Help, can't decide....

Friends of ours with chickens want to give us chicks. I'm vegan, and am debating on keeping some hens now after seeing our friends happy looking small flock. Why should I not do this. Are eggs that bad? Is there something I'm missing? Low cost abundant fresh protein seems appealing right about now.

Eggs from your own happy backyard hen friends are ethically the simplest animal product, I think. The hens lay them anyway and no harm comes to them from laying. If the he's are not broody they have no desire to sit on eggs so it's not like you're taking something away from them. If they are broody you can just let them set.

My hens are my nice pets that also give me breakfast.

Battery farms are another story.

Christy Evers wrote:Is there something I'm missing?

Chickens are the "gateway" animals. First egg is free... Bwhaaaahaaaa!

Why are you a vegan, for health or for the animals?

If its for health, there have been studies saying you should not eat eggs or limit your egg consumption to once or twice a week.

How much eggs do you eat, is it worth the price in chicken feed? It might be cheaper to buy your eggs form a neighbour.

I am a vegan too, for both reasons, I stopped eating eggs.

Robert James wrote:
If its for health, there have been studies saying you should not eat eggs or limit your egg consumption to once or twice a week.

The science behind those studies has been shown to be suspect, to say the least. Gary Taubes has done great work in this space, as has his partner in NuSci, Peter Attia here.

I eat 3 eggs on most days & my cholesterol is fine but I eat low carb.

Even if you don't eat the eggs, chickens help to balance the biology of the garden. They eat insects that think your garden is a place with no predators. Their scratching helps to build the soil. Everywhere they go they add fertilizer to the soil.

As for "the price of chicken feed", anyone who pays money to feed their chickens is not paying attention. There is this thread on how to feed chickens on piles of wood chips. There is also the incredible amount of food that stores send to the landfill that could be feeding local chickens. If you don't generate enough food scraps to feed a small flock of chickens, I'm sure that among 3 or 4 of your neighbors you do.

I say take the chicks.

John Elliott wrote:Even if you don't eat the eggs, chickens help to balance the biology of the garden. They eat insects that think your garden is a place with no predators. Their scratching helps to build the soil. Everywhere they go they add fertilizer to the soil.

As for "the price of chicken feed", anyone who pays money to feed their chickens is not paying attention. There is this thread on how to feed chickens on piles of wood chips. There is also the incredible amount of food that stores send to the landfill that could be feeding local chickens. If you don't generate enough food scraps to feed a small flock of chickens, I'm sure that among 3 or 4 of your neighbors you do.

I say take the chicks.

I would stay away from asking people for their compost scraps, since people with out thinking will compost meat, but for sure ask some of the small local stores for their produce.

Robert James wrote:

John Elliott wrote:Even if you don't eat the eggs, chickens help to balance the biology of the garden. They eat insects that think your garden is a place with no predators. Their scratching helps to build the soil. Everywhere they go they add fertilizer to the soil.

As for "the price of chicken feed", anyone who pays money to feed their chickens is not paying attention. There is this thread on how to feed chickens on piles of wood chips. There is also the incredible amount of food that stores send to the landfill that could be feeding local chickens. If you don't generate enough food scraps to feed a small flock of chickens, I'm sure that among 3 or 4 of your neighbors you do.

I say take the chicks.

I would stay away from asking people for their compost scraps, since people with out thinking will compost meat, but for sure ask some of the small local stores for their produce.

Meat scraps are totally great for chickens AND the compost pile. Either way, it's better than sending those nutrients to the land fill. They can be eaten by chickens and turned into soil nutrients to feed something you are more comfortable eating. If you eat the eggs great. That's only one of the many benefits of having the chickens. You could always sell the eggs to cover the cost of feed.
I'd take the chicks if you think you're up for the adventure.

I'm not a vegan but I suspect others may question the validity of taking female chicks for their egg laying potential, if you are not happy with the idea of their brothers being culled.

Chickens provide so many benefits - eggs, ground clearance, pest control - that I feel compelled to work them into my system. But then for me a healthy system is more valuable than any individual component of that system. But then I'm a very happy carnivore.

Craig Dobbelyu wrote:

Robert James wrote:

John Elliott wrote:Even if you don't eat the eggs, chickens help to balance the biology of the garden. They eat insects that think your garden is a place with no predators. Their scratching helps to build the soil. Everywhere they go they add fertilizer to the soil.

As for "the price of chicken feed", anyone who pays money to feed their chickens is not paying attention. There is this thread on how to feed chickens on piles of wood chips. There is also the incredible amount of food that stores send to the landfill that could be feeding local chickens. If you don't generate enough food scraps to feed a small flock of chickens, I'm sure that among 3 or 4 of your neighbors you do.

I say take the chicks.

I would stay away from asking people for their compost scraps, since people with out thinking will compost meat, but for sure ask some of the small local stores for their produce.

Meat scraps are totally great for chickens AND the compost pile. Either way, it's better than sending those nutrients to the land fill. They can be eaten by chickens and turned into soil nutrients to feed something you are more comfortable eating. If you eat the eggs great. That's only one of the many benefits of having the chickens. You could always sell the eggs to cover the cost of feed.
I'd take the chicks if you think you're up for the adventure.

I don't see any reason for putting dead animals in my compost.

I'm going to lock this thread.

I may be wrong, but it seems to me that the original post was almost perfectly designed to cause discord between vegans and meat-eaters, and it seems to be having the desired effect.

Permies supports vegans, vegetarians and meat-eaters alike and we aim to promote healthy discussion, not discord.