Mr. Smith breaks into urban agribusiness (and he may have to go to Washington).

[festive1]

I've been trying to talk my husband into letting me set up a chicken coop in our backyard... does that count?

Sure does. Why do you want chickens in your backyard? What kind of coop..there are some really sweet fetish-coops out there.

Because we eat so many damn eggs! And I prefer the "free range," "organic" eggs, they taste better, but are significantly more expensive. I put those terms in quotes because "free range" only means the birds have access to the outside, not that they actually get to roam free. "Organic" eggs just means they are fed a suitable, bird-friendly diet, not ground up dead chickens. I think it would ultimately prove economical to invest in the coop and chickens.
My sister-in-law had a coop for awhile, but foxes ate all of her hens She says it wasn't very much work to get a good yield of eggs, and not too smelly or noisy either. From my understanding, you give them hay, chicken feed, and water, muck out the coop once a week and you get eggs, glorious eggs (gathered daily of course)! Do you know anything about how much cold they can withstand? My husband thinks the neighbors wouldn't like it, but I think they'd be cool if we told them about it beforehand and gave them dibs on our extra eggs.
Any proof you have supporting this cause and getting me my chicken coop would be greatly appreciated! I know they are working on allowing suburban chicken coops in my county, but not entirely sure if it's 100% legal yet... But if the neighbors and hubby agree, I'd go ahead with it anyway.

[The Grand Nudger]

You have kids right? LOL< try geese. I had a ton of chickens and geese growing up. The chickens -can be- very loud and annoying...it ain't just the roosters than have a "cackle at the sun" habit...and it ain't just the sun they cackle at..lol. The geese are quieter, the eggs are bigger (hell you can even train them to eat specific types of weeds!). You don't get as many tho....

Chickens will eat damned near anything, soak some feed corn in a 5 gallon bucket of water and they go apeshit. I don't know about that whole cleaning out the pen business, build a tractor style coop (notice the wheels in the rear and handle to the front on the one in the image) and just move it around (doesn't have to have a "bottom"). Free pest control, light cultivation and aeration of the turf....they graze on weed seeds and such. If you leave em in one place too long the ground gets burnt. They'll lay eggs in just about anything as well, hay is nice....bunched up pillowcases and little bowls dug in the ground end up with eggs in them too. You know, funny thing about the chickens I kept, they'd just keep laying eggs in the same nests (plenty of them would share the same nest) and even though I kept taking them they'd rarely lay them elsewhere. Hell, we never really kept the coops closed either unless some dogs were moving through the prairie but they didn't go anywhere anyway. We'd buy a box of chicks every so often and get em nice and fat, eat the eggs, and eventually the chickens (I prefer Purdue...honestly). They were really easy to keep. They do fine in cold weather, just give em a place to get out of the snow and wind.

Now, is it economical? No..lol, probably not. You can figure that out for yourself though. Check the feed cost, adjusted for the amount of chickens you plan to keep and the average yield of eggs from that number of chickens (check your ag extension for this info) - essentially you're looking to get an average price per egg....multiply that by twelve and compare that number to the price you pay at the store. Once you've done that....remember that you are likely to get fewer eggs than average and you haven't put a price on the time you spend caring for the damned chickens (not that it has to be alot of time..mind you..but it's something). There are some ways you can jerry with those numbers (I was raised in Florida...plenty of bugs for feed..we let them roam in the woods..we fed them cheap ass dried corn and table scraps). Ultimately, if you're thinking of keeping a few chickens for eggs..and you want to sell it to the hubby as economical..you may have to invoke the steep cost of wifey's contentedness as part of the equation.

(Is my wife seriously the only one that constantly reminds her husband of this? She's never pitched anything to me strictly by the numbers...lol)

[Rhizomorph13]

Curse you economy of scale!

Oh, wait, I mean, that's awesome. That's why I don't have to own my own chickens if I want eggs.

[The Grand Nudger]

Speaking of bowls in the ground and chickens...I just remembered this and I have to get it out there before I forget it. My grandmother had this Banty Hen that would lay little speckled eggs directly into a bowl........which made it easy for her to collect them in the morning.

[festive1]

Ultimately, if you're thinking of keeping a few chickens for eggs..and you want to sell it to the hubby as economical..you may have to invoke the steep cost of wifey's contentedness as part of the equation.

(Is my wife seriously the only one that constantly reminds her husband of this? She's never pitched anything to me strictly by the numbers...lol)

Firstly, I have a weird fear of geese... the few that I have encountered are mean!
Every wife (not just yours) utilizes her contentedness as a negotiating factor! Guys will do a lot just to not hear the bitching, women know this and use it to their advantage. I have an "allowance" (stay-at-home-mom, no income being generated by me, and it works for us), if I pay for the set up and feed from that, get the approval of the neighbors, check the local codes for legality, I should be able to persuade him. We were actually checking out chickens at the county fair a few months ago. Some were for sale, I'd imagine that would be a good starting place to purchase some hens. Are there certain breeds that are less noisy?

[The Grand Nudger]

There are probably certain breeds that are -sold- as less noisy.......but I don't know if anyone told the chickens about that..lol. You can probably find some run of the mill laying hens at the same store you'd want to buy feed from, depending on the time of year. I wouldn't buy them fully grown cuz that's (relatively) expensive...and you probably wouldn't want to buy a bunch of chicks in the middle of the winter even if you could find them. I very quickly get out of my depth with chickens though...I'd say you might want to spend the winter checking out your ag extensions publications and emailing sellers.

[jonb]

There are a few small bits in urban agriculture that profits can be turned.
So here are a few London examples from the very small and select-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idYgzMUZFb4
To the meduim scale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RV__BZNf58

But the main way is by supplying all the amateurs.
And that is the point of Horticulture with a few hours of time each week I can supply a good proportion of what I eat, and enjoy doing so, this is a common british pass time, and there in not a british city or town that does not have allotments on unused ground.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IT3bJ7wW...creen&NR=1

[KichigaiNeko]

the concept has been taken up here in Oz as well. Mostly within the Social Housing sector as a way of supplementing the grocery bill and getting people to communicate to build community. It does work rather well actually..... "All people love to eat!"

[cratehorus]

build it like a garden, plant easy to eat, easy to plant vegetables, last garden I worked on was mostly tomatos and cucumbers, stuff that's easy to grow easy, to store, to sell..............also buid it in order for it to be destroyed, do not attempt a perfect garden the whole idea is to beautify a neghborhood to attract more people, not to create a beautification program,.....................animals are a horrible idea for a community garden because they require massive amounts of food and water, why do that? when you could just grow food and feed it to the people instead of tasty chicken?

good luck green thumb!!!

[The Grand Nudger]

I really appreciate all the activity folks.

Since the "how-to" post that's upcoming is going to begin with this directly (and just to ask the question again to get feedback)...If any of you were going to start an urban farm why would you do it? Would it be strictly business for you? Social activism? Environmental activism? A labor of love with no regard for returns? Maybe some mixture of the above (and if so which motivations are the strongest?) Maybe motivations I haven't even touched on?

I ask this on the one hand because I love to hear your opinions and on the other because this question is very important in determining what sort of operation the urban farm would be. It's the very first decision to make and everything follows from here.

(Mr. Smith wants to turn a profit btw...but he also wants to be sustainable and affordable..so his motivations are mixed.)