Well we all know the main reason to keep chickens is their eggs and meat if you're raising meat birds but there are many other pros and cons to raising them and letting them free range and I will go over them today.
Pros:
-The eggs taste so much better and the yolks are bright orange.
-They eat all the bugs around your house
-They'll till your garden beds for you
- Happy chickens. They absolutely love being out eating bugs and grass and stuff.
-They fertilize your yard our lawn has never looked so good (minus the poop blobs.)
Cons:
- they till your gardens. Not good when you've just planted them
- they shit everywhere even on your front porch so every pair of shoes you own is covered in chicken shit
- they are more prone to become prey. We've been pretty lucky and only lost one bird so far which is pretty surprising considering where we live.
- they eat just about anything including your plants and veggies.
- they don't always lay their eggs in their nesting boxes and you'll find them around the yard.
It may seem like the cons far out way the pros but I think I've found a balance. We let the girls out to free range in the evening after they've laid their eggs to minimize egg loss and the girls are happy because they still get to go out. We have a run around the coop so it's not liked they're really cooped up all day anyway.
The chicken shit everywhere problem, I have yet to solve, but at least they haven't been pooping on the deck and porches in a while so our shoes have been a little cleaner.
Well that concludes my list of the pros and cons of free ranging chickens. May this help you figure out how you plan to keep your back yard flock.
~Megan~
