Lisa Chelenza knows that not everyone in your family walks on two legs. For helpful tips on taking care of your animal friends, and advice from local veterinary experts, watch Pet Pointers Wednesday and Saturday on YNN. If you have ideas for Pet Pointers segments, email Lisa at petpointers@twcny.rr.com.
Pet Pointers: Raising your own chickens
Cute little Easter chicks eventually turn into full grown chickens. Many people think about having a few chickens, but what is it really like to care for a flock of your own? Lisa Chelenza takes a look in this edition of Pet Pointers.
To view our videos, you need to
enable JavaScript. Learn how.
install Adobe Flash 9 or above. Install now.
Then come back here and refresh the page.
Raising backyard chickens is becoming a popular hobby among animal lovers and foodies alike. While chickens might make lousy house pets, they are fun to watch and come with the bonus of providing a food source for their keepers: their unfertilized eggs.
Lisa Skardinski and her husband, Joe, have been raising a variety of chickens for several year now.
“I’m a vegetarian. I became a vegetarian mostly because of the physical mistreatment of the animals at factory farms, not to mention the hormones and other chemicals they put into them. So by raising my own, I know that they are humanely treated and well fed, I know they are eating all natural foods,” said Lisa Skardinski.
Raising chickens might seem like a lot of work, but Lisa says caring for her 30 hens and roosters only takes a few minutes every day.
“It's amazingly easy, once you have the proper shelter set up on a daily basis you come and check their food and water and collect the eggs,” said Skardinski.
While gathering the eggs might take a few minutes out of your day, it’s well worth it because fresh eggs just taste better.
“They do, they just have a different taste....hard to explain until you have one,” said Skardinski.
Before you run out and purchase a bunch of chicks, it’s best to do your own research and figure out if you have the time and space chickens would need to be happy and healthy.