When we lived near San Diego we ended up with 6 chickens. The first one escaped from a neighbor and ended up staying with us since that neighbor decided to stop keeping chickens. Later we bought two more chickens, then a friend gave us three.

Adding chickens to the homestead helps in many ways outside of eggs.

• They eat garden and household scraps which helps make compost
• Their bedding and manure are the only reason I had a working compost heap before
• They help teach our children responsibility and caring for something other than themselves