Backyard chickens becoming more popular

By Samantha McDaniel-Ogletree R EPORTER

Following a shortage and increase in the price of eggs, the idea of owning chickens is becoming appealing to some who have the space and willingness to put in the work.

Katie Bell, local foods and small farms educator for the University of Illinois Extension, said she has received more inquiries about the process of raising backyard chickens for egg production.

“We did expand our program because there has been a lot of interest,” Bell said. “I think we are seeing a lot more of the people that were one the fence, that were thinking about raising chickens. I think recent prices and supply have pushed them over.”

Whether purchasing from a farm store or breeder, Bell said it is important to make sure the birds being purchased are the ones needed.

“The first thing is really to research the breeds of chickens that would be the best for your needs,” Bell said.

One chicken will lay, on average, 180-280 eggs per year.

Jacksonville farmer Clint Bland has about 600 chickens under his care, with plans to increase that number in coming years.

“We started with just a few chickens, now we have more than 600,” Bland said. “We keep a constant supply of chickens.”

He said he hopes to expand that to about 1,300 after creating another space for the chickens.

His chickens produce 60 dozen eggs a week.

Bland raises his chickens from chicks, cycling then through his farm. At any time he has babies, hens and geriatric. The hens are the group that produces the most eggs, while the chicks do not produce and the geriatric are at the end of their egg producing years.

Starting out, Bland said he has chicks in the broader as they grow up. The broader helps keep them warm as they grow feathers.

“It’s a big undertak- ing,” Bland said. “We put six months into them before they will produce an egg.”

Once they are older,

Bland said they are moved to a coop and will produce eggs for about a year and a half. Once the hens are no longer able to

Modern Farmer

continue laying eggs, Bland said they are processed into chicken broth.

Though he has a constant supply of chickens, he said he has to cycle out the land used by the chickens so the land doesn’t become overused.

Bland said he is often looking at ways to improve his coops for the chickens. There are many different types, whether traditional or something that he is trying, which is a greenhouse­style coop.

Bland is constructing a coop out of a traditional greenhouse frame.

Bland said the increased cost of eggs is beginning to reverse and egg prices are returning to lower prices, however, he said the supply took a hit after many suppliers lost birds because of Avian flu.

For Bland, he said one of the most important things is the environ­ ment that chickens are raised.

“Our chickens are able to run around and do natural foraging, they go in and out of the coop as they’d like,” Bland said. “That ability is a key to the flavor in the eggs.