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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Anyone have chickens on your property? 
Are they hard or easy to maintain?
How much time a day do you spend caring for them?
How many do you have and how many eggs do you get a week?
Do you have them for the eggs or another reason?

TIA [/quote]

Urban chickens are becoming super popular in cities across the country.  Lots of blogs and articles written about it -- do some research and you will come up with all the info you could possibly want.

We have two hens and they lay about a dozen eggs a week (they each lay one egg most days.)   They need very little attention -- take them food and water once a day.  It takes about three minutes.  Then, rake out their house about once every 2-4 weeks.  Mine have a small house with an attached run, and it is filled with hay so it doesn't really even smell bad.  When I clean it out, the hay goes into the compost pile.

Why do we have chickens?  1) organic, soy-free eggs from pastured chickens (we move the run or allow them to roam the yard), 2) good compost material (we also have a small garden so we love to have great compost each spring) and 3)  they eat all of our food scraps  and 4) I like having pets, but not needy ones, so chickens are a great fit.  It's kind of peaceful to watch them scratching in the earth and running around.  [/quote]

Are you the DC area?  If so, where do you keep them in the winter? 
[/quote]

No, I am not in the DC area, although the winter is fairly similar.  Chickens do fine in cold weather as long as they have a house with some hay in it - they nest down at night and snuggle up to each other (assuming you have more than one, which you should because they are social creatures).  In really cold climates, some people install lamps in their hen house to add extra warmth in the winter.  Someone asked -- we have an acre, although the law in my town allows 2 chickens in lots of .10 acres, and gradually increases the number you are allowed to have as your lot size increases.  Two chickens on .10 acre fits just fine, and there are many cute little hen houses on the market which work well in such a small space.

By the way, this thread is rife with incorrect information about chicken keeping.  Not really worth getting into as the great "urban chicken debate" can be found all over the web and in books.  But just to quickly correct some misconceptions --  chickens can lay for many years, they are not particularly smelly or noisy (when comparing one-to-one, they are much less noisy and smelly than a dog), and depending on the animal they can make a nice pet.  We have had chickens that we needed to kill, and we have either buried them or eaten them, depending on the situation.  It's all a great learning process for the kids, too.  They handle it better than me, in fact.  Oh, and they don't attract rodents/coyotes/pestilence anymore than your dog, the squirrel in your yard, or the rotting trash in your can.
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