I always wanted chickens, they just seemed like a useful pet. I haven’t been disappointed either. I recently read an article about food waste, and didn’t feel guilty in the slightest. We’ve basically eliminated all our food waste by having chickens. I keep a bucket in my kitchen for all the food scraps. If we don’t eat it, the chickens usually do. We even gave them the mouse that we trapped after it came in our house. In return the chickens give us the obvious eggs. But they also process compost, adding fertility with their manure, and do a great job of weeding and prepping soil.

We have seven chickens. Three are currently in full production, and the other four are just starting. They will lay anywhere from 2-5 eggs a day right now. We still occasionally have to buy store bought eggs to keep up with how much we eat. but I don’t like to. Regular eggs at the store are not expensive. If I were do do a purely economical analysis, I doubt the eggs I get from my chickens would be cheaper. So why do I like my own eggs better? I find a lot of satisfaction in getting fresh eggs from chickens I’ve raises, and know I’m not dependent on the grocery store. More importantly, the eggs are different. I don’t notice a huge difference in taste, but store bought eggs look sickly compared to the eggs from my pastured chickens. Here’s an example:

I was frying eggs and used a few from the store and a few from our own chickens. The ones from our chickens (if you didn’t guess) have orange yolks. The deeper color comes from a more varied diet that includes our table scraps, bugs, and greens in the field. The varied diet is transforming into better nutrition in my eggs. I don’t think of egg yolks as yellow anymore: they are properly orange.