Member-only story
Featured
As a Backyard Chicken Keeper, I Laugh At Your Egg Shortages
The joys of keeping 10 hens in my backyard
Amid shortages and bird flu, egg prices here in the San Francisco Bay Area have surged to as much as $12 per dozen.
All I can do is laugh.
Why? Because I’m a backyard chicken owner. That means that with 10 chickens in my yard, I get half a dozen fresh, free eggs every day.
When eggs are plentiful and cheap in the grocery store, owning chickens can seem a little absurd. Most people, when they learn that I have backyard chickens, ask whether it’s a lot of work.
The answer is yes and no. I’d say I spend about 10 minutes per day on chicken-related basics, like letting them in and out of their coop, feeding them, changing the water, and collecting those delicious eggs.
Every two weeks or so, I also have to spend a bit longer shoveling out some of the bedding in their coop and replacing it with fresh.
