Garthwaite on Backyard Chickens

A few months into our marriage last Spring, my wife mentioned how much she would like to have chickens in our backyard.  She had recently begun planning a backyard garden and I wrote it off more or less an excitement about all the possibilities that awaited us over the next six or seven decades. I was surprised when she came home one day and told me the City of St. Louis would allow us to have up to four chickens (but no roosters) and had figured out how much we could save by having free organic eggs.  Earlier this week, Josie Garthwaite weighed the pros and cons in a post that also highlighted the different laws around the country related to urban chicken ownership:   

Urbanites who like the idea of collecting breakfast from the coop each morning may not be aware of the work that goes into raising the birds and keeping them healthy, Ms. Geisel warned. “The poop just doesn’t go away — it’s a constant daily cleanup,” she said. “They get sick, they get parasites. For many people it’s just not worth the effort.” 

For others, the work pays off. “I love my chickens. They’re my pets,” Ms. Geisel said. “They come when I call them, they make great noises.” The birds also lay often enough for her family of three to eat eggs every day.

“And homegrown eggs,” she added, “are so much better and tastier than store-bought.”

Of course I was not aware of all of this, and before I knew it I had agreed a few months later that, yeah, it would indeed be fun to have chickens in our backyard.  Books were purchased (my wife's favorite is linked below) and at this point the coop is in the process of being constructed and chickens are expected to occupy our backyard starting in a little over a month.  Plan to hear updates on both Spring Training and chicken rearing in about a month.