1. CHICKENS ARE DIRTY AND SMELLY
Actually, chickens are really quite clean. They take dust baths to help preen and keep their feathers clean. They will only smell if their owners don’t feed them properly and keep their surrounding clean, like any other animal. According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, in 2007, the average dog-owning household has 1.7 dogs. That would be 466 pounds of feces per dog-owning household per year. Many cities allow 3-6 hens per property. Four non-bantam laying hens would therefore produce 408 pounds a year; five hens would produce 510 pounds. Due to the high parasite and fecal coliform count, dog waste cannot be composted. However, chicken manure makes valuable fertilizer.
2. CHICKENS ARE NOISY
In reality, hens make very little noise. They make quiet clucking noises, and occasionally will get a little louder to let you know they are about to lay an egg. They sleep at night and are much quieter than a barking dog. Roosters do crow, morning, noon and night, therefore, aren’t generally accepted in urban areas.
3. THERE MUST BE A ROOSTER IN ORDER FOR CHICKENS TO PRODUCE EGGS
Hens are born with all the eggs they will ever produce. They will lay them until they are gone…..thus you have a “spent” hen. Roosters are only necessary to fertilize an egg to produce off spring.
4. CHICKENS CARRY DISEASE
Chickens are no more likely to carry diseases than dogs, cats, or any other kind of pet, and they are less likely to spread diseases to humans. Sure, chickens can get diseases, such as Newcastle’s, Marek’s, and upper respiratory illnesses, but dogs and cats can suffer from rabies, ringworm and intestinal parasites. In fact, because small flocks are at such little risk of transmission, they don’t require vaccinations like many other household pets.
5. CHICKENS WILL SPREAD AVIAN INFLUENZA
While there are many types of Avian Influenza, very few strains have ever infected humans and never in North America. Evidence has shown that the “Bird Flu” came from contaminated material from factory farms. Dr. Emilio DeBess, Oregon’s Public Health Veterinarian states, “People are not at risk of developing influenza by having a domesticated bird at home. Backyard flocks also should have no contact with factory farmed animals."
6. EGGS FROM BACKYARD FLOCKS CARRY MORE SALMONELLA
The truth is that birds that are not caged are by far less likely to have salmonella. Leading poultry and public health expert Dr. Michael Gregor says, “Raising poultry in smaller flocks … would also be expected to reduce rates of increasingly antibiotic-resistant pathogens such as Salmonella, the number-one food-borne killer in the United States.”
7. CHICKENS WILL ATTRACT PREDATORS, PESTS AND RODENTS
Predators already live amongst us. Everything from pet food, bird feeders, fish ponds, and garbage cans can attract raccoons, fox, rodents, and flies. Appropriate housing for the urban flock should keep predators at bay. Chickens are actually carnivores and love eating ticks, fleas, mosquitos, grasshoppers, stinkbugs, slugs, and even mice, baby rats, and small snakes.
8. PROPERTY VALUES WILL GO DOWN
With over 500 towns and cities allowing urban flocks, there is not one documented case of real estate going down because there was a chicken coop next door.
As a matter of fact, there has been a real estate agency in Virginia offering a free coop with a purchase of a lot in a conservation subdivision. Local foods and living green is becoming fashionable all over the
nation.
9. NEIGHBORS AND TOURISTS WILL BE APPALLED AT HAVING CHICKENS IN BACKYARDS
You can’t control everybody’s opinions, but they can be educated. Usually once people have some experience around chickens and find out that they are charming and very entertaining, they usually change their minds. As far as what the coops look like, in many communities that have urban chickens it has become a very big thing to have “coop tours,” so people can see how decorative coops can be and often times it becomes a fun competition within the area to see who can have the coolest coop in town! Chances are, tourists too will have a backyard flock at home.
10. CHICKENS ARE ONLY GOOD FOR EGGS AND MEAT
While chickens are indeed wonderful for these two reasons, they are much more than that. They also provide fertilizer for our gardens, they keep insects down, they eat weeds, they till the soil, they are efficient biomass recyclers that divert tons of organic matter from landfills, and last but definitely not least, they are amazing pets. In Malaysia, they are more common as a household pet than cats and dogs combined. There are poultry shows all around the globe that are second to none of any big cat or dog shows. They have individual personalities, can provide hours of entertainment, and are even used as therapy chickens for handicapped and elderly people.