Our fresh eggs have really changed the way we eat and our relationship to food. We love making omelets with our backyard chicken eggs, and we fill the omelets with fresh vegetables from our garden. We also just got into poaching eggs, and eat them for dinner a few times per week. With our backyard hens, we are able to eat fresh protein while at the same time reducing our consumption of meats.

Besides the eggs, the chickens are a blast to have around. Each hen has her own personality, and a few of them even like our companionship (they will fall asleep in your lap).

For more information on the urban chicken movement, check out our site: www.urbanchickens.org

Love this! Chickens are one of the things I want to consider having when we own a home. Plenty of positive aspects there.

I wonder if they do human size versions...they look wonderful! People will pay a premium for eggs from such living quarters!

Forget freerange...these are 'Penthouse eggs'

I had chickens until 2006 when the City of Calgary, in its infinite wisdom, banned backyard birds of any kind in a misguided attempt to thwart Avian flu. It was a sad day when I dismantled the coop. Besides giving us fresh eggs, our chickens consumed much of our kitchen waste and provided us with great material for our compost. I am convinced we would have better cities if more people kept backyard chickens: less travel for the eggs we consume, less travel for some of our waste, returning nutrients into the soil via composted chicken manure, and a sense of community (we ended up sharing our excess eggs with our neighbors).

I think it would kill my love of eggs if I ate them fresh from my pet's ass.

"Hmm, Clucky's egg tastes a little funky today, I'd better feed her more pineapple."

Ugh.

This really sounds like a neat idea. I definitely want to try this when I get a house. Really seems like a win/win situation.

Villages and towns, yes. Cities... more problematic. There are bylaws and lots of neighbors who will complain. My parents used to have a chicken coop in Newmarket, Ontario, when I was growing up. We'd have fresh eggs all the time, and even made a small profit selling all the extras to the happy neighbors. $1 a dozen. I'd collect the cartons from purchased eggs. Basically it was a great thing to do. Even more fun is letting the chickens loose and trying to catch them as they run around the backyard.
- Karin

Agreed, great idea. They do attract mice however. Any ideas on how to control mice populations around chickens?

That chickens attract mice is only a product of faulty husbandry. If you only feed the chickens as much as they consume within a few minutes (twice a day), there is absolutlety nothing for mice to eat thus be attracted to.

There is a fantastic variety of pure-bred chickens (we call them chooks in Australia!). Just like dog breeds, they all have different appeal, personalities, purposes and suitability. Bantams are perfect for backyards, and kids. Consider these rather than the modern egg-laying machine cross-breeds that have "had it" by the time they are two.

I have had hens in an inner city area (Brisbane, Australia) for about 25 years continuously. I enjoy this, and the eggs, but there are problems which should be known about before beginning to own hens.

Using a continuous feeder and waterer is more practical than hand feeding grain and replenishing water. Water is supplied from a tank because the waterer only works with gravity flow, town water is too strong and too vairable. I have a concrete base to the hen house and snake wire and rust proof cladding so rats and mice cannot enter. I have filled all the spaces of the corrugated iron roof with wire and cement. The supporting timber must not sit on the ground where it might rot. Make sure the rats or mice have not gnawed the timber to enter the hen-house. Mend with tin. Shut the door at dusk.
I have an annex for clucky hens and ready-to-lay hens with a perch and a removable wire floor for the former. New young hens introduced to the main area will be pecked. Chickens left with mature hens will be killed unless they are given to a clucky hen, then the chickens and the hen will be happy. I let the hens out in the afternoons either on the grass via a main door or open a back door to an enclosed dirt run behind my gardens. All gardens have firm wire around them. I have deep straw on the floor, which is used later on the garden. You need to have someone who will come in every day and look after the hens when you are away, but this will be made easy if they have been enjoying your eggs. It may not necessarily be cheaper to have eggs from your own hens because of the cost of grain, but as has already been pointed out, there are many other benefits besides eating the eggs.