If you’re concerned about your health and diet you should be thinking about growing your own food. A great place to start is chickens.
Chickens are considered the gateway animal for homesteading, but I’m going to twist that a little into chickens being the gateway drug to good health.
There are a couple misconceptions most of us live under. One is the misconception of a diet.
We are all on a diet.
All the food that you eat comprises your diet. So when you go ‘on a diet’ what you are really doing is ‘modifying your diet’.
Another; acknowledging food as a drug.
The food you eat everyday will impacts your health. The biggest void in modern medicine is the prescription of good food.
A great source for homegrown, high-quality food is chickens.
Top 5 reasons to raise backyard chickens
These are my top five reasons for raising chickens at home:
1. Growing food at home is healthier than most food in stores.
Generally speaking, the biggest reason why food grown at home is better for you than the food in the store is because you pick it when it’s ripe. Food from the store has to be picked before becoming ripe to allow time to transport.
Fewer chemicals, better soil biology, less handling, more diverse varieties…that’s all gravy.
Chickens, specifically, are omnivores by nature. Commercial systems generally don’t make space for open forage which is why homegrown chickens can outperform store bought chickens in the health department.
The vibrant orange yolk that stands up in you frying pan is my case in point.
2. Chickens lay eggs all year
Egg production does slow down in the winter, due to the shorter days, but few other homestead food sources provide every day, all year.
3. Chickens make more chickens
It takes a little work to get to this point, but once you’re setup the chickens will not only provide eggs all year, they can make more chickens, which can mean more eggs as well as meat.
4. Chickens are workhorses
The traditional method of raising chickens misses out on so much value that the chickens can bring to the home. To name a few:
- Killer composters: the scratching and pooping can expedite the generation of high quality compost which in turn makes a more productive garden.
- Waste disposers: No food goes to waste. I swear, it’ll blow your mind how good chickens are at taking care of all organic waste from the home.
- Weed eaters: Most people confine chickens because they scratch. I do too, but I capitalize on that incredible energy source to prepare and clean up garden beds.
5. Watching chickens is incredibly soothing and rewarding
Another one not spoken about enough, but chickens are so fun to watch. Whether it’s watching them scratch for bugs, or interact and develop their own pecking order, you can have a really good time just camped out in the yard watching these girls do their thing.
And in the interest of reminding you that everything in life is connected, watching chickens is a wonderful way to share time with your loved ones (kids, spouse, etc.). As if watching them weren’t enough, it opens a space for meaningful, peaceful conversation.
Everything is easy once you know how to do it
Anyone who has raised chickens for five years or more will tell you that it’s super easy. And it is! But if you’ve never even seen a live chicken there is a lot to learn.
There are great books on the topic, and lots of great resources online, but what’s missing, in my opinion, is a comprehensive collection of information from start to finish.
For that reason, I’m going to put together a collection of posts guiding you from start to finish on how I raise chickens.
Not to imply I’m doing it the only way, or even the best way, but it is an effective way, and it’ll be comprehensive enough for you to branch out and make changes suitable for your own situation.
Expect posts on these topics and more:
- Selecting breeds and sourcing chicks
- Brooding chicks and introducing them to your flock
- Wading through the multitude of Chicken Coop Options
- Feeding chicks without going broke
- Making more chickens from the chickens you have
- Predator protection
- Raising chickens for meat
- How to offset costs by selling eggs.
- How to automate keeping chickens.
And so much more.
You should get chickens
It will be good for you on so many fronts. From positively modifying your diet to providing a source of entertainment and so much more.
Make sure you sign up for my email list, but regardless, as these articles come out they will be posted as evergreen content under the Health tab at NewHampshireMan.com.
See you next time,
Matt
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