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You may be thinking to yourself, 'why do people have chickens?'. There are a number of reasons:
- Chickens as pets: Children especially love chickens and their unique behavior. Chickens can be very affectionate (and roosters can be very mean!).
- Chickens as food: Chickens provide meat and eggs, and if you are lucky enough to be able to 'free range' your chickens they feed themselves with just about all the food they need, giving you free meals in return.
- Recycle your leftovers: Chickens love to eat your old leftovers that would otherwise get thrown out with the trash. A flock of 25-30 chickens is like a 'flock' of pirahna!
- Low Maintenance Pets: Chickens are very low maintenance pets requiring only that you gather eggs once a day and fill their food and water dishes a couple times a week.
- Pest Control: Chickens eat all those creepy crawly biting insects and convert all of that protein into delicious eggs!
- Free Fertilizer: Chicken manure is one of the best fertilizers available and will help to green up your lawn or pasture. But be sure not to keep too many chickens in a small space or the fertilizer will burn your grass and you'll end up with a big dirt patch!
- Cheap and Readily Available: Chickens are very cheap, you can buy chicks for as little as two dollars each, and are available online and from your local feed store and farmer.
- Showing: Some breeds of chickens are bred specifically for showing in competition. Kids show chickens in 4H.
- Breeding: Hatching eggs and the miracle or birth is fascinating for kids as well as adults.
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