Many people are interested in becoming self-reliant these days because of the recession.
One of the easiest ways to do that is to start raising chickens.
If you have parents or grandparents that lived during the Great Depression, I'm sure you've heard the stories of soup lines and starvation.
If you have a few hens in your backyard, you won't have to worry about that because you will have a fresh supply of eggs and meat, if meat is what you want.
My chickens have all died of old age.
Okay, now that you want some chickens, you will need a coop to house them.
They need a place to roost and a clean safe place to lay their eggs, which you can be sure are just for you.
One of the biggest reason to raise chickens is to save money.
Yes, you will have to acquire a couple of chicks and raise them to be hens and you will small chicken coop plans, but in the long run, both of those expenses will be overcome by the amount of money you will save.
Some people get attached to their chickens so can not slaughter them for their meat (that would be me) but even by just harvesting their eggs, you will save money.
Even if you don't eat eggs for breakfast on a regular basis, you will still have them for baking and be more self-sufficient because you won't be purchasing eggs from the grocery store.
A second reason to raise chickens is the health benefits of free range eggs.
The chickens that most farmers raise for eggs today aren't allowed to roam.
They are kept in small boxes with barely enough room to turn around.
They are given antibiotics and other medicines to keep them healthy.
By building your own coops for chickens and raising chickens, you won't have to worry about all that because you know where your eggs come from.
Free range eggs, whether home raised or farm raised, have less cholesterol and saturated fat than typical grocery store eggs.
They also have more vitamin A and E.
A third good reason, and probably not one that many backyard chicken owners think of at first, is that you can sell your excess eggs for extra cash.
You will develop regular customers who will be around every week or two for your extra eggs.
They actually are really disappointed when you don't have enough.
There are more and more people wanting the health benefits of natural, organic food, and you won't have any trouble at all selling your extra eggs.
If you have kids at home, they can help with the chickens.
Actually they can help with the whole process, from building the coop to feeding and watering.
And they love collecting the eggs.
When you go to http://www.
smallchickencoopplans.
com you will learn more about coops.