All of the baby chicks are sold out & backyard chicken coops are the new trend

close-up-photo-of-chick-2695703_edited-1

Most of us here in America are celebrating our one-month anniversary in isolation. Some people/communities have been isolating for longer, some people for a shorter amount of time. But mid-March (March 10-17) was when sh-t got real here in North America, when everything started getting cancelled, when gyms and theaters closed down, when doctors and scientists began educating the public on flattening the curve and social distancing and more. How has this past month changed us? And will we ever really “go back” to the way things used to be? I tend to think that there will be more changes – people will continue to social distance, businesses will collapse and it will take a long time for the economy to even come close to recovering.

I also think this has already fundamentally changed the way we think of food, access to grocery stores and nature in general. I’ve been enjoying nature like never before, and I plan to keep walking at the local parks and nature-tracks I’ve found while my gym is closed. I’ve also been thinking about how nice it would be to have more animals. I’m not alone there – across the country, animal shelters are empty because so many isolated people want a dog or cat to play with while they’re home. And then there’s this – apparently, none of the chick-hatching farms can keep baby chicks “in stock” these days because everyone wants to raise hens and have their own egg supply, plus they want an educational tool for their kids. From Vogue:

“They’re out of eggs,” my husband said sadly after returning from the grocery store without his assigned eggs last week. That’s when I decided that this was the time to consider getting some cute, fluffy, comforting baby chicks and a wooden coop. We could eventually have fresh eggs every day for breakfast—and I have wanted to try raising chickens for years. But as I looked into it—my husband admittedly isn’t on board yet—I quickly discovered a lot of people are having the same response to this pandemic: There’s a run on both eggs and chicks.

Raising backyard chickens has been trendy for years, especially here in California. But amid the current pandemic, the surging demand for chicks has been so extreme that hatcheries and feed stores are having trouble keeping them in stock. Many are sold out.

“It’s completely unprecedented,” said Megan Raff, a co-owner of Dare 2 Dream Farms, a boutique seller in Lompoc, California. “There’s a shortage of eggs, and people want to raise their own chickens. We’re all trying to stay home and not go to the grocery store.” She and her husband sold about 8,000 baby chicks and chickens in March—10 times the rate of a year ago. She is trying to stagger pickup times to allow for social distancing but scheduled 90 appointments over two days.

Meyer Hatchery in Polk, Ohio, says spring is always busy, but March revenues doubled from last year. And to help with social distancing, it just added a drive-thru pickup service for baby chicks. Many of the chick buyers have had chickens in the past and are already set up with coops. Others have been thinking of raising chickens but were on the fence until now. But there’s a new category of first-time buyer: Parents who are stuck at home with their children indefinitely now that schools are closed. And they’re desperately trying to find entertaining and educational activities.

[From Vogue]

This is surprisingly wholesome and nice, right? People wanting to get back to tiny little backyard farms with some chickens and maybe a victory garden too (I bet seed companies have been selling out as well). My neighbor has had a chicken coop for years, complete with a deranged rooster who screams before dawn and sometimes in the middle of the day. But lots of hens, and I would imagine they haven’t run out of eggs at all. Are you feeling like you might build a chicken coop and get some chicks too? Honestly, I am.

selective-focus-photography-of-white-hen-1405930_edited-1

herd-of-hen-840111_edited-1

agriculture-animal-baby-beak-286580_edited-1

Photos courtesy of Adil (baby chick) Achim Bongard (teen chick) Brett Jordan (coop) Todd Trapani (Hen with chicks) Quang Nguyen Vinh (chickens eating) via Pexels.

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.

60 Responses to “All of the baby chicks are sold out & backyard chicken coops are the new trend”

Comments are Closed

We close comments on older posts to fight comment spam.

  1. Flamingo says:

    Chickens are a lot of work. They’re cute as hell when they’re chicks. They’re not cute as hell when they are pooping everywhere and you’re trying to muck out a coop five times a week so it doesn’t smell atrocious. I have a feeling that when people go back to work, a lot of those chickens will be “set free”, neglected, or dumped off at shelters.

    • OriginalLala says:

      Totally. everyone thinks keeping chickens is easy peasy, but it’s a responsibility and takes time and money to keep them well-fed, safe from predators and healthy. I forsee these chicks turning up abandoned in a few weeks, much like the baby bunnies people buy for Easter…pisses me off to no end.

      • Flamingo says:

        People don’t think before they get their cute impulse animals. Rabbits can live to be 10 years old. It’s not like buying a gold fish.
        I hope the people who are buying all of these cute chicks realize that even if they are sexed, a significant percentage will turn out to be roosters who need to be culled. You can’t have 5 roosters hanging out, unless you’re planning on a suburban cockfighting ring. I kind of doubt Pinterest has a diagram on how to cull a rooster.

      • lunchcoma says:

        Even buying a goldfish isn’t like buying a goldfish. Their natural lifespan is decades. It’s just that people are used to treating them as disposable, so they don’t always get proper care.

        It’s like that with a lot of small animals. The hermit crab I bought on impulse as a college freshman was around until I was 30. Parakeets are brilliant, sensitive, and social. I kind of cringe at the pet store culture that existed when I was growing up, because there was a lot of mistreatment happening.

    • Becks1 says:

      Yeah, I have no interest in owning chickens. It seems like a cute pinterest-y idea and for some it may work and they enjoy it, but I can see myself getting tired of it REALLY fast.

    • Agirlandherdog says:

      Agreed. Same with all the animals being adopted from shelters. People think it’s great now. But once everyone goes back to work, or they realize how much work these animals are, shelters are going to be completely overwhelmed, or worse, animals will just be neglected or abandoned. I also wonder how many people rushed out to buy chickens before checking local ordinances or HOA covenants.

      • Olenna says:

        Ditto about the aftermath. Hopefully, it will be nowhere near as tragic as 2008 when livestock, especially horses, were turned over to shelters, or abandoned and starved. Right now, farmers are considering euthanizing their stock because so many slaughterhouse employees are affected by the virus that factories are either shutting down or drastically scaling down meat processing.

      • Onnit says:

        Your comment is so true. I am expecting the rates of abandoned animals to skyrocket to heartbreaking levels once the baby animals become teenagers. It makes me really sad.

      • pottymouth pup says:

        there are going to be an awful lot of dogs dumped because people don’t want to deal with separation anxiety 🙁

    • Sonishka says:

      Im worried about the same thing as you said. The same applies to all of thef pets purchased now, hope they wont be dumped later on.

      P.s. everybody dreaming of fresh batch of morning eggs, i recommend to read Egg and I… see if you still want to go ahead with this purchase.

    • Cdnkitty says:

      I’m just coming off of a decade running a hobby farm. You know what loves to eat chicken? Everything.
      They are amazing little dinosaurs and also die as soon as you name them. Between predators, roos that need culling, viruses, bumblefoot, broody hens, being egg bound, sour crop, etc etc etc – chickens take effort. They’re complicated but very rewarding if you take care of them properly.

    • Polyanna says:

      Instead of letting the chickens go feral couldn’t people just… eat them? Isn’t that what we do with chickens? lol I’m really asking. If people feel the chicken has become too much work, instead of buying a chicken to eat they could chop the head off their own chicken and eat it. And the chicken will have lived a much more humane life than chickens in factory farms.
      Obvi not a solution for vegetarians though.

      • Deens says:

        This is why I think only unsentimental people are suited to livestock. Growing up I would visit relatives in rural Greece and the elderly folk could get a chicken from garden to table in the blink of an eye. (They could also cull a litter of kittens without thinking twice which was so cruel but possibly less cruel than letting them overpopulate a village and starve to death).

    • yellow says:

      Yeah…we thought about doing this a month ago, and have the space. But luckily we consulted a friend who’d kept them (as well as reading up on what it takes), and decided not to place the order for the coop.

  2. OriginalLala says:

    I get why people are doing this, I do – but we, as a society, can’t even take good care of the animals we deem lovable (cats, dogs etc) – I shudder to think of how all these backyard chickens will fare.

    I’ve volunteered in the animal rescue world for over a decade, I have little faith in people when it comes to the wellbeing of animals sadly.

    I work with rescued chickens weekly, they are cute but alot of work, and quite delicate when it comes to disease and predators.

    • Jensies says:

      I agree with you. I love chickens and would love to have them. But they’re little beings, not toys, and they’re a lot of work and, honestly, heartache. They get sick, they get eaten by predators, they die. They have specific needs that people who have never raised them won’t know or understand.

      They also attract predators (on my area, coyote or raccoons are likely) that I don’t particularly want skulking around my house for the safety of my 18 yr old cat and tripod dog. People don’t think.

      If everyone really wants guaranteed fresh eggs, talk to local farmers and get hooked up with them. A lot of them charge like $4 for a carton of eggs if you buy in the reg.

  3. tempest prognosticator says:

    I’ve seen so many Pinterest-y backyard chicken coups being built in my neighborhood. We’ll be seeing lots of IG posts with “fresh eggs” content. Ugh! I’ve grown cynical during quarantine.

    • Swack says:

      I hope people are reading up on raising chickens. My daughter is raising chickens. When she started 4 years ago she looked up everything – what chickens are the hardiest and can with stand extreme temps, both hot and cold, how much room you need for each chicken, etc. Where I live you cannot have roosters. It is much more than just throwing baby chicks in a coop. Plus, eggs do not come for at least a year and do not lay all year round unless you supply the amount of daylight needed for them to lay.

  4. lunchcoma says:

    I’m not as charmed by the trend. Chickens can live for 10+ years, don’t lay eggs productively for all that time, and have care needs that people don’t anticipate. A lot of them end up at rescues in a year or so, and farm animal rescues are already overburdened.

    Unless you’ve done a lot of research and are willing to make a long term commitment, I’d encourage people to plant a garden or foster an animal instead.

  5. Erinn says:

    My husband has been trying to convince me to do this since we’ve owned our home. But I CAN’T. I got SO upset when my fish tank took a nose dive, I’d be gutted if anything happened to my chickens. And we have a good deal of foxes, coyotes, mink…the occasional bobcat in our area, it’d just be a nightmare. And I really don’t eat eggs much. I’d be out there walking them on leashes or something.

    I’d love a little hobby farm, but I honestly just get WAY too attached. I was a 4-H kid and treated my calves and lambs like pets haha. Someone down the road from us got some mini horses and some goats – they were trying to rehome one of the goats because he was NOT getting along with the ponies lol. Too many little personalities living too close together, I guess.

    • Deedee says:

      We had chickens, but yes, everything loves chicken. A neighbor “rehabbed” baby raccoons and then set them loose. Where do you think they came for lunch? My kids learned a lot of hard lessons about king snakes, stray dogs, hawks, coyotes, foxes and mink. The mink slaughtered every one of the chickens in one night, after we thought the coop was fortified like Ft. Knox. If there are roosters, they will mount the hens constantly and attack you when you try to feed the flock. It was an anxiety-filled nightmare and it will be a long time before I think about doing that again. Our neighbors put in a little coop a few months ago. I wish them luck.

      • Erinn says:

        Thank you for this, haha. That’s essentially what I thought the experience would be, so I feel validated! It’s one of those ideas that are a lot better in theory than in practice, I think. And mink – man, they’re SO clever when it comes to getting in where they shouldn’t be.

    • IMUCU says:

      I feel the same way about animals…I’ve been researching having chickens for years, but it’s so much work and we have coyotes, etc. too. I would hate to lose them because I couldn’t protect them well enough. I’ve recently been considering ducks instead, like muscovy, because they can get into the trees if need be, and we have a good size pond behind our house too. I did have two male ducks growing up and they did well in our suburban backyard for many years. Still researching getting ducks for egg purposes though.

      • Erinn says:

        I’d love ducks. It does sound a little less risky, but I still don’t think I’m up for it. But damn, they’re SO cute. I also love those silkie chickens in looks – they’re just so fluffy. But yeah – I think I’m best with admiring them from afar.

  6. Eliza_ says:

    My husbands grandmother has chickens. Yeah they lay 1-2 eggs every day. She’s got like 10 chickens. She can’t give them away fast enough!! Not only is it a daily commitment to gather and clean but if your a kind owner and give them a nice fenced in area to roam you need a rooster. And roosters can be aggressive and mean as hell, but it’s their job to protect so not surprising. They also need vet care – 1 sick bird quickly becomes all sick birds.

    She wants to get us some but it’s a lot and we have a bobcat that wanders by every now and again

  7. Aang says:

    My sister in law keeps chickens. We visited with our retriever and the first thing she did was grab a chicken, shake it, feathers were flying everywhere, and bring it to me. So no chickens for me. Plus we have raccoons, Fox, and coyotes in the neighborhood.

    • Agirlandherdog says:

      I would love chickens, but we also have a lab. His desire to kill everything with feathers is startling. Especially because he’s otherwise so lazy…

  8. Mpea says:

    We’ve had a backyard flock for over a year in the heart of St. Louis city and it’s been a dream. My kids live them, they’re easy to care for and so sweet. They’ll stop laying by year three which brings us to a crossroads it until then we’re loving it. For the past several years we’ve been growing our own veg too which makes an incredible difference in health and quality of food. Highly recommend!!

  9. Mina_Esq says:

    Our local zoning ordinance prohibits raising of livestock or fowl if your house sits on less than 8 acres. I suspect most places have similar laws. Chickens stink and poop everywhere, including in neighbors’ yard. I’d be pissed. P.s. it has been lovely to watch you grow to love your nature walks! I think your first post about it said that it was weird:)

  10. GG says:

    LOL at this article being positive. Chickens are a MASSIVE responsibility. Has anyone in LA actually smelled chicken shit? Does anyone in LA actually know what kind of chickens they are even buying? Are they egg layers or chickens that are bred to be breast heavy for meat? Are they a cross between? There are so many considerations to chickens it’s not all Easter egg hatches and baby bird cuddles. I would rather see the people of LA plant a vertical space saving vegetable garden. This is just as educational and doesn’t require a live animal being neglected or surrendered when this pandemic is over or when people understand the mistake they made. My parents bought a farm several years ago, and their response to this pandemic was not to get more chickens, it was to make more space for vegetables and fruits to be grown to increase their independence from the grocery store.

    • OriginalLala says:

      yes! people should be growing veggies not buying animals! growing tomatoes, basil and zucchini is less work and more food than having backyard chickens – I say this from experience, I’ve rescued chickens, and also have a big veggie garden 🙂

      • Ali says:

        I want goats (I’m scared of chickens) but I’ll settle for a vegetable garden. What are the best/easiest to grow veggies to start with?

      • OriginalLala says:

        @ Goats are alot of work too – you need more than one (an only goat is a sad goat) and they are very inquisitive and can be mischievous – the sanctuary I volunteer at has 4 goats and they are hilarious, adorable but can get into trouble because they are very curious little dudes. They are great cuddlers!

        tomatoes, zucchinis and herbs are super easy to grow! I’m not a talented gardener (i’m just big into food security and sustainability) and I’ve been able to grow them very well. Also string beans, green onions and hot peppers!

      • Ali says:

        Thank you for the suggestions. I have never had great luck with plants but, like with cooking, I haven’t had much time or inclination to do it very well either. This is going to be a project for me and my six year old who is really excited to grow our own veggies.

      • Agirlandherdog says:

        Ali, bush beans (green beans) will grow like crazy, but can take a lot of space if you plant a lot. In the alternative, you can plant pole beans, so they go up, not out.
        I hate pole beans though. I feel you get better output from pole beans. Kale is the gift that keeps on giving if you take care of it. But this is the wrong time of year to plant kale. It likes cold weather, but if you plant toward the end of summer, it’ll keep going throughout the winter if it’s a mild winter.

    • Sass says:

      I agree GG. It is a lot of work. And takes up a lot of time.

      It’s worth it to us but I’ve been on farms since I was a kid and I know what I’m doing. I’ve had my own chickens and ducks since 2014. We’ve lost half since then but none to predation. And our garden is more productive than the birds and easier to maintain. Like I said downthread I have over 80 seedlings in my kitchen right now and I’m about to start more. That is the biggest goal, more than eggs. Produce is more useful.

  11. Leah says:

    Chickens are dirty and a lot of hard work to maintain. Also it isn’t fair to the animals to be used as a trend which won’t last (there will be a lot of dumped chickens). It’s better to just buy chicken when it’s fried or baked, or in a sandwich.

  12. Busyann says:

    Ive been wanting chickens for years!! But my hubby and my mother were both raised in rural areas and are firmly telling me no, I cant have chickens. Apparently chicken coups bring snakes and other dangerous critters. And they know that I wouldn’t want to deal with that sh*t, cute chicken or not. It really saddens me though and has for a while, so a few years ago my mother sent me some little glass roosters when my hubby and I moved to DC as a sort of going away present. I loved them so much, that they both have a habit of picking up little chickens for me to display if they spot a cute one in the store. I love them for that, but yes, its not the same, only a band-aid. 🙁

  13. Ariel says:

    Chickens in a quasi-urban environment are fairly common in New Orleans (at least with hippies and voodoo practitioners).

    My friend has had chickens in the city (small city, New Orleans) for awhile. He has a TINY back yard and i assume his neighbors hate him.

    He lost one baby chick because his boyfriend didn’t close the lid tightly and one of the large dogs ate one- then threw it back up, on the boyfriend’s leg *karma*.
    And last night, a chicken was taken/eaten by an owl from the outdoor chicken coop.

    They did have chickens before this all started.
    Since this started- they have added: more chickens, two opposite sex rabbits in the same cage, and and a ton of plants.

    This is what happens when you close all the bars.

  14. chlo says:

    Well, I’m going to chime in with an opposite perspective from the rest of these comments! My husband and I are currently in the process of trying to relocate to a rural area, and we are going to have chickens if zoning allows. Some people are okay with the work and smells that go along with taking care of animals, and I am one of those people. They are such beautiful animals.

    • Thinking says:

      I had two bantam chickens. They were thr best ever !! One was a rooster and he was blind so the chicken took care of him. I had 3 acres so let them wander and the chicken used to love coming in my kitchen and sit on top of my bookcase. And she would come and peck at my ankles till I would pick her up. She loved to sit on my shoulder and tickle my ear with her beak. I miss them. Had them for about 6 years. I didnt find them too much work. They were my besties :). But I definitely could see chickens not being everyone’s cup of tea.

  15. Faithmobile says:

    I grew up with chickens and goats and then worked on a farm- I would never raise my own after seeing what I have seen. It’s heart breaking to watch an animal get sick and die after you have tried everything to save them. And I Second the poop comment, it’s gross. There are farmers that are really good at raising chickens and we should support them my produce delivery company sources local eggs from small farms. We are working on converting our front yard to a garden because it is south facing and gets more sun.

  16. vegasschmegas says:

    I predict that humane societies and rescues are going to be overrun with older chickens in a few months. People don’t realize what they’re getting into – sure, the kids are home, the chicks are cute…..but that will eventually end. And so will people’s interest in their home chicken coops. Truly sad.

  17. JanetDR says:

    We live in a rural area and have toyed with the idea from time to time. But realistically, we also have many predators. A farmer near us has chickens and we buy from them instead.
    A coworker of mine had chickens for awhile but stopped after she got a wicked case of salmonella. She was very careful but obviously someone slipped up somewhere and she was in hospital for 2 weeks! I still kind of moon over adorable chicken coops though.

  18. Sass says:

    I’ve had chickens and ducks for years, as well as a garden (there are 81 seedlings in my kitchen right now because it’s still too cold to put them outside). The panic buy of chicks is kind of funny because by the time they’re old enough to lay the idea is that quarantine will be over. But it IS nice to have eggs once they start. They usually begin laying around 6-8 months old. You don’t need a rooster to get eggs. I get four eggs daily – one from each bird. Just keep in mind that building a predator proof enclosure is necessary and feed runs about $30 every 2-3 months for six birds. It took us about 2 years to break even to make them worth it. Now after five years it’s cheaper for us to have the birds than it is to buy the eggs in store. If you have chicks instead of older babies at around 5 months you have to keep them in an incubator. Or something like a Rubbermaid storage tote with bedding and a heat lamp.

    We have had in five years half of our flock die. Four died two years in within one month. We just lost another duck two weeks ago. It does happen. But it is not a sign of failure. It’s just part of life on a farm.

  19. Taya says:

    Backyard chickens have been a thing in LA and Silicon Valley for years. And even before it was trendy, my aunt and uncle in LA had chickens.

    I bought a bunch of herbs. I’ve been meaning to start an herb garden for years and now is a great time. Now I’m thinking about more herbs, a lemon tree, a kaffir like tree, etc.

    I wish I could foster a dog, but I’m stuck in quarantine with someone who hates dogs.

    • Jules says:

      Yea I used to have a flock of chickens in CA, it’s not a new thing, just trending right now because of covid. We did a lot of research beforehand. There is a lot of care, commitment and responsibility to it all. Mostly you need a big enough space and coop, and it’s best to have less than 5 chickens. The pecking order is a real thing. Otherwise we loved our flock and the eggs they gave us.

  20. Texas says:

    I highly recommend it. I have had chickens for years. They are fun to raise and a blast to watch. We can only have hens in the city, so I can’t hatch them anymore but that is fun too.

    We have 5 and they are laying like crazy right now. I give my friends and family plenty of eggs.

    I just read up and saw lots of negative responses. I have never found chickens to be a ton of work. I use dichotomous earth to keep the smell down and we compost the shavings. When I lived in the country and had acreage and LOTS of chickens, we used the deep litter method along with the DE and it worked great.

    When I moved to Austin, I made sure that we bought a house in a neighborhood with no HOA. We bought a pretty fantastic chicken house with triple runs. And we let them free range a lot. They are pretty happy chickens.

    Of course they take research and some work. I just assumed that this would be obvious! But if you are so inclined, they make great little pets.

    • Angela Houde says:

      Agree. I am over a year in and my hens are my everything. I get it, people buy them not knowing the work involved. But same can be said of dogs and cats. I don’t regret anything. I don’t like dogs but love birds. But my hens also have luxury. Also salmonella? Humans are one of the most disgusting animals on the planet by choice. At this point its safer to kiss my chickens goodnight than a human.

      .

    • cas says:

      Thanks for your comment, I have always wanted three little silky bantams, and have been totally put off by the comments. Any eggs I get from them would just be a bonus, as I mainly would like them as pets. Would just three smallish hens really be too smelly?

  21. Lyli says:

    This is not going to end well for the chicks.

  22. happyoften says:

    That chick in the header is how I go through my days, at this point.

    And I do not see this “trend” ending well.

  23. Golly Gee says:

    People are doing this on impulse. I hate to think what’s going to happen to those poor chickens for those who don’t have the know-how or commitment to care for them, let alone what’s going to happen to them once this whole thing is over.

  24. Original Jenns says:

    We have a play house in the back that no longer gets used and have considered buying some chickens. We are baby stepping into greener living, and love eggs. His mom also had chickens for awhile. The house is above ground, about 4 feet, so it could be made pretty secure, but considering the predators we have around here, I’m still very hesitant. The last thing I want is a massacre because the window screens aren’t thick enough, or the shutters came open.

    And they are work! I’m worried about all of the impulse buys. It feels like bunnies at Easter. How many of these chickens will not be treated well or get eaten by coyotes or sold off because people don’t realize what an animal entails.

  25. Bean says:

    I have 18 hens right now – I’ve had chickens for years. Yes, you have to be prepared for them to die, get sick, some chicks be roosters, etc. We have had all of the above but when it came time to buy our new home (in the Berkeley hills), I wouldn’t even look at a house that couldn’t have a place for my girls. We built a fortress for them (heavy gauge wire fencing on all sides including under the run so nothing could dig up into it) but it was worth EVERY penny. I love having hens. We have had to get rid of unintended roosters, put down sick hens (luckily my husband is good at that) and have lost favorite ones but I wouldn’t change a thing. Keeping chickens is loads of fun, we are getting 8-12 eggs a day, have plenty for us and give to our friends and neighbors when they need them. We never throw food away because the hens eat everything and they are just fun to watch. We have a coop and a big run for them and they don’t free-range because chickens will destroy your yard. My girls get plenty of table scraps and greens from the garden and the grassy slope so they’re very well fed.

    I really came on to say that YES seed companies are swamped with orders. The ones I order from regularly are sold out of most everything. They’ve never had such a good year. People are worried about the food supply and also, gardening is rewarding and fun. I follow several gardening groups and they are flooded with first time gardeners. Since we are strictly isolating, I had to order my veg starts off Etsy this year. I was just thrilled that there are nurseries on Etsy that are selling starts (I had no idea this was even a thing). They all say they are overloaded with orders and have a huge backlog. It’s kind of fun to scroll through the offerings though and ordering them. I got tomatoes, cucumbers and peppers I had never even heard of because my local nursery can’t carry everything.

  26. Lisa says:

    Not good as I don’t believe most of these people have actually thought through how much money, time and effort goes into raising chickens and keeping them healthy.

  27. Mrs.Krabapple says:

    What happens when people find out chicken coops carry salmonella, e. coli, listeria, and other health risks? Or even worse, an outbreak of something deadly like bird flu due to people owning livestock in residential neighborhoods? I think most of these backyard chicken coops are a romanticized affectation of rustic life (“I grow my own eggs!”) by people who didn’t really think it through.

    • Angela Houde says:

      I thought it over for 37 years. Not bc of eggs or a rustic fantasy. Chickens can be highly intelligent and loving in the right home.

  28. Kimberly says:

    backyard chickens aren’t a new trend. they were super trendy in like 2015…they sold crazy trendy coops and people were loving their fresh eggs in suburbia…it not even retro…..it seems just people late to the party to me…..