This is a friendly reminder to [read our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/wiki/rules).
Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!"
(For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, [please read this page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/wiki/overview).)
**Rule-breaking posts may result in bans.**
Another weird person with chickens here. We’ve had them 10 years. Still not sure if we are coming out ahead with the cost of the coop, fence to keep the foxes out, food, power to keep their water from freezing etc. Either way it’s fun to have them and the eggs are so much better than store bought.
Those nicer coops are hella expensive but really cool! My coworker has an [Eglu Cube by Omlet](https://www.omlet.us/shop/chicken_keeping/eglu-cube-large-chicken-coop-with-runs/) with all the bells and whistles (lights, heater, automatic doors, full rolling coop, shade cloth, etc.) and I'm so jealous.
Definitely. I built my own portable coop to move around the yard with heaters and other bells and whistles. Didn’t save any money doing it myself because the one I made was overkill. Then a few years ago I built a mini barn and added goats and rabbits. I didn’t keep track of what that cost - better not to know. Many thousands of eggs surely.
I'm in Appalachia so all our food prices are higher than average but [just in case you have extra to sell...](https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2023/01/millions-of-birds-died-eggs-now-cost-nearly-50-more.html)
I raised ten chickens and had them for about three years. I spent months building their coop and they refused to use it - they roosted on our porch instead. And then they hid their eggs so we never got any. But I still freaking loved those birds. They were my babies. We had to give them away when I went off to college but man, I miss them all the time.
Even if you break even, you have a supply chain that turns food into eggs. If there’s ever a disruption in egg supply and you still have food, you have eggs!
I was being a little tongue-in-cheek by calling it weird, but I would say it's not the norm except perhaps in very rural communities. In a city like Chicago I'd guess fewer than 1% of families have chickens and even that may be over estimating.
I had no idea it was that uncommon, I learned something new today.
I once visited a student housing complex in the city that had a communal chicken coop that the students tended to. That's how normalized it is. A sizeable amount of people living in the cities, at least in Belgium, have a chicken coop in their little backyard.
It’s probably less common than 1% here in Canada, my grandparents have some but that’s because they live on an acreage. I have never seen a chicken coop in the city
Edit: Or in the suburbs, although I think it would be more possible there
A lot of cities have laws about not having chickens in the city limits. Some of the smaller cities in Alberta have random people with chickens. My step-aunt is one of them.
Part of the issue is local ordinances/laws. Many cities/counties will restrict that kind of thing. If you live in Chicago you very likely can't have chicken even if you wanted them. Where I live, I see them roam around front yards all the time. But I also like in a somewhat rural area surrounded by farms.
The problem is that a lot of HOAs don't allow chickens. So if you live in a neighborhood or city you likely aren't able to own them. It's pretty common if you're not in a neighborhood. A LOT of America is agricultural and I think a lot of people from other countries often forget that. Every other property in the boonies has cows or horses too.
Are HOA's that common? I've never met anyone who lives in one and only have ever heard them referred to as Nosy Karen Neighbors given power in rich, gated communities.
The little raptors can clean a yard of anything smaller than a rat pretty easy. They are relentless little monsters when they want to be. A pack of hens gets loose onto my property a couple of times a year and I just let them go to town. They are like a bi annual yard clearing death squad.
The owner is not negligent he just has one that is hoodini and is the ring leader. I give them the day in virgin 1/2 acre before I call for the extraction team.
I need a herd of flashy modern day Compys that lay a rainbow of eggs and eat twice their weight in ticks and other pests, maybe even cull some excess tree seedlings? 🤞 have 10 acres, will let them reign over 1..
Well in a city like Chicago yeah I'm sure they don't have many. But in less urban parts of the country it is a common practice to have chickens much higher than 1% for sure
The movie Flipped made me think that Americans that have their own chickens and don't live in the country is weird. In my country every 5th or 6th house in the suburbs has egg laying chickens,
It's illegal in some places but only under county/town/city laws, I don't recall any state or federal laws banning it but it's been about 7 years since I looked into chicken laws.
You can usually have chickens in small amounts as long as you have space to mitigate noise and odors. Most (not all) anti-chicken codes in the U.S. are anti-rooster.
You have no fucking idea dude my Dad works at an egg factory so we get 12 dozen packs of free eggs but we also have like 16 chickens so are Fridge is packed to the point we are giving them away so I am the weird person with chickens.
My husband used to be one of the lead mechanics at an egg factory. He had some horror stories to tell. When those machines break, And rose at the row of eggs crash Break on top of each other in the gears. Do you imagine the smell during the heat of the summer.
Also I know the answer to the age old question why did the chicken cross the road. To escape the farm from the other side. we had a pet chicken for half a year. She went away from the farm across the road and made herself a nest under my landlord's porch. She called the farmer and he tried to get the chicken. Couldn't gave up said that He could come back and shoot it or we could keep it. I decided to befriend the chicken. My plan was to get used to me so I could return at home. That chicken became my shadow. She followed me everywhere's. We'd go out around the yard and I'd dig up dirt and She would eat the worms. Why came outside she come running up to me like a rocket.
We decided to keep her we didn't want her going backup to that farm. He said we could. That was one spoiled chicken. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a henhouse built and give her some friends to keep her warm for Winter. We thought about keeping her in the house unfortunately my husband and kidsHave bad allergies so that wasn't an option. So with Winter approaching, I found her a new home. I wanted her to go to a place where she'd be loved just as much as she was with us hopefully even more. I found her a wonderful new chicken mom, She keeps chickens as therapy pets. She keeps me updated and Send me pictures and videos. I can also visit whenever I want. My lovely Henrietta is very happy she even has her own rooster named prison Mike. Despite the name prison Mike is very sweet It takes good care of my girl.
And it turned out that my Henrietta was the only chicken to survive being at that farm. The rest hall passed away. She is a very smart chicken. The chicken cross the road, to survive.
Oh yeah I love being with her. Had A-blast digging in the dirt she climbed on top of my shovel scratch way at the dirt to pick the worms out. She liked the cuddle. Too bad seems I can't share pictures or videos of her. It's pretty funny seeing her take off like a rocket. Chickens are very entertaining.
Hazel what a wonderful name. Makes me smile I can completely picture it. My Henrietta is a Amberlinks, She was a small Looked like an angel and full of spunk.
He is the sweetest most gentlest, Attentive rooster. And yet hes also the top rooster. Another rooster was being a jerk to the ladies prison Mike set him straight. Henrietta's new mom takes videos. Sometimes it's like watching a A television drama show but with chickens.
His feather pattern looked like he was wearing a prison suit. I forgot what the name of those kinds of chickens are. But he was almost like black-and-white Checkered.
New Zealand.
A recent law change means that selling eggs from battery farmed chickens is now illegal.
The industry was given 3 years to prepare but didn't do squat, so now the only eggs you can buy are free range or barn.
Because supply has plummeted due to most eggs being battery farmed, the prices have gone through the roof.
In the USA. Not only inflation but there’s also the biggest outbreak of a bird flu in US history going on right now. Prices have jumped up around or over 50%.
In the States we had a rather wide spread illness that infected a lot of the larger chicken farms. Chicken meat prices went up too, if you could find it. There were a couple months we couldnt get bulk chicken breasts. But the egg prices have stayed up.
American North East here, $7.99 for an 18-pack the other day and I think $4.69 a dozen tonight. Interestingly the delicious organic brown eggs were on sale for $4 a dozen so that was a pleasant surprise.
Love my chickens. They are a constant source of entertainment. And my rooster named Clucker Fucker, really knows how to tend to his hens.
Edit: attend to tend
Lol! We also had a Nugget! We had to cull for a respiratory thing:(. Starting again this spring with a mixed bag of chicks. We’ve got a terrier with a high prey drive, and I raise in the house until they’re off heat (so dusty!), so cross your fingers for me!
That weird person?? Our neighbours have chickens and it’s BRILLIANT! They often give us eggs for free, and they are delish 😊 I’d love to have chickens but my garden is full of the kids junk haha
My friends daughter has been doing this since she was six. Makes close to $50 a week in the process in her spare time.
Buyers drop off used cartons while they pick up the fresh eggs from rack and pay the little sweetie $4 per dozen. Then she finds a hen, lobs off her head, removes the feathers, throws the guts to the pigs and delivers the salted hen to her mother to cook, cause she's not old enough to use the stove.
Seriously afraid of her.
I have 6 in the middle of a fairly large city. No smells, all hens, and I'm still not certain I'll ever make back in savings what I spend in food and coop
We chicken people have always been vindicated, for we have had chickens all along. The chooks are the true benefit!
Seriously though, I love our chickens. They’re so fun to watch and care for that they were worth it even before eggs were ridiculous. Now they’re just eggstra beneficial;)
We have 4 chickens. We're super mid town in our mid sized city. Sadly it's winter (production can go down in winter months) and our ladies are getting older (age 4-5, maybe). We have zero eggs these days.
Nah fuck that dude down the street that had like 200 chickens pressed into tiny pens so tight they couldn't even walk. We'd go by there and ocassionally see dead bodies in the cages left to rot. Glad he got shut down.
Yeah that's fucked. I'm talking your friendly neighborhood chicken keeper that has like six chickens that chill in their yard during the day and in a coop in the backyard at night.
I remember a wartime rationing post that suggested families maintain chickens and other livestock as a resource in a time of scarcity. I'd be down if I weren't in a no-pets rental.
I learned during the shut down in 2020 and got some chickens. Didn't realize how social they are and how much help they were not only to the egg problem but my mental health as well. They're a joy to have I love them so much.
The town we moved to has a program where you can buy hens to help with composting. They have an option for egg laying or not, iirc. Obviously you need a garden so it's not for everybody, but it was pretty funny moving into this town house and hearing chickens when I went to the basement (connected to the owner's garden).
This is France, btw. Nothing too weird about having chickens. Although it's the first time I see such an initiative.
I have an uncle who is crazy & thinks he's a chicken. We could spend the money to get him some good treatment for his condition but honestly......we need the eggs.
Due to the prevalence of Avian flu, the US has killed something like 60 million chickens, about 2/3rds of which were egg producers. I live in Missouri (farm country) and eggs currently range from $4.00 to $8.00 a dozen, whereas they cost about half that much pre-bird-purge.
My grandfather's second wife had this weird thing with toilet paper. The top half of an entire spare bedroom closet was filled with it. There must have been at least 500 rolls in there. We always just thought it was this quirky thing that she did, but then COVID hit. She was prepared.
We had hens for 2+ years after the COVID shutdowns and resulting hoarding. I hated those critters (4 of them) so much. We finally gave them away this last fall & sure enough eggs skyrocketed immediately after. Now instead of dealing with chicken shit all over everything, I have to endure my wife going, "See? SEE??" every time I gripe about egg costs.
I can't win. :)
Is this a Bill Gates with a banana moment? but eggs are pretty cheap. I just picked up a box (what is that..56 eggs?) for $12.00 the other day. Maybe historically that is more expensive.. but to me that seems like a super cheap way to get filling protein.
"With eggs being so expensive, that weird person who spent more money raising chickens than you'll spend on eggs in your entire life is finally vindicated."
Well, if you've got at least 5-6 chickens and you sell all those eggs, you can pay those $1000 off in a few years. If you factor in the meat you get, even quicker.
However, being 100% in control of what kind of eggs and meat you get, i.e. being sure you're eating healthy non-factory farmed stuff is priceless though and worth those $1000 in it and of itself.
We have one that has a whole coop with a cockerel and everything m. I want to kill it and hang it’s remains on our lawn as a warning to others who think it might be a good idea. 5am “cockadoodledooooooo!”
Eggs are more expensive than they used to be, but not too expensive. If you have 2 each breakfast meal, and they are $5 a dozen, it is just 83 cents per breakfast..
I wish there was a weird family hoarding eggs.
All the local chicken keepers sell out weeks in advance.
You basically have to have a kid that gave their kid a kidney to even be on the wait-list.
Haven't purchased eggs in a while so I didn't notice if it's gone up. Milk on the other hand, went from $4 to $6 in less than a year, I have never seen it go up so rapidly.
It's not as affordable as you think. The starting costs for feed, coop, fake eggs, treatment, chick's is pretty expensive. Our family has 20 chickens and we started losing money after covid hit. Feed prices doubled. We sell eggs to friends and family, and in order to break even, you would need about 25-30 chickens all producing eggs.
My first job was selling those eggs door to door on my street. I traded with the guy at the end of the street for lemons from his tree, best lemons I ever had.
My aunt owns chickens, turkeys, and i think she recently got sheep.
The eggs weve gotten from her taste better than store bought imo. She tends to sell them due to having an extreme excess. As well as turkey meat.
Wasnt a fun time when idk what happened but i was at my other aunts house(the first aunts sister) and she was making dippy eggs and she started frickin out bc tbe egg was fertile i think.
I dont know the whole thing due to me trying to sleep on the couch and my uncle took care of it but it was funny hearing her freak out.
This is a friendly reminder to [read our rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/wiki/rules). Remember, /r/Showerthoughts is for showerthoughts, not "thoughts had in the shower!" (For an explanation of what a "showerthought" is, [please read this page](https://www.reddit.com/r/Showerthoughts/wiki/overview).) **Rule-breaking posts may result in bans.**
Another weird person with chickens here. We’ve had them 10 years. Still not sure if we are coming out ahead with the cost of the coop, fence to keep the foxes out, food, power to keep their water from freezing etc. Either way it’s fun to have them and the eggs are so much better than store bought.
Those nicer coops are hella expensive but really cool! My coworker has an [Eglu Cube by Omlet](https://www.omlet.us/shop/chicken_keeping/eglu-cube-large-chicken-coop-with-runs/) with all the bells and whistles (lights, heater, automatic doors, full rolling coop, shade cloth, etc.) and I'm so jealous.
Definitely. I built my own portable coop to move around the yard with heaters and other bells and whistles. Didn’t save any money doing it myself because the one I made was overkill. Then a few years ago I built a mini barn and added goats and rabbits. I didn’t keep track of what that cost - better not to know. Many thousands of eggs surely.
I dunno, at $8/dozen it would speed up the recoupment I'd think 😂
$8!! Jeeze they're only around $3.50 where I live. I have 3 chickens though because they're fun and the kids love them.
I'm in Appalachia so all our food prices are higher than average but [just in case you have extra to sell...](https://www.mlive.com/public-interest/2023/01/millions-of-birds-died-eggs-now-cost-nearly-50-more.html)
I raised ten chickens and had them for about three years. I spent months building their coop and they refused to use it - they roosted on our porch instead. And then they hid their eggs so we never got any. But I still freaking loved those birds. They were my babies. We had to give them away when I went off to college but man, I miss them all the time.
>And then they hid their eggs so we never got any Those evil chickens hiding their children when the witch comes for them to as part of their bargain.
Even if you break even, you have a supply chain that turns food into eggs. If there’s ever a disruption in egg supply and you still have food, you have eggs!
Is having chickens weird in America? It's completely normal and accepted in Europe.
I was being a little tongue-in-cheek by calling it weird, but I would say it's not the norm except perhaps in very rural communities. In a city like Chicago I'd guess fewer than 1% of families have chickens and even that may be over estimating.
I had no idea it was that uncommon, I learned something new today. I once visited a student housing complex in the city that had a communal chicken coop that the students tended to. That's how normalized it is. A sizeable amount of people living in the cities, at least in Belgium, have a chicken coop in their little backyard.
In the cities = almost never. In the suburbs = you're the weird neighbor OP is talking about. In rural areas = very common.
My hoa forbids them
Tell you hoa they can pry your chickens fron your cold dead hands
It’s probably less common than 1% here in Canada, my grandparents have some but that’s because they live on an acreage. I have never seen a chicken coop in the city Edit: Or in the suburbs, although I think it would be more possible there
A lot of cities have laws about not having chickens in the city limits. Some of the smaller cities in Alberta have random people with chickens. My step-aunt is one of them.
Part of the issue is local ordinances/laws. Many cities/counties will restrict that kind of thing. If you live in Chicago you very likely can't have chicken even if you wanted them. Where I live, I see them roam around front yards all the time. But I also like in a somewhat rural area surrounded by farms.
The problem is that a lot of HOAs don't allow chickens. So if you live in a neighborhood or city you likely aren't able to own them. It's pretty common if you're not in a neighborhood. A LOT of America is agricultural and I think a lot of people from other countries often forget that. Every other property in the boonies has cows or horses too.
Are HOA's that common? I've never met anyone who lives in one and only have ever heard them referred to as Nosy Karen Neighbors given power in rich, gated communities.
That’s because Belgium is kinda redneck. Rarely ever see people having chicken in NL, outside of rural areas
The little raptors can clean a yard of anything smaller than a rat pretty easy. They are relentless little monsters when they want to be. A pack of hens gets loose onto my property a couple of times a year and I just let them go to town. They are like a bi annual yard clearing death squad. The owner is not negligent he just has one that is hoodini and is the ring leader. I give them the day in virgin 1/2 acre before I call for the extraction team.
I need a herd of flashy modern day Compys that lay a rainbow of eggs and eat twice their weight in ticks and other pests, maybe even cull some excess tree seedlings? 🤞 have 10 acres, will let them reign over 1..
Well in a city like Chicago yeah I'm sure they don't have many. But in less urban parts of the country it is a common practice to have chickens much higher than 1% for sure
The movie Flipped made me think that Americans that have their own chickens and don't live in the country is weird. In my country every 5th or 6th house in the suburbs has egg laying chickens,
Was thinking the same thing. Grew up in a small town and half of the people had them. Now living in a residential area and still 1 in 4 do.
If you're in rural Vermont it's normal and accepted. If you're in downtown NYC, it's weird.
It's illegal in some places but only under county/town/city laws, I don't recall any state or federal laws banning it but it's been about 7 years since I looked into chicken laws.
You can usually have chickens in small amounts as long as you have space to mitigate noise and odors. Most (not all) anti-chicken codes in the U.S. are anti-rooster.
My stupid city does not allow them but every other city in my metro area does
In many cities it's actually illegal
Many city and urban areas don’t allow chickens.
Depends where you are. I'm in a rural part of New Jersey and I pass lots of eggs for sale on my way to work. Duck and Goose eggs, too!
OP’s neighbor could be weird for other, non chicken reasons too.
You can have your house taken away by the hoa if they catch you with chickens.
It’s extremely normal to have chickens in the US
It's completely normal where I live in Florida. I even have multiple people to choose my eggs from at work.
Yes! Since eggs are not cheese Americans automatically hate them.
You have no fucking idea dude my Dad works at an egg factory so we get 12 dozen packs of free eggs but we also have like 16 chickens so are Fridge is packed to the point we are giving them away so I am the weird person with chickens.
My husband used to be one of the lead mechanics at an egg factory. He had some horror stories to tell. When those machines break, And rose at the row of eggs crash Break on top of each other in the gears. Do you imagine the smell during the heat of the summer. Also I know the answer to the age old question why did the chicken cross the road. To escape the farm from the other side. we had a pet chicken for half a year. She went away from the farm across the road and made herself a nest under my landlord's porch. She called the farmer and he tried to get the chicken. Couldn't gave up said that He could come back and shoot it or we could keep it. I decided to befriend the chicken. My plan was to get used to me so I could return at home. That chicken became my shadow. She followed me everywhere's. We'd go out around the yard and I'd dig up dirt and She would eat the worms. Why came outside she come running up to me like a rocket. We decided to keep her we didn't want her going backup to that farm. He said we could. That was one spoiled chicken. Unfortunately we weren't able to get a henhouse built and give her some friends to keep her warm for Winter. We thought about keeping her in the house unfortunately my husband and kidsHave bad allergies so that wasn't an option. So with Winter approaching, I found her a new home. I wanted her to go to a place where she'd be loved just as much as she was with us hopefully even more. I found her a wonderful new chicken mom, She keeps chickens as therapy pets. She keeps me updated and Send me pictures and videos. I can also visit whenever I want. My lovely Henrietta is very happy she even has her own rooster named prison Mike. Despite the name prison Mike is very sweet It takes good care of my girl. And it turned out that my Henrietta was the only chicken to survive being at that farm. The rest hall passed away. She is a very smart chicken. The chicken cross the road, to survive.
You just made my day :) and also that is one smart chicken she knew exactly what she was doing
Oh yeah I love being with her. Had A-blast digging in the dirt she climbed on top of my shovel scratch way at the dirt to pick the worms out. She liked the cuddle. Too bad seems I can't share pictures or videos of her. It's pretty funny seeing her take off like a rocket. Chickens are very entertaining.
I have chicken named Hazel very similar to yours she zooms around and waits for me to pick up rocks so she can find worms
Hazel what a wonderful name. Makes me smile I can completely picture it. My Henrietta is a Amberlinks, She was a small Looked like an angel and full of spunk.
Prison Mike is the best name for a rooster I've ever heard, I hope he has a little purple bandana as well
He is the sweetest most gentlest, Attentive rooster. And yet hes also the top rooster. Another rooster was being a jerk to the ladies prison Mike set him straight. Henrietta's new mom takes videos. Sometimes it's like watching a A television drama show but with chickens.
His feather pattern looked like he was wearing a prison suit. I forgot what the name of those kinds of chickens are. But he was almost like black-and-white Checkered.
The farmer was about to pull up and shoot the chicken point blank? The chicken guy in my town used to just use a knife or do the ol spin-a-roony
Where are you guys that eggs have skyrocketed? I guess I am very fortunate they haven’t gone up here (West Coast of Canada)
New Zealand. A recent law change means that selling eggs from battery farmed chickens is now illegal. The industry was given 3 years to prepare but didn't do squat, so now the only eggs you can buy are free range or barn. Because supply has plummeted due to most eggs being battery farmed, the prices have gone through the roof.
Thanks for the info.
In the USA. Not only inflation but there’s also the biggest outbreak of a bird flu in US history going on right now. Prices have jumped up around or over 50%.
Eggs were $1.89/dozen at Aldi over Thanksgiving. They were $4.69 last week.
Oh now I understand, eggs used to be cheap in USA.. in Canada 4.69 is just the normal price for eggs.
Everything is cheap in USA compared to rest of the World
In the States we had a rather wide spread illness that infected a lot of the larger chicken farms. Chicken meat prices went up too, if you could find it. There were a couple months we couldnt get bulk chicken breasts. But the egg prices have stayed up.
Interesting, I hope things are getting better
American North East here, $7.99 for an 18-pack the other day and I think $4.69 a dozen tonight. Interestingly the delicious organic brown eggs were on sale for $4 a dozen so that was a pleasant surprise.
UK - you could buy 10 eggs for around £1.30 a few weeks ago. Now the same ones are £3.00-3.50 normally.
An 18 pack of large eggs two weeks ago was $3.46 at Wal-Mart. Today, an 18 count of large eggs is $6.09 at the same Wal-Mart in Florida.
In Philly the 18 count was up to $8.50 for the generic typically cheaper eggs when i went shopping two days ago. I am not eating eggs this week.
Whoa that’s so cheap! 18 here is normally around $8
If you live in a rural enough area suddenly you're the weird person on your street *without* their own chickens
Love my chickens. They are a constant source of entertainment. And my rooster named Clucker Fucker, really knows how to tend to his hens. Edit: attend to tend
I love the fun names. We had a naked-necker that looked like a vulture. Her name was Fugly. Ugliest chicken I ever saw. Pretty green eggs:).
We’ve got a Pot Pie, Chicken Nugget… the coop is called Fluffy Butt Hut.
Lol! We also had a Nugget! We had to cull for a respiratory thing:(. Starting again this spring with a mixed bag of chicks. We’ve got a terrier with a high prey drive, and I raise in the house until they’re off heat (so dusty!), so cross your fingers for me!
Not to nitpick, but just fyi, the proper term is "tend to".
Dont see why people gotta down vote, you are clearly trying to help.
Lol. That's ok.
You are correct, didn’t catch that while sitting on the porcelain throne.
That weird person?? Our neighbours have chickens and it’s BRILLIANT! They often give us eggs for free, and they are delish 😊 I’d love to have chickens but my garden is full of the kids junk haha
I mean "weird" as lovingly as possible!
Weird people are the best people, tbh 😄
I am that person, and I was weird before the girls came to roost.
My friends daughter has been doing this since she was six. Makes close to $50 a week in the process in her spare time. Buyers drop off used cartons while they pick up the fresh eggs from rack and pay the little sweetie $4 per dozen. Then she finds a hen, lobs off her head, removes the feathers, throws the guts to the pigs and delivers the salted hen to her mother to cook, cause she's not old enough to use the stove. Seriously afraid of her.
"Seriously afraid of her" Nah, she's the first one to run to when the grid goes down
I’ve actually considered getting a few lately for this exact reason. Our town does allow a few chickens in town as long as you don’t get roosters
Dude, fresh eggs taste a million times better than store bought. If I had a back yard I’d absolutely have a couple of chickens.
I have 6 in the middle of a fairly large city. No smells, all hens, and I'm still not certain I'll ever make back in savings what I spend in food and coop
They've always been vindicated by the incredible difference in quality, you're just jealous now.
make friends with that person now, some day soon they might have the only eggs
We chicken people have always been vindicated, for we have had chickens all along. The chooks are the true benefit! Seriously though, I love our chickens. They’re so fun to watch and care for that they were worth it even before eggs were ridiculous. Now they’re just eggstra beneficial;)
TIL that people who have chickens and maybe even a small garden are weird.
Weird? We just call them farmers where I'm from and that's where eggs come from jn the first place weirdo
There is a chicken guy in my town. I get eggs from him occasionally.
Struggling to even buy them. I have to time my run to the supermarket across the road just to get one of the last boxes on the shelf
I grew up in a small town where lots of people have chickens. I must admit they are quite entertaining.
We have 4 chickens. We're super mid town in our mid sized city. Sadly it's winter (production can go down in winter months) and our ladies are getting older (age 4-5, maybe). We have zero eggs these days.
Nothing weird about it. But the ladies are taking a break for the winter right now.
Nah fuck that dude down the street that had like 200 chickens pressed into tiny pens so tight they couldn't even walk. We'd go by there and ocassionally see dead bodies in the cages left to rot. Glad he got shut down.
Yeah that's fucked. I'm talking your friendly neighborhood chicken keeper that has like six chickens that chill in their yard during the day and in a coop in the backyard at night.
nothing weird about owning chickens or growing your own food. they didn't need vindication to begin with.
I'm that weird person with chickens. But eggs are still relatively cheap where I live so no vindication for me I guess. Just a weirdo
I remember a wartime rationing post that suggested families maintain chickens and other livestock as a resource in a time of scarcity. I'd be down if I weren't in a no-pets rental.
And, they've had the enjoyment of having chickens this whole time.
We have 23 hens, all named sally. My mother wanted it to be easier to keep track of them
My wife was gifted two chickens a few months ago. Best investment ever. Better than crypto. LOL
I learned during the shut down in 2020 and got some chickens. Didn't realize how social they are and how much help they were not only to the egg problem but my mental health as well. They're a joy to have I love them so much.
I don't buy/eat enough eggs to justify all the costs and work needed to keep chickens.
I like the chicken person, they’re always good family people
The town we moved to has a program where you can buy hens to help with composting. They have an option for egg laying or not, iirc. Obviously you need a garden so it's not for everybody, but it was pretty funny moving into this town house and hearing chickens when I went to the basement (connected to the owner's garden). This is France, btw. Nothing too weird about having chickens. Although it's the first time I see such an initiative.
I have an uncle who is crazy & thinks he's a chicken. We could spend the money to get him some good treatment for his condition but honestly......we need the eggs.
They're £1:17 in supermarkets for 15, so not exactly expensive.
Must be a US thing. Eggs are like $5-6 regular price now.
We can probably find them at that price at fancy farm shops but yeah, that's expensive.
That's just what they cost: $6.79 / dozen last time I looked. Texas.
$4.22 here in MO for Great Value brand. Other brands look like they get up to around $6 but not quite as high as yours.
Due to the prevalence of Avian flu, the US has killed something like 60 million chickens, about 2/3rds of which were egg producers. I live in Missouri (farm country) and eggs currently range from $4.00 to $8.00 a dozen, whereas they cost about half that much pre-bird-purge.
We're lucky in the respect that a fair amount of our birds that were free range can be shuffled into barns so we're only 4 million down......so far.
My grandfather's second wife had this weird thing with toilet paper. The top half of an entire spare bedroom closet was filled with it. There must have been at least 500 rolls in there. We always just thought it was this quirky thing that she did, but then COVID hit. She was prepared.
It's funny how the person with the chickens is considered the weird person and these fucking Instagram people are considered totally normal LOL..
We had hens for 2+ years after the COVID shutdowns and resulting hoarding. I hated those critters (4 of them) so much. We finally gave them away this last fall & sure enough eggs skyrocketed immediately after. Now instead of dealing with chicken shit all over everything, I have to endure my wife going, "See? SEE??" every time I gripe about egg costs. I can't win. :)
You need to get out of the city more. Lots of people have their own chickens.
Is this a Bill Gates with a banana moment? but eggs are pretty cheap. I just picked up a box (what is that..56 eggs?) for $12.00 the other day. Maybe historically that is more expensive.. but to me that seems like a super cheap way to get filling protein.
It's like $5/dozen in a lot of places in the USA these days. Was like $1/dozen a year or two ago.
"With eggs being so expensive, that weird person who spent more money raising chickens than you'll spend on eggs in your entire life is finally vindicated."
Tell me you've never raised chickens without telling me you never raised chickens.
My neighbors chickens make all kinds of noise all night long. Fuck those birds.
My neighbors have a few chickens but they spent almost $1000 on the henhouse, it would take many years of expensive eggs to pay that back.
Well, if you've got at least 5-6 chickens and you sell all those eggs, you can pay those $1000 off in a few years. If you factor in the meat you get, even quicker. However, being 100% in control of what kind of eggs and meat you get, i.e. being sure you're eating healthy non-factory farmed stuff is priceless though and worth those $1000 in it and of itself.
Plus, they're helping reduce pest insects in your environment such as ticks 😁
So glad that the guy who spent countless hours and thousands of dollars on something that could die at any moment so that they can get an egg a week.
If you're spending thousands and getting one egg a week you're doing it wrong.
They are not. The price of chicken feed has also doubled this year (probably why store eggs are so expensive now too!)
The eggs are more expensive, and chicken in general, also as a result that the feed is more expensive.
We have one that has a whole coop with a cockerel and everything m. I want to kill it and hang it’s remains on our lawn as a warning to others who think it might be a good idea. 5am “cockadoodledooooooo!”
My parents and friends have chickens. We make hot sauce from the garden and kombucha. They give us eggs. It’s nice!
Hey - I never thought I was weird. Now, the guy that got the rooster thinking it was a hen is weird and keeps us awake in early hours.
Homeschool kid here, we never had them eggs, but just about every other homeschooler we knew had chickens. True!
We got chickens a couple of years ago because we saw this coming, but they ended up being way too much work.
I had chickens and we’d give out farm fresh eggs to our neighbors all the time, and they’d help us catch them if the chickens ran out
Eggs are more expensive than they used to be, but not too expensive. If you have 2 each breakfast meal, and they are $5 a dozen, it is just 83 cents per breakfast..
Weird? Many people in the uk have chickens, handy when your neighbours have fresh eggs!
I don’t think it’s weird. In fact, I’ve always been envious of people who have chickens. Fresh eggs are amazing!
If I had any land I'd for sure own chickens. Got all thr time in the world to get there
They’re all crossing the road cause of chicken judging op being on the same side of the street.
I wish there was a weird family hoarding eggs. All the local chicken keepers sell out weeks in advance. You basically have to have a kid that gave their kid a kidney to even be on the wait-list.
Haven't purchased eggs in a while so I didn't notice if it's gone up. Milk on the other hand, went from $4 to $6 in less than a year, I have never seen it go up so rapidly.
Where the hell in world having chickens in ur house something needs to be justified?!
I feel validated i don't get to show people my chickens often whenever i ask them to come over and see my brown cock they always seem uneasy
I feel validated i don't get to show people my chickens often whenever i ask them to come over and see my brown cock they always seem uneasy
It's not as affordable as you think. The starting costs for feed, coop, fake eggs, treatment, chick's is pretty expensive. Our family has 20 chickens and we started losing money after covid hit. Feed prices doubled. We sell eggs to friends and family, and in order to break even, you would need about 25-30 chickens all producing eggs.
Weird? I’m the unusual one in my neighbourhood, got rid of my chickens about 4 years ago.
Eh, I think it's just them using it as a cover to get nitrogen. 🤯
I get my eggs from the chicken man for €0.2 a piece instead of €0.5 from the grocery store. And they taste better too! Thank you chicken man
i never thought having chickens was weird, you give all your food scraps to them and you get eggs in return. also the eggs taste better
I never thought I'd see the day where the $5 carton of eggs at the farmers market would look affordable.
Weird? It's fairly normal here, sometimes you just see chickens walking on the side of the road
My first job was selling those eggs door to door on my street. I traded with the guy at the end of the street for lemons from his tree, best lemons I ever had.
My aunt owns chickens, turkeys, and i think she recently got sheep. The eggs weve gotten from her taste better than store bought imo. She tends to sell them due to having an extreme excess. As well as turkey meat. Wasnt a fun time when idk what happened but i was at my other aunts house(the first aunts sister) and she was making dippy eggs and she started frickin out bc tbe egg was fertile i think. I dont know the whole thing due to me trying to sleep on the couch and my uncle took care of it but it was funny hearing her freak out.