To be or not to be....

The chicks are growing like weeds. I had no idea how quickly they grew and developed, or how independent they are. Chick seems to indistinctly know how to peck, scratch, preen and fly...they amaze and delight me every day. I'm starting to relax with them now. The first few days were nerve wracking. This is a different adventure than I've ever tried before and I was sure they were all going to die. Somehow after 3 weeks they are still alive and we are developing a daily routine. Raising chicks is a lot of fun and a lot of work. I'm glad that I did my research before I started this venture...I would highly recommend it to anyone who thinks that they might like to keep urban chickens. Like anything else, there are pros and cons to raising your own food. Here's the list my husband and I made during the "pre-chicken planning process."

PROS:

1. Fresh, healthy eggs from happy chickens. Not from chickens that are raised in a small cage with processed food and artificial light.
2. Fertilize/aerate the yard in the summer by using a chicken tractor (a chicken tractor is a portable coop/run that is moved around the yard.) The tractor confines the chickens while still allowing them to forage for some of their own food. Good for the yard and good for reducing feed costs.
3. Bug control: chickens love bugs, worms and grubs. We have plenty in our yard.
4. Garden aeration in the spring. The chickens will "fluff up" the soil in the garden before it is planted so we don't have to. We'll have to wait until next spring to see how this works out for us.
5. Kitchen scraps turned into food. When the chicks are older, they will eat a good share of our kitchen scraps, reducing what goes into the garbage and our feed costs.
6. Fertilizer for our garden. We have several beds in the yard for flowers and fresh vegetables. Chicken manure is super rich in nitrogen and excellent for the garden - after it is composted. Chicken manure is so high in nitrogen that it will burn growing plants. Composting not only transforms the nitrogen into a form that can be used by the plants, but it also destroys any bacteria, viruses or parasite eggs that might be present.

CONS:

1. Chickens require daily care. They must be locked in their coops at night to prevent predators from picking off a free meal while the chooks snooze. The chicken tractor will need to be moved to allow for new foraging ground and they'll need to be kept in feed and fresh clean water. I'm lucky that my daughter who lives in town likes the chicks and wants to help take care of them. She will be my "chicken sitter" when my husband and I need a little vacation.
2. Not all cities allow chickens. And, don't rely on your city website for good information. Cedar Rapids doesn't mention chickens at all on the animal ordinances web page, but there is a law prohibiting livestock. I hope to work with others interested in raising chickens to persuade the city to get the ordinance changed as so many cities have done across the country (even New York city allows chickens!) We are fortunate that we are pretty isolated on our acre lot. We have neighbors with several acres on either side of us so only 2 or 3 people will ever even have the opportunity to notice we have chickens. We plan to keep them very clean and have an attractive home for them to minimize the opportunity for neighbor complaints.
3. Chickens are messy. An adult hen will produce about 45 pounds of manure every year...and they don't care where they doo it. The chicks produce an amazing number of droppings and I clean their cage out every day. If you can't handle a little (or a lot) of chicken manure, then better stick to buying eggs from someone who can.
4. Raising chickens costs money. I've found that we've had to be pretty careful during our planning process so that we don't spend more on our chickens than we can ever recover. There are some pretty fancy dancy coops our there for several hundred to over one thousand dollars. We are making our own chicken tractor using new materials because we wanted it to be attractive enough to not irritate our neighbors. To save money, you could build the coop out of recycled wood or purchase something used. We figured that we will recoup our expenses, including the coop and the equipment costs in about 2 years. After that we'll just need to take into consideration the cost of replacement chicks, feed and bedding.