Small print:
"Even the smallest backyard has room for a flock large enough to supply a house with eggs. The cost of maintaining such a flock is small. Table and kitchen waste provide much of the feed for the hens. They require little attention--only a few minutes each day.
An interested child, old enough to take a little responsibility, can care for a few fowls as well as a grown person.
Every backyard in the United States should contribute its share to a bumper crop of poultry and eggs in 1918."
This another war effort to free food for troops. It is a patriotic act.
Today, there are HOA rules and city regulations and zoning ordinances. In earlier times there were not so many restrictions as to what a person could do in the backyard, especially regarding having chickens.
For me, raising hens for eggs is a means to get eggs from grass-fed hens, hens not brutalized in factories. I don't personally know anyone else who keeps hens. Vendors at the farmer's market sometimes do keep hens. But, the only personal friend who sells at the market does not.
Two hens per person is just about right. Since I put mine out of the house, the three of them don't lay enough for me. Of course, this is their third winter. They will be 3 yrs old in March.
Your turn
Do you live in a city and have friends in the city who keep hens? Do you keep hens?
