Frequently Asked Questions s40

Frequently Asked Questions

Hens as Pets How large are hens? Regular (sometimes called “standard”) hens weigh between 4-6 pounds. Bantam Hens weigh 1-2 pounds. Do hens make a lot of noise? Female chickens are generally very quiet. Chickens may cluck a little bit when they are laying an egg. Once it’s dark outside chickens go completely silent. They can’t see at all in the dark, and they hunker down and don’t make a peep. Roosters are the noisy ones (the animals that crow when the sun rises) and are not appropriate for the city. Do small urban flocks smell bad? Chickens raised in a small backyard flock have very little in common with chickens in a large, commercial operation. When chickens are given adequate space and proper bedding (straw or pine shavings), their manure does not build up and cause odor issues. The manure that does exist can be easily removed and properly disposed of. Manure on grass is a great fertilizer. Scale is everything: a flock of a few vs. a flock of 200 Do small urban flocks carry diseases? There are 12-14 diseases that cats and dogs carry which can be transferred to humans, compared to just 2-3 that could be carried by chickens or ducks. Sometimes people worry about chickens carrying the “bird flu.” The fact is that wild birds carry many strains of bird flu, just as humans carry many strains of human flu. Most strains of bird flu do not infect humans, and bird flu does not pass through the air. There have not been any cases of the more dangerous bird flu strain (H5N1) in the U.S. If there were to be an outbreak of H5N1, it is most likely to happen in a crowded Concentrated Animals Feed Operation (otherwise known as a “factory farm”). So, the more we can decrease our collective support of CAFOs, the less likely we are to expose ourselves as a society to animal diseases. How many eggs does a flock of chickens lay each day? The general rule is that you can expect 2 eggs per day for every 3 birds. Is fowl manure toxic? Fowl manure is remarkably safe, especially when compared to dog and cat feces. While dogs and cats are wonderful, their feces are toxic to humans (cat feces can even contain toxoplasmosis) and cannot be used in compost or to fertilize a garden. However, fowl manure is a wonderful addition to compost, and can also be used as garden fertilizer. It is a wonderful addition to garden compost heaps. It can also be bagged and thrown away like cat litter. What are the benefits to owning fowl, besides eggs? Fowl are great at quickly recycling food and garden scraps into useable fertilizer. Many fowl owners find that feeding their leftovers to the chickens is a much more efficient way of composting than the tradition “mixing greens and browns” method. Chickens also enjoy eating bugs, which some people find helpful. Raising backyard Food-Producing Animals is a great way to involve children in a family project where they feel like they’re making a real contribution. Plus, chickens can be great pets. They have distinctive personalities, and can be very social. What do hens eat? Fowl are omnivores, which means that they can eat most kinds of table scraps. They also enjoy eating weeds and most kinds of plant scraps from gardens. It’s good to also provide fowl with specially formulated poultry feed, which can be purchased from a number of Jacksonville-area feed stores or farmers. They are especially fond of insects and will quickly rid your yard of most insect pests. How Will Hens’s Affect Real Estate Value? There are multiple cities throughout the country that have enacted FPA ordinances. One can reasonably assume that if FPA ordinances resulted in a decrease of property values, then cities which had passed FPA ordinances would be taking steps to repeal their ordinance as soon as possible. Instead, the opposite is occurring. Fort Collins and Longmont both had sunset provisions written into their initial FPA ordinances, which would have allowed them to easily revoke the ordinance after one year. Neither city chose to invoke the sunset when the first year was over, thereby leaving their FPA ordinances intact.

Seattle has recently taken steps to expand its ordinance, going from 3 hens up to 8 hens.