Myths About Keeping Chickens

Fallacies Surrounding Chickens - Why What You've Heard is Wrong

Jun 25, 2009

With more people keeping chickens at home there are many stories about the problems with doing this. But these 'facts' are often 'myths', as you will find below.

It is becoming increasingly popular to keep chickens in an urban environment, a sort of pet with benefits as you get provided with regular free eggs. But speak to anyone about keeping chickens and you will often come up against some urban myths, dressed up as arguments against keeping them. However, myths they are, and this article should help dispel at least some of them.

They will Crow in the Morning

The noise aspect is something that everyone who is thinking about getting chickens will be worried about. But crowing in the morning is the sole domain of the cockerel/rooster, while your laying hens don't go in for the same macho bravado.

That's not to say they're silent. There's an almost constant clucking as they look about for food, and they will often 'announce' the laying of an egg with an increase in volume (I'm sure you would too!). If they get excited by something, such as wanting out of a run, or seeing that you have food, then there will often be a long-winded and high-pitched whine, which in truth does get a little irritating at times.

And then there's the shouting that occurs if there's a predator about. You will know very definitely when a fox is sniffing about.

Other than that there is a strange, contented 'purr' when dustbathing. But you certainly don't need to worry about being awakened, or waking the neighbours, at five in the morning.

You Need a Cockerel for Eggs

But don't you need a cockerel to get eggs? The simple answer would be 'no' and we could move on, but if you really want to explain to people then you need to give a brief lesson in biology.

You need a cockerel in order to fertilise eggs, so only if you want to have some chicks. Think of an egg like a human woman's period. Just virtually every day.

They will Wreck Your Garden

Chickens are eating machines. They are constantly on the lookout for food, and find it under the top surface of the ground by scraping at it with their feet. If you keep them solely on lawn then, yes, you can kiss goodbye to your lovely grass. However, if you have a mixed garden, with perhaps some flowerbeds, or overgrown areas, you will find they end up spending more time here. This is simply because it's easy to scrape the earth away.

Doing this they will also pick up and eat plenty of grit, which is good for egg production. Of course if the earthy section of your garden is a vegetable patch then you're going to need to either stand guard in case of intrusion, or erect a small fence, because they most definitely will take advantage of the fruits of your toil.

Will You Eat Them When They Die (or Otherwise)?

You'll be wishing you'd set up a donation box for every time you get asked this once you have chickens. But there are a number of reasons why you wouldn't eat your domestic chickens, all of which should hopefully limit it being asked in the future.

First, if you've bought chickens for egg laying then they simply haven't been bred for meat production, and so the eating from them wouldn't be anywhere near as good as a normal 'meat' bird;

Second, they are pets. Would you consider eating your cat or dog? Okay, some people might, but once you've lived with your chickens for a while and seen their personalities and traits come to the fore it becomes an easy decision;

Third, meat birds are slaughtered at around the 8 weeks old mark. Egg layers often don't even start laying eggs till a few more weeks after that age, so unless you've raised it from a chick yourself the chicken is probably past the best age for meat;

And lastly, would you eat the chickens after they've died? Can you imagine how tough the meat from a chicken that had died of old age would be?

More great information on chickens can be found elsewhere on Suite 101, such as:

The copyright of the article Myths About Keeping Chickens in Domestic Birds is owned by Anthony Robson. Permission to republish Myths About Keeping Chickens in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.