickens for the 10 reasons below. I love the eggs just like anyone else, but they really just bring me a great deal of joy. From their beautiful feather colors to the funny variety of noises they make, I hope to never again be without laying hens in my backyard or homestead.
We have moved quite a bit in the last several years. And not just small moves, but big cross country moves. And unfortunately in a few of those moves, we had to re-home our backyard chickens. I missed the fresh eggs for sure, but I also missed the routine of checking on them and getting those eggs daily.
If you are on the fence and not sure if you should get chickens in your suburban backyard or your small homestead, read on for the reasons that I love having laying hens around.
1. Fresh Eggs From Backyard Laying Hens are the Best
This is the reason that most people get laying hens and it is for good reason! Once you have eaten fresh laid eggs that you collect on a daily basis, you will never want to go back to store bought! Believe me. The yokes are a nice dark yellow and sometimes orange depending on what they have been eating. And the taste can’t be beat.
I even starting using a fresh egg yoke daily in my coffee because I know I can trust the source and that it is as fresh as can be.
2. Emotional Well-being and Stress Relief
How is this possible you might ask? Just as gardening does, chickens tend to mellow me out. I love that early time in the morning when I usually have my pajamas still on, coffee in hand, when I can walk out the back door and just check out the garden and hens. I know that there most likely aren’t any eggs early in the morning. But just saying good morning and throwing them a few weeds or making sure they have enough water gives me something to look forward to.
I’ve read books that say you only need to collect eggs and tend to your hens once a day, trying to convince people that chickens are easy. But I find myself going out there multiple times more for me than for them.
3. Free Entertainment
Have you ever sat and watched chickens? If not, I highly encourage you too. They are really quite funny. One of my favorite things is when they are roaming around the yard and they see me come outside. They come running down the grassy hill at me wondering what I have brought them.
It’s almost a waddle, almost a run, and 100 percent hilarious. Or if one hen finds a grub and the others all run after her to try and get it, mayhem ensues and laughs are to be had for sure.
4. Share or Sell Eggs of Your Laying Hens
I really enjoy having an abundance of eggs to share with friends, and also sell as an extra income to cover the cost of feed. Almost everyone loves an extra dozen eggs as a surprise, especially if you have some green or blue egg layers.
I also like to water glass eggs for long term food preservation when the layers really get going in the spring and early summer.
5. Laying Hens Eat Your Food Scraps
Since we cook a lot from scratch, we have a lot of food scraps. And sometimes leftovers that don’t get eaten. With chickens no scraps or leftovers go to waste. They will eat pretty much anything. Which to be honest made me feel better when I found some veggies that I had let go too far in the crisper drawer, or a loaf of bread that was a bit stale.
I just collect it all and take it out to the hens. They gobble it right up. Sometimes I even make them into treats for hot weather, like in the picture below. I take the scraps from making dinner, put them in a plastic container that I fill with water, and then freeze. Out it comes on a hot afternoon to both keep the hens cool and give them some entertainment.
6. Laying Hens Eat the Bad Bugs in the Yard
Chickens are great at digging around the yard and finding all the bugs you don’t want to have around. Ants, ticks, grubs, pretty much anything. And while not bugs, they devoured the millions of mice we found when moving the coop. Thank God!
I like that we are able to free range our chickens for the most part right now because they have a broader area of ground to cover when looking for bugs. when my garden goes up, they will have to get locked into a run that will still leave them with many bugs to gather.
7. Free Fertilizer
We practice the deep litter method in the coop. That means that instead of cleaning out the coop weekly or even monthly, we leave the straw, wood shavings, and chicken poo all autumn and through to the next spring. We make a nice deep layer of wood shavings and then straw. They poop and it falls onto the wood shavings and straw. Then I come in every few days and layer a bit more straw on top to cover up the poo.
The poop is high in nitrogen (the green part of compost) and the wood and straw supply the brown part. Everything starts to compost down throughout the winter. Like any compost pile, it needs a bit of turning. But I leave that to the hens. On really cold days when they aren’t going to get out of the coop, I sprinkle down some black sunflower seeds (which are also good for keeping them warm in the winter) and their scratch mix. They dig through the straw to find the scraps and end up turning a lot of the composting material adding in oxygen, breaking it all down even more.
When we clean out the coop in the spring and then again in the fall, we scrape everything out of the coop and get down to the flooring and make it real clean.
In the fall, we can put this straight on the garden beds after they are cleaned out for the season. Whatever is not composted all the way will continue breaking down over the winter and will perfect come spring. Your garden will love to be planted in beds with this manure combo.
In the spring, you might not be able to put the composted manure and straw right onto your garden beds, but you can add it to the rest of your compost pile to continue composting down for the next few months and maybe add it as a mulch layer later in the summer.
Rabbits Make Great Fertilizer too – check out more on rabbits here
We have found the deep litter method to be an excellent and free way to boost the garden soil. If you don’t have chickens, but rabbits might be a better fit for you, they also provide excellent garden fertilizer. Head over here to see why you would want rabbits in your backyard.
8. Excellent Compost Turners
Let your chickens have access to your compost pile and they will surely do a great job scratching and turning it for you. You might have to rake it back up a bit after they are done, but be assured they will make it even better compost by the time they are done with it.
As they do with the deep litter method explained above, they will do the work for you if you give them the time and space.
9. Teach Your Kids Responsibility
Even though I go out to the coop almost daily to check on the chickens, it is an easy enough job for most children to learn.
Checking feeders and waterers or even just feeding treats teaches even the youngest of your children that they have an important job too.
And what kid doesn’t love to take a basket out and search for eggs? One of my sons has placed eggs in his coat pocket like I do and we both have ended up with our fair share of broken eggs forgetting they are there!
Take your children with you when you go out to care for the chickens. Show them what you do and explain to them how it is done correctly. Gradually give them a part of one of the jobs and see how they do with it. If you aren’t sure if they are getting it done or dong it correct, check it later to make sure. But give them the satisfaction to know that they are helping out with a part of something so important.
And then one day when you are sick in bed and just don’t feel like you can get out in negative temps to check food and waters in the coop, you will have a child capable to do it for you. And you will just about burst with pride and be able to roll over and fall asleep knowing everything is ok.
10. Baby Chicks are So Cute
Spring time rolls around every year. And this becomes so exciting and dangerous at the same time.
Because of course that means that there is a new crop of chicks at the feed store. And when you see them, you just about can’t manage to come home without some. Ask me how I know.
Knowing our weaknesses with such cuteness, my husband and I usually promise each other we will not get anymore.
We have to do this because of the second year we had our laying hens.
We told each other we would only look if we happened to be at the feed store. I’m not quite sure how we went from seven to 17 that year, except for the fact that the kids and I surprised my husband when he was out of town and then he did the same to us! Oh man! They are so hard to resist.
And when you see your own babies loving on them, that makes it even more sweet. Plus a few new chicks each year will keep you in eggs through each winter. They won’t molt their first year and so continue to lay eggs, whereas the older hens molt and take a break from laying. So it’s not a bad idea to add a few new chicks each year
Do You Have Any Reasons to Add to the List?
So there you go, ten of my reasons why you should start down the road with the gateway animal – the lovely backyard chicken.
Do you have any more reasons to add laying hens to your backyard to the list?
More Homestead Animals
Chocolate bar marzipan jujubes jelly-o carrot cake caramels. Tootsie roll cookie jujubes powder icing lemon drops. Pastry brownie topping oat cake chocolate cake jelly candy gingerbread tart.
Pin for Later – Laying Hens for Your Backyard
