Why Keeping Chickens is a "BAD" Idea | World Egg Crisis
In this video, I explain and debunk 6 reasons why keeping chickens is a "bad" idea. Also, I give you my chicken retirement or succession plan for when our hens have stopped laying.
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#eggs #food #chickens
G'day Everyone, I deliberately didn't address the "cost" of hens and equipment because it's like adding the cost of your fridge or oven onto the food bill - it's a silly technical argument - plus keeping chickens has more benefits than just $$. Thanks for your continued support! Cheers :)
Your best punny video ever!
Daisy Creek Farms just did a video this past week breaking down the cost…. His and your video are well-informed… I think it may well be the way to go! Thank you so much for all of your videos…❤
Hey I add rice bran to corn in the winter and the birds lay like crazy even in the middle of winter
How many chicken references are you capable of?!
I'm so glad you are for real🤗 Take care 🙂
Some guy in Australia just did more with one video to help the egg shortage than all the politicians and experts put together.
"Experts"
They're not experts. All of those sh*t* journalist are just a bunch of social justice warrior that push their vegan agenda because they have overflow sympathy toward chicken. They don't have any biology knowledge because they don't even understand predation is the part of life.
I didn't realise that I was entering Punland when I clicked on this video. Talk about eggstreme. Now I just gotta turn it into an egg stream.
Eggsperts.
That's because the politicians in the experts are behind the egg shortage. Remember, they don't like your carbon footprint, even though every living plant on this earth needs carbon in order to produce oxygen for us.
If I'm having a stressful day you will see me heading out to the chicken yard with a 5 gallon bucket. I go inside, turn it upsidedown, throw out a handful of scratch, then begin to tell them my troubles They gather round and absolutely hang on every word. I feel so much better when I head back to the house...
NIce... :)
one of my hens actually stay and wait for me to pat her...theyre adorable creatures...
Exactly!!! Eggsactly? Lol
I look at mine as therapy. They make such good listeners. Offen it turns into group therapy when they also start sharing.
Noice! And...the Dad jokes just keep on coming! Love this video, eggceptional! 😁💞
Love my chickens! We had an old girl, who was about 10 years old before she died. After she stopped laying, she helped care for the young pullets, As she aged, we noticed those young hens returning the favor, by taking care of her! They are amazing animals!
They are so sweet and sensitive!
@@theurbanthirdhomesteadchickens really are amazing in their natural social abilities, & not as dumb compared to other semi-flightless birds like grouse & turkey
Knew of a turkey that drowned cause it decided to watch where the rain was coming from
Yeah and then they eat each other when lacking the nutrients for laying eggs
@@user-xq2xn6gz4y nature is metal indeed
For some reason the mainstream corporate media (world wide) is on a mission to throw serious shade on home gardening , chickens and other self sufficient activities. Loved your video, greta info and delivery.
I noticed that. I didn't even watch the video; the title alone told me that I need to look into these options while I still legally can. I don't know animal husbandry or gardening, but I think I'm a relatively intelligent person and capable of learning new skills even at 52. I'm certainly willing to learn.
"you will own nothing and be happy" -WEF
Cause they don't have enough money on hand to handle more than a quarter of people becoming self sufficient. If enough people started growing and sharing some of these companies could lose hundreds of millions of dollars.
Don't listen to govt now~or do the opposite! They are trying to put us in cooped up cities to control us better. BUY LAND and be self sufficient and happy!
I love your garden beds. It makes so much sense! I can't wait to get back to gardening. 🥕
Keeping chickens was normal in my mother's home town when she was growing up. Our incompetent leaders are driving us into a collapse.
Nothing to do with incompetents, these scum bags wants us dependant on them or dead.
Self reliancy was was more important. And it is coming back again
Incompetent, or malicious?
When you have incompetent voters electing garbage every year.... This is what happens....Who knew?
Spot on! My grandparents and the neighbors did exactly the same. They kept chickens and ducks! People are about to find out the government can't save you, isn't responsible for you, and you are responsible for yourself!
There might be a shortage of eggs, but never a shortage of dad jokes! Well done Mark! It's what I came for and it's what I got. Eggcellant 😁
I was thinking the same!😂
He just used every chicken pun available
Some of those puns were truly fowl.
Mark is a plucky fella! I love all those cheep puns.
@@LazyIRanch Clucking awesome!
Ticks. Chickens eat ticks. In the UK, especially in Scotland with all our sheep and deer, that's a big thing.
They could be useful in eating lime disease insects in lab trodden US...
Yup, guineas eat ticks too
So you let your chickens roam the mountains eating ticks in Scotland
@@sarahann530 it's a thing for the gardens of sheep farms which would otherwise be hoaching with them. A few cluckers sort that out.
@@clairefarnell9489 you mean the rodent or Italians?
2,23 mill subscribers. That gives me hope for the world. There's still wise people out there.
Your puns are on a superhuman level. We have 6 chickens and I laugh every time I see an article on why owning chickens are bad.
For real , they are amazing
The downside is the effort into keeping them, Its also like having a fish tank it makes it kind of hard to go on vacations.
We all see what they’re doing there..😵💫
(the gov)..
@@takearight. pls tell me which government website says chickens are a bad idea
Older hens still deserve love (to add onto your list of reasons for their greatness). They've fed you for years; don't they deserve your care in their autumn years? I had a neighbor growing up who would just toss the hens out of the yard once they were 'too old.'. 9/10 times they'd get hit by cars. My grandpa started paying our neighbor a couple bucks for these girls, and we'd let them live out in our yard. They were the sweetest girls, I swear. Every time I'd come home from school I'd rush off the back porch calling, "Giiiiirrrrls," and the whole flock would come running.
Well, that’s sweet!
They're smart birbs. Would love to get them.
your grandpa is awesome
that makes no sense! if you don't want it anymore what in the world happened to a nice chicken BBQ or a chicken soup? but to let them get hit by cars... whaaat?!?!?!
Always call mine like that as well, then they come running and clucking. They LOVE the kitchen scraps
adding my two cents here: I have 6 chickens that are about 8-10 months old (two batches of birds), which I feed mostly compost in my back yard, with a small coop that they also lay their eggs in. I have spent somewhere in the range of 40 dollars, total, for all of purchasing, feeding, and caring for these chickens, and I have recently been averaging between 2 and 4 eggs a day from them. There have been many noteworthy discoveries about them I've had, but my favorite chicken tip I can share is that if you pile dry leaves up, the chickens almost like scratching through them more than they like the food under, and I have used this to my benefit by piling fresh leaves on my compost and winter garden beds regularly for the chickens to scratch into better composted soil for me.
Brilliant!!
I let my chickens into the vegetable garden after harvesting is finished. They work hard in there and fertilize as they go. 😊
We have 3 hens in our urban backyard, 2 silkies and a australorp, I was hesitant at first and now I can't image not having chickens. They are endlessly entertaining, provide delicious eggs, and are great little companions.
I was raised on a chicken farm. We had 10,000 chickens. My father sold eggs door to door like the milkman while my mom & my siblings & I gathered, cleaned , graded and packaged the eggs on the farm. You would think that I’d be sick of chickens but you’d be wrong. To this day I love the soothing sound of their clucking and even the smell brings back fond childhood memories.
My grandmother grew up on a potato/livestock farm in northern Maine (on the border of Canada) she is completley indifferent to all animals except cats…. Like won’t even bar an eye at a rearing horse or charging pig or whatever, but after one time playing in the hay and getting scratched up by a barn cat she’s deathly afraid/hateful of cats lol!!! Even when they are super nice and calm around her she freaks out with cats. She is a HARD COLD woman. Scarier than the scariest and coldest man lol… and cats break her.
I do have a lot of chickens but Thats a shitton
Thank GOD for chickens. I love them
I used to like them, until I got 5 of my own. They are so dumb and filthy. The walk wherever they want, like over their food and water, and they crap wherever they want even where they sleep.
6-7 eggs a week from my golden laced wyandottes
I bought my hens 3 years ago exclusively for eggs but it turns out, they bring me so much joy that I literally don’t care what they do or don’t do. The eggs are just a bonus now. They are my flock of precious kittens. ❤
I agree H Grimes! I too didn't know how much enjoyment I could get from my hens when I obtained my first flock over a decade ago. I have had my little peckers continuously since. They are highly entertaining, some are sweet, some silly, and I have even had a few psychotic ones (usually leghorns - but dang, can they crank out eggs!). The pet that even makes breakfast - what's not to like?
Our 5 hens are more pets than egg layers, Our 2 dogs produce nothing but we keep them and the hens are much more fun.
Agreed
My mate has a flock in their garden and I was so surprised by just how social they are, they were hopping up on my knees and proper talking (clucking) to me and so on, absolutely wonderful animals
same
I have had chickens for now +20y I'm just discovering how what you say is obvious to me but new to others. Thanks for making this, you're doing god's work.
I am exactly one minute in. I don't even care how the rest of this goes, you've earned my like sheerly through puns alone. Eggcellent work on your hilarious dad yolks!
Your dad level of humor is beyond that of a mere mortal. Eggcellent work
Beat me to it!
He really cracks me up
You all are fowl.
@@corporaljay6165 Hahaha
Absolute pun boss.
I have two chooks that are ancient. Pixie, who is more grey than black now is 20 years old and Doris is 19. They both still lay every few days and they still set together and raise their chickens together.
Wow that is a good innings, I didn't realise they can live so long
That's amazing. And it's a good point that Mark didn't really address. When they slow down on production they can rare their own replacements for you.
Wow 👌 that's awsome
@@justingage5524 well said! If you have heritage breed chickens you will find that they do naturally go clucky as they get older, more and more and that's a great time to let them hatch you more 😁
I have two 9 year old Grannies that don't lay anymore. What are you feeding them?
Update on my chickens. I sold 3 roosters & one hen back in March & now have 4 hens & 2 roosters. They laid all the way till Christmas (northern hemisphere). One time this summer, went the heat finally dropped below 100F, my 4 hens gave me a dozen eggs in 2 days!
my city limit is 4 and i've been debating for awhile getting chickens and honestly this is one of the best informational videos i've seen. thank you
I'm impressed by the amount of chicken puns he came up with. He's a dad for sure.
He kept rambling aimlessly about chickens like a chicken without a head!
Eggxactly!
When I was a child I helped raise chickens, mostly Leghorns. At one point 64 hens and 2 roosters. As a 7-12 yr old caring for them, and collecting eggs was my job. Fantastic life for a kid! Had a small brood of Bantam. 4 hens and a rooster. They followed me wherever they could, and when I sat, I would have a hen on each shoulder, and one on each knee. The rooster would fly up to my head. They were my best friends! Loved my birds!!
I did the same but it was funny because my neighbour wanted to get rid of some of his so at about 6 or 7 I just arrived home with a sack full of random chickens and set out to build them a house at the bottom of our large garden 😂 Had them for years and loved getting the eggs and feeding them every day
Hahaha yeah they are amazing. I loved having them as a kid. I miss them.
what happens to the other 62 roosters 😢
Thank you for not chickening out. Your information and opinions offer much to cluck about. 😆
Thank you for this video! I absolutely LOVE my chickens, and share your views 100%. We live in an age of profusely gross propaganda with the purpose of manipulating the masses. People are taught not to think for themselves and reason on what is spread. Chicken keeping has been practiced for ages and just NOW!! it's a problem, unhealthy, ect. You just shit down two decades of lies. Bravo!! From North Carolina!
I've kept a small flock of chickens for well over 20 years. I never knew how dangerous this was until you saw all these articles coming out. I'm not sure how I've survived 😂
You're lucky to be alive...
Yep, chickens are the real horror show They do damage almost like a private jets! I really don't know what's next!?
Propaganda....gotta educate ourselves. Jeeez
If you're a baby squirrel they're very dangerous. What I've seen my hens do to one will NOT make a KZhead approved video.
Aww man 😂 god forbid you get more 🤷🏽♀️
The constant stream of dad jokes. The shorts. The overall attitude. This is a wonderful channel!
Stop degrading dads. I know it's seen as humor but it's a deeper problem of disrespecting good men in our culture.
you should live in Australia
@@videosofinterest9227 do you wear the foil or just smoke out of it?
@@chrisreynolds6143 neither. Try saying some mom jokes and see how that goes for you.
@@videosofinterest9227 ok. Yo mama so fat she walked in front of the TV and you missed three episodes
A friend had backyard chickens. It was a lot of work. When he was out of town, he'd need a babysitter to check in on them. Kitchen scraps were not enough. He had to buy feed. The eggs were not free. I learned (from him) about "pecking order". Yes, he had bully chickens and had to keep them separate. The upside is that fresh eggs taste great.
We always had chickens on our farm. One year we got a brood fo small bantam chickens. They got out of the coop and lived for years in the bushes around the house and barn, sleeping in the trees at night and coming down to the coop in the day to eat.
The best thing about chickens is watching them roam. They’re basically little velociraptors, each with their own personality. My mate eats his chickens as soon as they stop laying but I see the old chickens as wise hens which impart knowledge onto the younger hens.
I watched a mouse try and do the food barrel run , about 2 meters from the fence to the feed barrel . Sadly as the mouse thought he was home and hosed halfway across the yard the ten chickens noticed him and the rest is history, as there was nothing left apart from a small patch of blood on one of the chickens beak.
Yup, seen my hens eat mice, frogs, and snakes. Saw them surround a rattler and kill it. Definitely, reminds me of Jurassic Park.
We used to have turkeys too when i was a kid beside chickena and ducks and lemme tell you they were awesome we had a dozen and damn i loved them so much idk why but they never did any aggresive thing to me or my sister we could stay with them all day and they did not care but damn they hated my father like the plauge and i should not be even saying turkeys GROW BIG, so it goes without saying if they dont like you they will make you know it. Those were the only kind of house animals i hated when we had to cut down they were really lovely.
Too right. Those wise old hens teach the chicks what weeds are good to eat. That's how you maintain a free-range flock safely. They tell the other little ladiez when to hide from raptors and are the first to lead the flock to roost. For this reason, we just eat the cockerels and let the grand ladies live in peace.
@@asharak68kbelgarion46 Seriously?! We had a rattler next to the coop and i just killed him and we ate him, but i didn't even know they could take down a rattler!
My city has banned owning chickens. They deemed them a public nuisance. There is an underground community that still owns them. There are blogs dedicated to how to camouflage the coops. I'm moving to the country bc I don't want to hide nor deal with bureaucracy. Moving back to the country. Thnx for the video!
It's all cap they just don't want people to be self sufficient.
@@scottholbrey5984 Agreed!
@Diann No, but I have to research that. Thank you for the suggestion ☺️
Things my old city has banned along with "farm" animals: Backyard fireplaces, indoor fireplaces, indoor gas heating, solar panels, collecting rain or any natural water, fences, gas generators, the sale of non electric cars, non lethal self defense items (open carry still cool).... long list of "you will be dependant"
@@ZebraLuv curious: what city is that?!
The Zen Hens ("Hens me out") was the best pun XD Thanks for the video. I got two Australorps a few months ago and it's been so great to have these little friends in our yard!
"Backyard eggs are unsafe." Man, how far removed from this world do you have to be to come to this conclusion.
"Old hens make good friends" Man, I really like your perspective on rearing chickens.
My mother uses her older girls for being foster mommies to new chicks or egg hatching when they get broody. Even if they can no longer lay an egg they're still useful for caring for babies that younger chickens have no interest in. :)
- it is also applicable to Mothers in some instances.
I had a hen that stopped laying after a while and she became the sweetest pet I've ever had. She'd even let me pick her up. The little mad lass even liked being tossed, and would come running back to me for me to do it again. I cried like a toddler when she died.
kzhead.info/sun/irWkktGiq2OHoKM/bejne.html
Some chickens are more pet like and have more personality than others..we have a flock and they are funny little beasts.
Give this man an award for being an absolute beast in gardening, animal careing & jokes jokes jokes.
So good
We kept chickens for 12 years. I loved it. The yolk is so tasty. Ours were free range on our acreage. They gobble up all the insects, but not good in the garden. I don't need them anymore because I have an endless supply from friends. But I would keep chickens again.
Far out, i thought the puns would stop after the intro but you kept em coming through the whole clip. Absolutely top shelf. Amazing work.
You definitely deserve a "pullets-er prize" for your journalism and media 👏
LOL... 👍
@@Selfsufficientme ...lots of lollies?
I didn't know it was possible to so effortlessly insert that many chicken and egg puns into an 11 minute video without sounding corny even once. Very impressive. I don't have chickens but I'm definitely smarter now than I was when I woke up this morning.
He is just laughing at the idiocy of anti chicken rhetoric. Actually, I didn't even know that stupid crap existed.
It was rough.
I know right ? Its a fantastic eggxample of using animal puns.
@@donaldkasper8346 Neither did I lol I guess Big Egg just can't stand the thought of losing another customer. So sad.
As a middle school teacher - I thoroughly enjoy your puns lol! They lift my heart up!~ New subscriber! Keep up the good work!
Thank you, Mark for this video!! My parents kept chickens when I was a little girl and I hope there comes a day when I can keep chickens too! I had a pet hen whose name was "Witch Hazel" because she had a growth that looked like a wart on the top of her beak! She was an older, no longer laying hen and the sweetest pet! I watched this video because I'm watching a lot of "chickenkeeping for beginners" videos. My chickenkeeping days might be in the near future! WOO-HOO!!
Thank you Mark, I had an Australorp who laid for 10 years a couple of times per week. She wasn't adverse to sitting on the back verandah and eating pizza with my son. Losing her was a death in the family, we all missed her.
This is so sweet and sad - my favorite hen is an Australorp and I hope she is around many more years (I got her in 2020 so she's still young).
Shared stories, and views, like these make a heart warmer.
Here in Canada we keep 4 hens for eggs. We had a hen named Edna that lived over nine years. She was our Kelpie Oby's right hand hen. They loved each other and sat together watching their flock. We too were very sad when she passed. Hens are very sweet and friendly we love ours.
Awww, there's always a chicken that touches your heart. My family had a Jersey Giant hen named Ethel, but she was so tiny that she got bullied and her feathers plucked in her tail. So my family paid special attention to her and gave her the VIP treatment to give her alternatives away from the bullies. She was so sweet, she would even follow us around and "talk" to us while we went around the garden. We were so sad when she passed, it really was like a death in the family. My mom made a commemorative clay sculpture of Ethel in her pottery class that we keep to this day :)
What a sweet bird she must have been.
Growing up on a working ranch gives you a different perspective. I think I was 7 or 8 years old when I discovered that eggs and milk were sold in grocery stores, or from dedicated dairies. We sold our milk from our cows to a dairy. We drank milk from the cows after skimming off the cream for butter and such. We worked our vegetable garden and canned every fall. It was a huge family thing. We would help neighbors and make the rounds of farms in our family from Montana to Oregon to help with harvest and bringing in cattle from summer grazing areas. In the Spring it was all round up, branding and separating the bulls and the ones who would become steers. I never had the "luxury" of not knowing where my Sunday chicken dinner came from. I don't romanticize farming or ranching. I lived it. It's very hard work with no room for sentimentality. But it's soooo worth it at the end of the day.
Marvelous! You have a sense of ‘dedicated community’ that we lack in current society. 👍🏻
Just listening to this video was an eye opener for this lifetime city girl. A farmer's take on the true value of an old hen. Made me wonder what in society would be better if we had more farmers making the important decisions. I'm now absolutely dying for him to do a video on the value of a rooster. Could be that I might learn a few things from nature that my society hasn't known or taught since my own childhood. It's definitely got me thinking in a way that is new for this city raised but nature loving lady. Not trying to romanticize the realities of nature but also just wondering about the wisdom of straying too far away from the lessons taught by nature. Maybe I'm just a clucking old hen. And if so, maybe that's OK. Lol
Well Said!
@S Smith To be clear, I've never had roosters, just hens. I did study about chickens quite a bit before I started raising them. My take on Roosters is that They help the Hens in many ways. They will help them find food, They are essential for reproduction, They keep on a lookout for danger, and they will lay down their lives to protect their hens. There may be more reasons, but I don't know them at this time.
@@ssmith5127 I'm not even close to an expert on chickens, but on another channel I subscribe to (Fy Nyth), I learned the purpose of roosters is to fertilize eggs. There are times when chicken go what's called 'broody'. At that point, a hen will attempt to hatch a bunch of eggs. Once they hatch, she will 'mother' them until they reach a certain age. With a rooster, you don't have to buy new hens. That's the extent of my knowledge on chickens. 😀
I started a chicken farm mid COVID. It was terrible and a huge money pit until it wasn't. It's worth it if you have a good market, niche, and mindset. Goodluck anyone starting a farm.
I recently bought a seven year old hen from my neighbor who was moving to an area where chickens would be frowned upon. At first she played every third day, now she’s laying daily.
Raising backyard chickens has been one of the most fulfilling and satisfying things I've ever done! We started with 8 hens. After one year we had the original 8 hens, plus over 60 quail, and 8 muscovy ducks (which then turned into 19 ducks after a very productive spring!). We maxed out every square inch of our property with animals and vegetable gardens in our little urban area. We loved it so much that we ended up selling our home and moving to the other end of the country to buy a farm property so we could do even more! We now feel like we are finally living the life we are supposed to be living!
What a lovely story Misha! All the best :)
It is said that chickens are the gateway into homesteading.🐓 🐔
Eating the raised chickens must be fulfilling too xD
@hermitcard4494 I'll have to report back on that! We are still growing out our meat birds, but I had a friend share some chicken with us that she raised herself and it was WAY tastier than anything I have ever bought from a grocery store!
thank you for sharing apricated!
I suppose the gatekeepers for factory farming are the ones most against raising chicken$. The deliberate cruelty is very profitable. You do good by pushing back. You have my support!
Also, they feed a high histamine diet, which affects our fertility. Women's bodies attack their own fetuses as allergens when histamine levels are too high.
I have been watching your videos off and on for approximately a year now. You have a great perspective, 10:47 humour and honestly quite informative. Look forward to your next video, well done.
i feel like this channel should be a mandatory watch in school. once a day you watch a video. the world would be a better place with a lot more common sense.
I have a 10yr old chicken and she still lays the occasional egg. My parents had one that was 8yrs old and laid 5 eggs in the last week of her life. Plus they're not just egg machines. They have personalities and can be great pets and companions.
my chicken is 50 years old and she still lays
Peep is 5 yrs old. She hasn't laid a egg during her moulting. She is sweet and visits with me. She is small, does eat bugs, fertilizer machine. Her buddy died, Cutie was a true friend. I give her a bath in kitchen sink.
I have three buff rocks that are 10, I know one of them lays occasionally, one has just hatched three chicks, not her eggs, but she’s a good mum
And a nice chicken dinner.
@@samoak123 chicken lifespan is 5-10 years
Belgium here. The free chicken for waste management indeed was a trial run from the waste management company, and it was/is very succesfull. I've got 7; and my oldest hen is 8, and she still lays an egg once a week. It's downright amazing how much table scraps they eat. Fun fact; there was a (short) time a 12-pack of large eggs in the supermarket was more expensive then a fresh hen of 20 weeks old.
They’re about half a dollar US each egg , average right now
I don't want to 'ruffle your feathers' but regarding keeping roosters I don't know which side of the road to cross. Wife says get rid of them, I said "flock you!" I hate being so 'hen pecked'.
Finding your channel has honestly been so helpful. My gardening skills have immensely gotten better - and I just really enjoy watching your video's because they are all super helpful. You're also hilarious. Thank you!
Good to see Russel Crowe is so down to earth, rearing his own chickens and farming.
I thought he was alex jones doing an accent
@@ScreamingManiacnever insult this man like that again
Hahaha! I knew his face looked familiar
@@yorgivon-schmourgeussborgiExcuse you! Brother Alexius is among the finest of the Astartes in his chapter.
😂
Keeping chickens is one the best things a family can ever do. It teaches children countless lessons about life!
Like what happens if you irritate the boss 🍗
Preventing you from learning and live a meaningful life is the main goal of preventing you to be free, self sufficient, and more specifically, keeping chicken. One motivation is to enslave you, exploit you. A bigger motivation is to murder you, make your kin disappear. And an even bigger motivation is to prevent you from elevating, and keep you a slave even through life and death cycles, and ideally prevent your reincarnation.
You are awesome! Loved your whole vibe. I was gifted chickens from a friend who was moving and now I'm all in on this chicken thing. I can't think of a pun like you did but I found a passion I didn't know I had.
As always Mark, I love your entertaining videos and your logic on matters - you always bring a level head to the conversation.
#6: _"Chickens are too noisy"_ -- I actually LIKE the sounds of chickens. I had a neighbor a couple of houses ago that had chickens and I used to go out into my backyard just to listen to them. To me, that's part of the calming effect of them.
That is so true!
Put a Velcro strap that has been doubled over around the throat of the male to its tight but not strangulating Makes them much quieter
@@Ktmfan450 might as Well just have hens only if your worried about the sound
@@Ktmfan450 go and try that on yourself and consider whether its ok to have a rooster live its life like that
A couple of my hens "purr". It's the most adorable thing, and a very calming sound.
Super info. Eggcellent perspective on the Usefullness of the older hens! 🐔🐣🐤🐥
I recently got 6 silky bantams. It's annoying how long they take to mature to the point of laying compared to other breeds, but they are timid and nice to have for my little kids. The advantage for now, other than company, is fertilizer. This house came with a great coup with a concrete floor. One $8 bag of compressed filtered wood shavings gives it a good covering. Lasted about a month and a half, cleaned it out for the first time today, took about 10 minutes. Plenty of soiled wood shavings to spread on the patchy exposed clay sections of my backyard.
My wife was so unhappy when I surprised her with 5 chicks. Eight years later we moved to a smaller home and she is so unhappy without "Her" chickens. For years we had a problem with grasshoppers. After the chicken were full grown we never saw a single grass hopper. When we cleaned out the pen we put the "stuff" in the garden. Our garden was wonderfully productive. My wife keeps suggesting that we get them again but our yard is too small. If you are thinking about getting chicks I would say GO FOR IT! Yes, the start up and up keep is an expense. So is caring for a dog. Watching the antics they do and their curiosity is very relaxing. It was interesting when we started eating the fresh eggs. They looked like you cracked open an orange sun. The color was beautiful and food cooked with the eggs had a better color. The eggs tasted better than those in the store. When I came home from the office I would go outside and hand feed them. They would climb all over me and quietly talk me into a restful mind set. Some breeds will literally follow you everywhere and beg for your attention. Loved that. Miss them!
Why not letting hatching some of those eggs and continue the circle?
@Jesus protects Probably a lack of a rooster if I had to guess. A lot of places don’t like you keeping chickens, much less roosters because of their noises
They are really beneficial to have for pests, only thing that gets annoying is when they jump on my motorbike and scratching the soil over the paths/driveway so I gotta clean it everyday, other than that
Brought a tear to my eye thinking about the chickens we had when I grew up. They were such smart and kind girls.
@@JesusProtects need a rooster as they say below- so perhaps find someone who has a rooster and set up a date for the chickens 😉. go home and have a few new chickens ready to take over the circle..
I recently moved out on a farm that my grandparents and great grandparents lived on. I can remember as a kid, hearing them talk about the great depression and how we were going to have another one someday. Back then everyone had chickens, a garden, a milk cow, pigs etc. There wasn't any electricity in the country until the late 1950's, so they canned food from the garden to make it through the winter. They had gutters on their house, which had a tin roof, and they would catch the rainwater and put it in an underground cistern for drinking water. They also had a well and would keep their milk in a glass jar on a long rope, and lower it into the well to keep it cool. For heating and cooking they burned wood and coal. Alot of the farms in the area also had orchards planted and grew things like pears which they canned. If things don't change, it looks like we're soon gonna be living like they did back then. The way I look at it, even if we don't have another great depression, the homegrown vegetables and eggs are healthier. I don't like all this gmo crap in the supermarkets.
Our grandparents lived much better lives than we do. Society is sick and not worth being a part of.
We are living in what the Bible called,the end of days.we are the last generation... Most people do not know how to can,to keep animals or even to garden..we are the last generation before Jesus returns to destroy
Thats already happening my man. Everything is continuing to get pricier and pricier for a few reasons. Almost everything is owned by a few conglomerates. The reason there's an "egg shortage" is due to huge shipments of them being flown overseas. There is legitimately a famine happening to half a billion people. So its now worth it to fly perishables overseas at a marked up rate. My goal is similar to your grandparents goal and "feathering a nest" that is very sufficient for my entire family and some friends. The ultimate goal is only paying for an internet service provider.
I recently purchased a small property in a rural area, and I'm building that right now!
@Captain America. That sounds a lot like my grandparent's lives here in the UK. I remember vividly staying with them in the 1950s when the water came from a well, there was no electricity and they kept chickens, ducks and rabbits for the table. They had apple and pear trees, and kept bees for honey. Grandad had a large greenhouse which he made himself by hand, bartering and trading for the glass. The panes were all different sizes so he built the frames to fit. As he got more glass, the greenhouse grew. It looked like something out of a fairytale to my childhood eyes. They didn't get electricity until the late 1960s and only then on the ground floor. I can remember going to bed with a stoneware hot water bottle. The mattresses were duck down, replenished from when their own ducks were topped for the table. The toilet was down the path beyond the wash house when there was a stone fireplace with a huge copper tub on top to do the washing. The mangle used to scare the daylights out of me because of the noise it made. The oven was built into the chimney with the fire underneath it. It had no way of regulating the heat other than my grandmother's experience. She would open the door, put her hand close and by that she knew if it was hot enough or if the fire needed stoking. She made the best sponge cakes and pastry I have ever tasted. The open fire in the front room had a large swinging arm from which the stew pot was suspended. Nothing was wasted, even old sacking was dyed, cut into strips and made into rag rugs. Lighting was Tilly lamps downstairs and Kelly lamps upstairs. When I tell people about my childhood they look at me like I'm crazy. It's hard for a lot of people in the UK today to understand that there are still people like me alive who lived that life, even though I was just a child.
for those who are intimidated at the prospect of keeping chickens, bantams are a great alternative. The egg sizes are slightly smaller, but bantams are less destructive to the garden. My late neighbour swore by keeping guinea fowl as well, as a first alert to predators. I was listening to a European gardener the other day, he said that they habitually feed their chickens oregano as a natural anti-parasitic. I know that oregano (along with other herbs) has that function, but I didn't know if you had come across that advice and whether anyone here could vouch for if it works successfully.
Howdyyawl from the land down under. Chooks, the best animals for stress relief. We have 21 on our rural property. We sell the eggs. Lay date stamped. Chooks are extremely intelligent, have very good hearing & eyesight. They make good pets & we don't have any vegy waste. We eat our own eggs, haven't got sick yet. Been sick eating shop eggs, hospitalized. We have a rooster, his name is Little John. 😂. Enjoyed your video 😊
When we lived in a town with a 5 hen limit, our neighbor had 20-some hens all the same color. They rotated who was outside throughout the day so only 5 were out at a time. I traded excess garden produce for eggs.
Neighbor is a genius.
@@curlzpalz but god damn what did the inside of that house possibly look like 😂
I’m in the city and have permit with city… npip it’s just better to be legit then to keep them poor birds on a lottery spin
@@Steve.._. I think they would keep them in the coop, not the house lmao
That is soo cool ❤
"They don't live long and stop laying in two years" is nearly the single most bs thing I've ever heard about chickens. My oldest hen is turning 18 this year and I got chicks out of her last year! Sure she doesn't lay every single day, maybe once a week, but she's still going so strong! Thank you so much for making this video!
This is sadly common among many pets, goldfish for example "only live for 3-5 years" and "don't get so big" according to many pet shops but a goldfish can become 20 years old and grow to about 30cm long if cared for properly. Chickens are amazing, I sadly live in an apartment so I can't get a flock of hens but if I had the proper space to keep them I'd make sure they'd live as long as possible, old age is how I like my pets to go, regardless if they're commonly edible or not. Gotta love the adorable walking composters and their curiosity for even the tiniest grain on the ground ❤❤
@@Shespio I believe you mean walking composure... Maybe I'm mistaken but wft is a composter my boy? 🤔🤣
@@SteezNutz8 composters as they eat leftover foods. English is not my first language so I dunno if it's different word in english but like, a compost is the word we use for the paper bag we throw away food into. And since you can give some food scraps to chickens (not all but a lot of them) they're basically a compost bag with legs. Cute ones at that.
@@Shespio nah you right he wrong don’t even worry about it
I think you need to submit her to the Guinness book of world records! The oldest living hen was 16 years old!
Great video. All good points make. I've had chickens here for over a decade. It would be sad days without them. Thanks for clearing up some common misconceptions.
I had assumed you need a rooster in order for the hens to lay eggs. Thank you for removing that misconception. Your poultry puns were exactly what I needed to start off my day with a smile. 😀
The govt hates self reliance. There's factual science and then there's political science. I've seen far too much of the latter in the world lately. Love the channel and good vibes my friend, cheers from Canada.
The last thing they want is for you to not need them. Corporations too. Start being self reliant and suddenly your money, and your blind obedience, stops being theirs to monopolize.
God are you dumb? You must be because of the way you used political science
I'm so glad there are some of us left that can see through the propaganda. Thank you 👏
More of us than they would like to think ;)
See through Fox News and Breitbart (ultimate political retardation)
Very dangerous events, a few people decide the fate of many. We were able to raise chickens, but for several years we have had problems with the legislation in this field.
Haha. Welcome to the right.
Indeed.
Sir, thank you so much for making this video. I learned so much from you. And I like how you blend in a little humor with your work 😊. I’m 66 years young and still have plans on buying some land, having chickens, goats, nice big garden, etc. Three of my sons started raising chickens in the past couple years here in NC. And two of my brothers have been raising chickens for decades in my home state of OR. I’m gonna share this video with my boys. Thanks for what you do, educating so many people with the truth! God bless you. 😊
You are a magnificent human, sooo glad i discoverd your channel all those years ago. THANKYOU for all your eggcellent information and your light heartedness! never get bored watching you
We've had chickens for years because they are awesome. I didn't even realise there was an egg crisis until friends were saying they couldn't get eggs. It felt really good to be able to give people I care about healthy delicious eggs. The people who fund and write those articles are simply the enemies of decent people. Also, Mark you are also awesome, love the puns!
Yeah, I magically had people asking me for eggs that I had not heard from or dropping hints like "Did you know when I went to Costco last week they didn't have any eggs?". . . . .ummm, okay, what does that have to do with me? Just say you want eggs if you want eggs.
@@blackdandelion5549 I have never seen costco or sams out of eggs
Thanks Russell! And, I love the point about giving eggs away - it's nice to be able to gift eggs not just because they often taste richer than commercial eggs, but now due to cost and scarcity, it's even more valuable! Cheers :)
@@IamsTokiWartooth In MN, USA they are frequently. I have heard of other states also not having eggs in the stores. When some places do get them in stock they put limits on the amount you can buy such as two dozen per person. It has been like this in my area for approx 8 weeks or more at this point in time. I have my own chickens so I am feeling pretty good however.
@@blackdandelion5549 I'd charge those people for eggs. Especially if they're going about the impolite way of trying to get eggs off of you, without providing something in return. (even just offering to feed the chickens a few times or weeding the garden for you!)
My husband talked me into getting hens about 6 years ago. They really are not hard to take care of. They love table scraps. And at this moment we are GLAD we have more eggs than we can consume. So are a few or our friends because they get free eggs from us.
The beauty of freedom
Chickens eat whatever you throw at them. I used to spit my mucus to them and they would fight to eat it
@@santiagoferrari1973 o.o
Same here!! I have to give a whole bag of eggs away because I could never eat them all. I still have 3 bags in my fridge right now.
@@Not_Always You can dry or freeze eggs if you need to save then for an emergency situation.
What a great video and information... good respect for the older chickens too. Love the property in the background. Thanks.
Thank you. This was very infomative. Learned a lot in this couple of minuts. Its good to know they can grow old and be appreciated by the owner.
Love this. I live in the U.S. in an urban area and we can keep 6 chickens. I've been keeping them for 13 years and it's ludicrously rewarding. I still have one girl from the original group and she's still laying at 13 years old. There's something fun and special about keeping dinosaurs in your yard that give you eggs.
I've had similar chickens live and give eggs for a comparable time. We even have chickens now that are the descendents from the first chickens we got from my older brother and he had them for almost 5 years before they lived with us for another five. We lost the last one this last summer after she'd lived a good 14 years and still gave us eggs several times a week (she might have laid more, but last summer our dogs found half the eggs before we did...)
How much space did they have? Did they ruin the lawn?
@Michelle Peltzer They were free ranged on our acre and a half here, but didn't have nearly that amount of area at our last house. We have a lot of grasshoppers and box elder bugs, though. If we don't let them loose during the day for spring, summer, and at least half of fall, we don't have any plants survive. Our lawn is a mix rather than just one kind of grass. There are areas where they've dug little dust bathes for themselves, but those are in specific areas with less plant growth and lots of sun. They clean themselves and then sunbathe.
Definitely would hatch a few of her eggs sounds like good genes you would want to keep around
@@get6149 One of her chicks from a few years ago hatched me new chicks this last month.
We have a little old hen named Meg. She is 8 years old. And she may not lay eggs but she is the best mother hen! She sits fertile eggs anytime she can and hatches them. She is a great mother to them! They may not be hers biologically , but she has raised so many babies and they have all turned out to be very sweet. I’ll be so sad when she passes. She is by far our favorite hen even though she doesn’t lay
I had one of those years ago! I reckon mine plotted the whole deal among themselves so that she could be seen to be earning her keep. Not silly at all!
Shut up Meg!
We have one that is over 10 years old and similar to yours she is the best mom ever. She hatches all fertile eggs and takes care of them sometimes until they are full grown 😅 ❤ love my chickens 🐓
Can I take that hen off your back make a good stew
Growing up my family had chickens, around 15-20 usually, and this was the case with ours too. When they get old they may not lay eggs but they still bring value to the flock. Also if you have the space you can just overproduce slightly on eggs and then it's not a problem if a few stops laying as many eggs.
I’m new to this channel, I love your approach to gardening , very inspirational. Thank you ❤
Love your channel its really important more than ever to learn how to survive and grow your own food,keep going dude you're making great content
I am in Indianapolis, IN, USA ... Had a hen wander into my back yard about a year back & she has been a Godsend----is just a sweetheart, has more personality than many people in my own family! Took a bit of doing to get up to speed with the care and feeding, but it has been worth every minute of effort! TYVM for telling the TRUTH ... 🐔🐔🐔 All good things to all of you and all of yours :)
Dang that's pretty lucky that she just randomly came into your yard haha. Seems like it's worked out for both of you though. Super cool!
@@Spartan265 It was ironic to say the least, as I had been toying with the idea of getting some chickens for some time, so I think it a was a cosmic hint, lol ... She really has been a blessing as I haven't had to purchase eggs since she has been here, she's spoiled rotten ... She knows if I grab the shovel we're gonna dig worms, loves being talked to ... trying to find a few more hens to keep her company now. Spring is nigh ;-]
My sister had chickens several years ago. I loved them. It got to the point where she often asked if I was there to see her or the chickens! She let a few eggs hatch and one was a rooster. I never saw anything so adorable! As he grew, he would strut around that coop like he was the king. He wasn't very big, but had big attitude. So I named him Cagney. For the younger ones, James Cagney was an actor before my time, but my favorite actor ever. If you ever saw him act, you'll know why I named the rooster after him. That rooster absolutely HATED my sister. No idea why, since she loved him, but he'd chase her all over. He loved me though. He'd come sit in my lap and go to sleep or cuddle under my neck. I loved feeding them, gathering eggs, cleaning the coop, the whole thing. Unfortunately, I lived in a small apartment then and couldn't have chickens of my own, but those are some great memories of taking over chicken duties for my sister whenever I could.
Eggscellent video. Thanks for sharing these concerns. I just started raising chickens in a residential neighborhood. Raising chickens make sense. I really wish everyone get to raise 2 chickens because they eat all your table scraps, gives you delicious breakfast, and keeps you company.
You touched on so many good points about keeping old hens. Much appreciate this video
I remember as a young teenager my parents had about a dozen bantam chickens, we used them to help hatch ducks. Where we lived in WA there was a lot of dangerous snakes. If a snake got in the coup with the bantams they would surround it and attack it on opposite sides. When the snake was dead the chickens would eat it. It was like a scene from Jurassic park
OMG brave bantams 😲
I heard someone say recently that chickens are the closest thing we have to dinosaurs.
Chickens hate snakes
@@icanonlyimagine7626 Yeah, birds evolved from dinosaurs apparently. There was a fossil found not too long ago that showed some early feathers on one. Have a look at a chicken foot, the bone structure is similar to some of the dinosaur fossils. I wonder if some of the dinosaurs cooked up might taste like chicken lol.
@@memine3704 that would be a lot of chicken 😂 this person also said that they discovered that they put the T Rex arm/bones on backwards and should be more like wings. I haven’t looked into this so I’m not sure.
waste disposal, composting, eating, cleanliness. The fact that you covered all the inaccuracies that I found in my initial research makes me feel better.
Why wait months and months for your compost to break down when you just throw your scraps into a bin and let the chickens go to town, they'll give ya compost in weeks if not days!
I love having chickens…I just had an 11 year old and her 10 year old daughter pass away within a couple of days of each other. Mom still layed about 3 eggs a week last spring. I miss those two so much. I allow my old hens to live out their life here…they gave me the gift of their eggs and I give them the gift of retirement. All my chickens have names and I have a bantom buff Brahma rooster…sweetest little guy and he sure does watch over the hens. I can’t imagine not having chickens.
This is the first video of yours that I've watched, and almost as soon as you started talking, i hit subscribe because you voice is very relaxing.
I love my chickens. I've had chickens for eight years and they are the easiest animals to manage. It's winter here in the USA and I'm getting 15 eggs a day from the new chickens I raised last spring. I've never been more grateful for them.
How many do you have in your flock?
@@betsybattles2696 I'd usually recommend one chicken per family member that eats eggs.
@@LeoTheYuty Thanks!
We have 3 snd I’m now getting one egg per day, which is fine because we are not big eaters.
My daughter got 3 fertilised eggs from the preschool and we brought them home . 2 died the first night but Richard lived to 7 years old. Lucky for Richard she turned out to be a chook and besides many eggs she gave us (and the cat) great enjoyment. Cheers from the Northern Rivers.
LOL... Richard... Cool name for a chicken! Cheers :)
@@Selfsufficientme There is a spammer using your logo "Telegram for Dave". Just above your comment. I'll report it but a PSA announcement and encouragement from you for us all to block these accounts and report them would be fantastic
@@lizzy9975 unfortunately they are bot accounts. you can block them but they make new accounts just as fast so it doesn't solve anything. many youtubers are dealing with bots at the moment, we really have to wait for KZhead to do something about it for a permanent fix.
Blessings! Your site is so informative, I'm learning so much!
Your incorporating eggg and feather puns were delightful to listen to!
“…old hens are useful, just think of Grandma.” Thanks for emphasizing this very true point. I always keep my elderly hens, and I like how you said they “hen/zen you out when watching them in the backyard. So true and one of the reasons I always want chickens. My chickens get full retirement benefits. Karma.
I never gave much thought to keeping chickens until recently, when a feral rooster adopted my daughter’s family. He just walked into the house and hopped up on grandpa’s lap. He’s a “house chicken” and puts up with my granddaughter covering him up and pushing him around in a baby carriage, among other games. He’s amazingly personable and docile, and keeps everyone entertained. Since then I’ve been paying attention to all the chicken info on the internet.
A rooster that has a good personality is such a pleasure
Got three roosters 2 are really nice and one is a douche that attacks me. That one rooster became dinner
That's a wholesome story thank you
I sometimes adopt one of my birds to be an indoor pet, usually after they survived a predator attack. I bought chicken diapers, and they would get washed with cat shampoo which was safe for birds when they were up for it. I don't have any indoor anymore but I upgraded to geese keeping and geese help keep predators away.
@@Skitdora2010 are geese as loud as roosters?
Great video!!! I've often said that if the little old ladies minding everybody's business in the cities would allow people to keep 4 laying hens they would produce more than enough eggs sufficient for a family of 4 plus with a few left over every week to sell to help with feed costs.
Great info .. you are the proverbial fox amongst the chickens for shaking up the coop as you did .. thank you so much .. although I’ve never heard more puns in my life, from what I understood, keeping old hens means not putting all your eggs in one basket. Eggsactly what I needed to hear.
When I got chickens a while back, the most surprising thing I've discovered is how much I enjoyed interacting with them and observing their behavior. They all have their own personality. Some will jump right up on you, some will forever be shocked at what an ugly chicken you are, and some will even cuddle. Even if you dont care about eggs, it's still worth getting them. I recently watched a video too on a large egg farmer that stated the issue isn't an egg shortage, but rather supermarket (atleast in the US) are charging customers more for eggs, and the compensation for farmers has remained the exact same. If you dont pay people adequately for their services, they might not provide that service anymore. Who knows if it's true or not.
Government gets supermarket to pay a fixed price and then the farmers won't sell eggs for a fixed price. This causes many problems. 1. Supermarket has less supply. 2. People still buy. 3. Supermarket raises prices to absorb money buying less supply. 4. Then buyer demand goes down because of extra cost. 5. Supermarket raises price to cover loss from less demand. 6. Etc The middlemen hurt the farmer and the buyers with little consequences for themselves.
I've suspected this lie for a while now just like the natural gas lie to stop Americans from having gas stoves. All lies.
@@Charles-mv7sv start buying from your suppliers. "Cease the means of production!"
One of our chickens liked to watch us work on stuff. Anytime I'd be working on the lawnmower it would sit on top and keep me company. I miss that chicken
I used to have a chicken that would fly right onto my shoulder whenever i called it. I used to have a specific name for it and it seemed to recognize the sound as anytime I didn’t know where it was (it liked to chill inside trees and bushes) i would call for it. Miss that little chicken
"Old hens are useful. Just think of grandma" Killed me 🤣
Smart. 😅
Great video. Just starting my own flock. Mychicks are 10 days old. Very excited for the journey.
In the US it is hard to tell who lies the most, our government or the main stream media. I ignore them both. We got a dozen Road Island Red Chickens in the fall almost two years ago. We have about 150 dozen eggs water glassed in storage. In winter we can almost keep up with what they produce at the breakfast table. This summer I'm going to start using the glassed eggs to supplement my 5 dogs food. I will keep about 200 dozen glassed as part of my food storage plan. Right now I store potatoes, squash, and eggs through the winter. I will be expanding the use on my little five acre farm. I'm using about an acre right now. The soil is poor and I'm working on cover crops for a no till farm. Thanks for all the great info.