American consumption of eggs has increased in recent years. Eggs are nutrient-rich and not as harmful to cholesterol as once thought to be. 

Whether you’re eating them scrambled, poached, or sunny-side up, who wouldn’t want to wake up the taste of fresh eggs in the morning? More and more people are keeping backyard chickens for that reason. Raising chickens for eggs taste great, is sustainable and helps you save money.

But these aren’t the only benefits of raising chickens. Here are five other reasons you should keep chickens in your backyard. 

1. Maintain Your Yard

By allowing your chickens free range around your yard, they will eat pests and bugs. Chickens will reduce the damage and nuisance of these pests naturally. As a result, you won’t have to use costly, harmful pesticides to protect your lawn. 

Chickens produce a lot of waste, but this waste is full of nutrients. As a result, you can compost their waste and use it as a fertilizer in place of chemical fertilizers. Thus, you can maintain your garden with this fertilizer to live more sustainably. 

Chickens will also eat grass. So keeping backyard chickens can cut back the amount of time you spend mowing your lawn. 

2. Reduce Food Waste

After going through the work of cooking a meal, nothing feels worse than having to throw out the leftovers. With chickens, you won’t have to feel like you are wasting food because you can give those leftovers to your chickens. 

Chickens love human food and will pretty much eat anything you give them. You can research what to feed them because too many starches can be harmful to your chickens’ health, and some foods can affect how their eggs taste.  

3. Great for Education

Keeping backyard chickens is low maintenance. Setting up their living arrangements might be challenging, but they are easy to care for once that is out of the way. This ease of care makes them a great pet to teach your kids about responsibility and caring for animals. 

You can show your kids how to feed the chickens, how to clean up after them, and how to collect the eggs. 

Chicks are cute, making them a great way to get your kids interested in raising chickens and learning how to be gentle. If you are looking to teach your kids how to raise them from the start, these products can help you incubate your eggs so your kids can watch the process. 

4. Chickens Are Entertaining

Chickens have their own personalities, which is fun to observe. They can be wild and constantly up to something or complete lap chickens. They’ll peck, scratch, take dust baths, talk with each other, just to name a few fun things. 

5. Keep Chickens Out of Factory Farms

Chicken products you get in the store often come from chickens raised on factory farms, where they are often mistreated. 

By keeping chickens in your backyard, you can reduce your dependence on these unsustainable food practices. Also, you will know exactly how your chickens are being treated and fed. So, you can feel good about where at least some of your food comes from. 

Keep Chickens to Live More Sustainably

As you can see, raising chickens in your backyard can help improve your life in various ways. Caring for your own chickens is fun and highly rewarding since it can help you reduce your carbon footprint and be more self-sufficient. Since they are low maintenance, it is easy to dive right in and start making a difference right away. 

Check out the food and health sections of our site to learn more about living a healthy lifestyle.