Why Keeping Chickens is a "BAD" Idea | World Egg Crisis

there's an egg shortage in supermarkets across the globe making people scramble just to get a clutch on a dozen but there's no shortage of Articles or news reports telling us why keeping backyard chickens is a bad idea the negative press beat up about keeping hands at a time when there's an existential AG crisis makes me wonder if some people aren't just Feathering their own nests I'm concerned those who are considering becoming chicken owners will decide not to on the basis of false and ignorant information or is it blatant propaganda in other words the argument to not keep chickens is over egged and exaggerated tell you what I needed to get out of that afternoon sun g'day I'm Mark from self-sufficient me and in this video I'm going to ruffle a few feathers and debunk six of them main reasons why some people say that keeping chickens is a bad idea and also I'm going to take you through our retirement or chicken succession plan that I use to manage our own flock let's get into it [Music] number one chickens don't lay an egg a day well often they do depending on their ovulation stage they may skip a day or two here and there and depending on the climate during winter if no artificial light is available hens might stop laying but in general and for dedicated laying breeds you can count on an egg a day number two chickens can live for up to a decade but they only lay for two years what are we supposed to do for the other eight not true most chickens live for about seven to eight years some live less but some exceptions can live much longer the commercial life of a battery hen is a lot more stressful so they don't produce or live as long however backyard happy healthy hands can lay up to five or even seven years it's true that most backyard hens start slowing down around the three-year Mark and then stop completely around five but some people have reported backyard hens laying for a decade or more pretty incredible the insinuation is that because a chicken doesn't lay for the whole of its life up until it dies it's somehow a waste of resources and feed to keep this bludging little animal going firstly you'd have to be a serious bird-brained one-dimensional thinker to come to that conclusion secondly old hens that have stopped laying can still be eaten which is not something I like to do but if I was starving I would thirdly old hens that have stopped laying are still great workers they keep pests down and they turn your kitchen waste into a rich compost fertilizer so powerful that a little goes a long way in the garden helping you to produce more organic homegrown food you know the other day I was listening to a Joe Rogan podcast and he was talking to a guy called Joel salaton is a well-known Farmer in the states who has written a lot of books so he's a fair Authority he was talking about an example where a city in Belgium hatched a plan to give three chickens to 2 000 households for free to see if this would reduce some of the landfill waste that they were having a problem with after the first month of doing that they saved a hundred tons of landfill at their refuse dumps how good is that these households were using their kitchen scraps from the table and giving them to the chickens instead of putting them in the garbage and having it taken away another good point about old hens is when you have a flock of chickens and for whatever reason you get some more hens pullets the old hands teach the new ones it's mostly through observation things like where and how to use a drinker or a treadle feeder where to roost and lay eggs how to avoid potential dangers in the area like aerial attack from Hawks and Eagles and more also old hens make good friends they may not chase a ball or cuddle up to you on the couch but that doesn't mean that hens can't be Companion Pets chickens and especially older hens have known you for so long and they've probably laid more eggs than you've had chicken dinners that their familiarity with you makes them pretty much a pet and I've said this several times before on my Channel about how often I come down the back here just to relax and watch the hands go about their business it Zen's or hands me out and it's my happy clucky place that just de-stresses me and lastly or you might say terminally when an old hen drops off the perch their final Act of good is to become fertilizer buried in the garden or under a fruit tree now you can't get a more dedicated or useful life than that number three chickens are so hard to keep healthy look just like any other animal there are certain things that you need to do to keep your flock healthy and happy but I would argue that chickens are easier to keep than most dogs and cats sure there are times when problems arise such as a sick hand or an outbreak of mites but these issues are few in my experience and can easily be solved with common remedies and finding information from a large knowledge base on chicken keeping from your vet or even from the online space there's plenty on the interwebs of good information on how to solve problems with hands number four backyard eggs are unsafe this one does my head in you can get food poisoning Salmonella poisoning from Supermarket eggs in fact just here in Australia the other day there was a recall on eggs bad eggs are nothing to brood over if you give your hens a clean dry place to lay and collect the Eggs Daily the chances of you getting food poisoning is as rare as hens teeth seriously commercial Farmers wash the eggs in a disinfectant to me that sort of raises its own concerns but if you practice Good Egg hygiene and don't use dirty eggs or swallow them raw like Stallone in Rocky one well then there's nothing to worry about number five chickens are so messy look there's no doubt that chickens like to dig they look for food or give themselves a dust bath and this can be destructive so that's why we have ours down the back here if you have a smaller property with Gardens that you don't want dug up chickens can be kept in pens or mobile coops that can be moved around to limit damage number six chickens are too noisy chickens are not noisy can you hear them this whole video they're not noisy at all [Laughter] chickens can get noisy and cluck loudly if they're getting chased by me or a predator a predator mainly they'll cluck their heads off and rightly so wouldn't you and also when they're laying an egg for a short period of time they can get a bit loud but that's through the day mostly through the day and definitely through the night chickens are very quiet odds are your neighbor's dog is more annoying however roosters can be a problem and that's why they are banned from most urban areas even though we can keep roosters here and there are a lot of positive reasons for keeping roosters we choose not to keep roosters anymore now not everyone is able to keep chickens due to not enough space or other genuine reasons and I acknowledge that but the most common concern that I get from people that are wanting to keep chickens is what do I do once our hands have stopped laying because they've gotten too old so let me go through our succession and retirement plan for our hens basically once our current flock drastically drops in production or ceases laying it's as simple as getting new point of lay hands or pullets meaning young hens that are just about at the right age start lying rather than replacing the old hens we keep them because as I outlined earlier old hens are useful just think of Grandma yes you might be doubling your flock at the time but unless you have a tiny space the extra Birds won't be a problem they'll be an asset chickens don't need a lot of room of course if doubling your flock means breaking your local Council rules the number of poultry allowed then don't run foul of the law and perhaps that chicken stew is a good idea after all you have to crack a few eggs to make an omelette so I've probably upset a few people but I refuse to walk on eggshells and at the same time I understand that everyone is entitled to their own opinion however spreading the word that keeping chickens isn't what it's cracked up to be makes me madder than a wet hen and I needed to say something about it if you like this video make sure you Shake a Tail Feather and give it a big thumbs up and share the video around because that helps my channel out heaps And subscribe if you haven't already I hope I haven't got egg on my face and if you've got any more serious chicken puns or some good chicken points about this subject whack them down in the comments section below so we can all read learn and laugh about it thanks a lot for watching bye for now cheers

Channel: Self Sufficient Me

Views: 4,384,276

Keywords: raising chickens, raising chickens for eggs, egg prices, backyard chickens, backyard chickens for eggs, egg crisis, egg prices rising, backyard chickens free range, egg prices and shortages, egg prices going up, chickens, chicken, egg, eggs, crisis

Id: hSvhneC5VCY

Length: 11min 18sec (678 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 30 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Spencerforhire83]

The economics of chicken farming.

• How long do hens produce eggs?

• How long do they live?

• What is the usefulness of a non laying hen?

• Can hens eat your compostable kitchen waste?

• Is it hygienic to grow raise your own flock?

T.L.D.W

Hens can produce for many years and rid the garden and yards of pest. 3 Hens distributed to 2,000 households in Belgium reduced compostable landfill by over 100,000 lbs.

[u/shadowdash66]

Been watching Mark for years. Great guy, and his garden is all the proof you need that self reliance works.

[u/AsstToTheRegMngr]

Great video, dad here who fully supports the puns 😆

[u/bubsieboo]

I love mark and his dad jokes

[u/ESB1812]

So today I talked with an “ag guy” from Florida “not my state” about chickens. I asked him why egg prices are going up…with a straight face he said transportation.lol I said what? So not the avian flu? Or price gouging…homie swore up and down it was nay. Let me just say “doubt”, Im no expert or anything but Im gonna go out on a limb and say the guy was full of bull butter.

[u/ranger2112]

He has a great YouTube channel