Americans turn to backyard chickens for food, security

Cindy Thomas spends a quarter of an hour a day tending four hens in her backyard that provide her with eggs she and her husband eat or sell through a ranch supply store in east central Idaho.

Thomas is not a farmer and she was not raised on a farm. But the Salmon woman is one of a growing number of Americans who have turned to chickens in the face of a flagging economy, scares about the food supply and a strengthening drive to acquire locally produced food.

"It's not that I'm against stuff in the grocery store but, in these times, I feel more secure if I can produce things myself," said Thomas.

In Idaho and Washington state, poultry hatcheries and farm stores say sales of chicks are soaring, with some reporting a rise of 70 percent compared to last year.

"We've had a hard time filling orders," said Annette Whitley of Dunlap Hatchery, a facility in southwest Idaho that supplies chickens for eggs and eating -- layers and fryers -- across the United States.

In central Oregon, a run on chicks sent erstwhile egg producers in record numbers to High Desert Ranch & Home, a farm and feed outlet in Bend.

"We sold five times as many chicks this year," said worker Joel King.

Cities are scrambling to keep pace with the outcropping of interest in backyard chickens. Many rules in residential areas restrict rooster-free flocks to manageable numbers -- less than a dozen -- and concentrate on minimizing noise and odors.

At a time when first lady Michelle Obama turned the focus on food by planting a vegetable garden at the White House, the backyard chicken movement is gaining new ground.

If the underlying ethos is self-sufficiency as a buffer against an uncertain economy, then layer hens, or pullets, are a practical undertaking requiring little space, time and expense, said Jim Hermes, extension poultry specialist with the animal sciences department at Oregon State University.

"Chickens are a good fit for suburban living," he said.

Home-raised hens, with preferred breeds the so-called US heavyweights like strains of the Rhode Island Red, produce slightly less than commercial layers, or roughly 240 eggs per year compared to about 265.

While chicks are inexpensive, ranging from one to five dollars, the argument that backyard chickens are a form of thrift begins to break when it comes to commercial feed.

If chickens can't be sustained in an outdoor setting that provides plenty of grass, insects and some supplemental grain, owners must buy feed.

"The cost of producing eggs through sack feed is two to three times the cost of producing a commercial dozen in the store," said Hermes.

Morgan Farnell, assistant professor of poultry science at Texas A&M University, said it is unlikely that backyard flocks can compete with the economy of scale that favors a commercial operation.

"With backyard poultry, you've got people who like to grow the birds and get enjoyment out of them but may have a hard time breaking even," he said.

That chicks continue to sell briskly points to the fact that some members of the backyard chicken movement, who interact via a thriving virtual community, believe it is imperative to be acquainted with the origin of their food.

Melissa Moeller was a suburban housewife seeking to ensure healthy eating for a family of five when she decided to augment her vegetable garden with layer hens.

The problem was her neighborhood in an exclusive section of Bellingham, Washington, outlawed livestock.

Today, Moeller and her family live on acreage nearby. While her husband continues to work in the city as a computer programmer, Moeller and their three children oversee an expanding egg business that operates under the auspices of the Moeller-owned Misty Meadows Farm.

"I had never raised anything other than cats before," said Moeller, whose 400 layer hens now provide income from eggs offered to buyers at the farm or at stores that carry them.

"I think what the culture is feeling right now is a desire to remove that wall between our food and where it comes from."

All contention aside, experts say there is little nutritional difference between homegrown and commercial eggs. Colors in the shell are different, with the bulk of commercial hens producing white-shelled eggs and backyard varieties everything from brown to light green, and pigments in the feed of backyard flocks tend to deepen the yellow of their yolks.

"I don't know what the economy is going to do but I do know where I'm going to get my food," said Karen McIlroy, who maintains 65 hens near Tacoma, Wash. "And I know if I lost my job I would still be able to eat."