The Truth About Backyard Chickens

Photo credits: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals

Egg prices spike. Social media fills with images of happy hens in pastoral backyards. "Just get your own chickens," the advice spreads. It seems like the obvious answer to concerns about factory farming: personal agency, fresh eggs, a direct line from coop to kitchen.

For many people, keeping backyard chickens feels like the ethical choice.

But the backyard chicken boom is built on a fundamental misunderstanding of what keeping these birds actually means. It's impulse buying on a massive scale, fueled by crisis. Millions are jumping in without understanding the system they're supporting or the suffering they're perpetuating.

Contents:

The Backyard Chicken Boom

The numbers reveal the pattern clearly.

  • Early 2000s — Less than 1% of U.S. households kept chickens.[5] It was unconventional.

  • 2018 — Around 5.8 million households had backyard flocks.[1] Interest was growing, driven by the local food movement and animal welfare concerns.

  • 2020 — Over 15 million households owned chickens.[1] The pandemic hit, grocery store shelves emptied, and people panicked. Chick hatcheries couldn't keep up with demand.

  • 2024-2025 — Another major surge.[2] Egg prices climbed, supply tightened, and 11 million additional households acquired backyard flocks, a 28% increase in just two years.[2] Researchers estimate approximately 85 million backyard chickens now exist in the U.S., based on 13% of households owning an average of five birds each.[4][3]


Each crisis follows the same pattern.[6][2] Prices spike. Supply disappears. People buy chicks on impulse. No experience. No long-term plan. No understanding of what these birds are or what they'll endure.

What most new chicken keepers don't realize: the system they're trying to escape reaches right into their backyard. The same industrial hatcheries that supply factory farms also supply backyard flocks. And there's a hidden cost to every hen purchased.

Image caption

Where Backyard Chickens Really Come From

Most backyard chicken keepers want hens. That's the driving force behind purchase decisions. Hens lay eggs. Roosters don't. So hens are desired; roosters are accidents or problems to be avoided.

This preference has massive consequences.

Backyard keepers' demand for hens-only flocks directly drives industrial hatchery practices.[7] Hatcheries must produce chicks to supply commercial farms and backyard enthusiasts alike. In the U.S., over 600 million chicks are hatched annually to supply the 90 billion eggs Americans consume.[7]

Roughly half of all hatched chicks are male.[7] They are killed immediately.

Male Chick Culling: The Industry Standard

Over 300 million male chicks are gassed or ground up alive in machines within hours of hatching every year in the United States.[7] This practice is called "culling," though the term obscures the reality of what happens.[7]

Why does this happen? Modern egg-laying breeds have been selectively bred for one purpose: producing eggs.[7] Males of these breeds don't gain weight quickly enough to be profitable for meat production, unlike broiler chickens bred specifically for rapid growth.[7] So they become waste.[7]

When a backyard chicken keeper buys six chicks for their coop, six male chicks were killed at the hatchery to make that purchase possible.[7] The connection is direct. The responsibility is shared.[7]

Some hatcheries are now exploring in-ovo sexing technology, which identifies male embryos before they hatch so they can be destroyed during development rather than as living chicks.[7][8] Brands like NestFresh and Kipster have begun offering eggs from hens hatched using this method.[7][8] It's a marginal improvement over grinding live chicks, but it doesn't address the core problem: billions of animals are still being bred into bodies designed to suffer.[7][8]

What Happens When the Eggs Stop

When people keep backyard chickens, they're often motivated by what these animals can provide. Fresh eggs every morning. Pest control in the garden. Fertilizer for the yard. Some entertainment. Maybe companionship. The birds become valued primarily for their output and usefulness.

This creates a predictable problem: what happens when that output stops?

Hens lay most prolifically in their first two years, reaching peak production at 30 weeks of age.[9][10][11] By the third year, egg production slows significantly with fewer eggs each week and gradual decline in egg size and shell quality.[9][12][13] Production hens can lay efficiently for two laying cycles (about 50-60 weeks each), but after two or three years many hens significantly decline in productivity.[12][11][14] Older hens (5+ years) may lay only sporadically, sometimes only one or two eggs per week or month.[9][13][10]

But chickens can live 6-10 years in backyard flocks.[15][16][14]

Research shows many backyard keepers respond to declining production by replacing birds, abandoning them, or culling them.[12][17] Some keep older hens but treat them as a burden rather than individuals deserving care. Others simply hadn't planned that far ahead and find themselves unprepared for years of care with no eggs in return.

When animals are kept primarily for what they produce, their value becomes conditional. This is the same framework that underlies industrial animal agriculture. The scale is different. The proximity is different. But the underlying logic is the same.

Modern egg-laying hens have been genetically engineered through decades of selective breeding to produce approximately 300 eggs per year.[18][9] Their wild ancestors, red junglefowl, produced 10 to 15 eggs annually, only during breeding season.

This isn't a small difference. It's a fundamental distortion of what a chicken's body is capable of withstanding.

The Inherent Suffering: Genetic Damage in Modern Laying Hens

The Physical Toll of Overproduction

Each egg requires enormous amounts of calcium.[15][11] That calcium is pulled directly from the hen's bones.[15] Over time (months or years), this leads to severe osteoporosis, fractures, and chronic pain.[15]

Reproductive disorders are endemic among laying hens. Egg binding. Peritonitis. Tumors. Prolapse. Internal bleeding. These are not rare complications; they're predictable consequences of the breeding. Many hens experience several of these conditions simultaneously, and most are either chronic or fatal.

Even in the best-case scenarios (a spacious coop, excellent nutrition, attentive daily care, access to veterinary support), these birds are still trapped in bodies designed to fail. The suffering isn't a failure of backyard chicken keeping. It's built into the animals themselves through selective breeding.

This cannot be loved away. It cannot be fixed with a nicer coop or better food. The damage is genetic.

Image caption

The Practical Challenges of Keeping Backyard Chickens

Beyond the ethical concerns, backyard chicken keeping involves substantial practical challenges most new keepers are unprepared for.[19][20][21]

Challenge 1: Cost

Reality:

  • Initial setup can range from $800 to $2,000 for a proper predator-proof coop, secure fencing, feeders, waterers, and initial supplies.[22]

  • Pre-built coops range from $300-$1,500, with DIY builds averaging around $500.[22]

  • A starter flock of four hens costs $20-$50 per bird.[22]

  • Ongoing annual costs run $400-$800, including feed ($40-$60/month), bedding ($15/month), and veterinary care ($100-$200/year).[22]

  • Total five-year costs can reach $4,000-$6,000 for a small flock.[22]

  • Most veterinarians don't treat chickens, and those who do charge rates equivalent to small-animal medicine.[23][21]

Challenge 2: Predators

Reality:

  • Raccoons, foxes, hawks, owls, coyotes, possums, neighborhood dogs, and rats view backyard coops as easy meals.[24][25][26]

  • Most store-bought coops lack secure underlayment and have flimsy fencing.[24][26] Hardware cloth (½-inch mesh) should be used instead of chicken wire, with an apron buried 6-12 inches deep or extending outward 12 inches around the perimeter.[24][26][27]

  • Predator attacks are devastating and common: blood, feathers, dismembered bodies, often a single traumatized survivor.[24]

  • Raccoons can open any lock a toddler can; two-step locks work best.[24][25]

  • This is nearly inevitable for new chicken owners.[24][26]

Challenge 3: Lifespan vs. Productivity

Reality:

  • As noted above, hens lay most prolifically in their first two years.[9][10][11]

  • Production drops significantly by year three.[9][12][13]

  • By age four or five, many lay only occasionally.[9][13][10]

  • But chickens can live 6-10 years.[15][16][14] This creates a long-term care problem: what happens to non-productive hens?

  • Some keepers cull them. Some attempt rehoming, but sanctuaries are full.[28][29]

  • Many simply keep aging, ailing birds without meaningful quality-of-life planning.[15][17]

Should You Rescue Chickens Instead?

Some people encountering this information ask about rescuing chickens rather than buying them from hatcheries. This is a compassionate impulse, but it requires understanding the full picture.

  • Rescued chickens still carry the genetic damage. Whether from a commercial operation or a backyard farm, they remain in bodies that hurt. The osteoporosis, reproductive disorders, and chronic pain don't disappear with better care.[15][16] Managing that suffering requires substantial financial commitment (potentially 5-10 years of daily care and veterinary expenses) and emotional labor.[28][29]

  • Eggs must be managed appropriately. Many rescued hens continue laying despite poor health. Those eggs should be returned to the hens (crushed and mixed back into their food) to recycle lost calcium.[28] The situation becomes managing an ongoing health crisis, not benefiting from the bird's output.

Rescuing a chicken is an act of care for an individual being in distress. It's not a solution to systemic chicken suffering. It's a band-aid on a much larger problem.

Organizations like Animal Place, Farm Sanctuary, United Poultry Concerns, and Open Sanctuary Project provide resources for ethical rescue and care.[28][29][30][31][32]

The Fundamental Problem

Keeping backyard chickens (whether purchased from a hatchery or rescued from a farm) doesn't opt anyone out of animal exploitation. It replicates the same patterns on a smaller scale, often with more emotional proximity.

If the goal is to reduce participation in systems that harm animals, keeping chickens for eggs isn't the answer.

Image caption

What Actually Reduces Harm

Action: Stop consuming eggs

How It Helps:

  • The most direct action. Plant-based alternatives exist for baking, cooking, and eating. The egg industry's messaging suggests eggs are nutritionally irreplaceable; they're not. Alternatives exist and work well.

Action: Support farmed animal sanctuaries

How It Helps:

  • Organizations like Animal Place, Farm Sanctuary, United Poultry Concerns, and Open Sanctuary Project rescue and care for chickens and other farmed animals who have been abandoned or rescued from bad situations.[28][29][30][31][32]

  • They provide legitimate sanctuary (space to live out their lives without expectation of production). Supporting them through donation, volunteering, or education addresses the crisis without replicating exploitation. Find sanctuaries at sanctuaries.org or through United Poultry Concerns.[28][29]

Action: Advocate for policy change

How It Helps:

  • Support legislation that prohibits cruel practices like male chick culling, improves conditions for laying hens, funds research into alternatives to animal agriculture, and holds producers accountable for welfare standards.[7][33][34]

  • USDA initiatives like biosecurity improvements and avian flu prevention programs affect industry practices.[33][34] Personal choices matter, but systemic change requires collective action.

Action: Educate others

How It Helps:

  • Share what's been learned about backyard chicken keeping, the egg industry, and where chicks really come from. Help people make informed decisions rather than impulse decisions.

  • University extension resources from institutions like Colorado State, Virginia Tech, University of Florida, University of Maryland, and University of Wisconsin provide evidence-based information.[19][20][21][35][12][11][14]

Final Thoughts

The backyard chicken boom is driven by good intentions. People want agency over their food sources. They want to make ethical choices. They want to escape participation in systems they recognize as harmful.

These motivations are understandable. But understanding and action sometimes diverge.

Keeping backyard chickens (for eggs, pest control, companionship, or any other reason) doesn't represent escape from exploitation. It represents participation in it, on a smaller and more personal scale.

Chickens deserve better. 

They deserve not to be bred into bodies that hurt them. 

They deserve not to be valued primarily for what they produce. 

They deserve not to exist for human purposes.

Please, leave eggs off your plate.

Further Reading & Resources

culling alternatives

In-Ovo Sexing

Step into the egg industry's latest buzz: In-ovo sexing. While sensationalized as “The cutting-edge technology trying to save millions of male chicks from being gassed” and “A Simple New Technique Could Make Your Eggs More Humane” by major media outlets, the truth is more complex.

Continue reading

pARENTING

Motherhood in the Egg Industry

The vast majority of farmed animals, are female, and they are often subjected to unspeakable cruelty in the name of food. This includes cows used for dairy, pigs used for breeding, and of course, the layer hens used for their eggs. But it's not just the layer hens that suffer in the egg industry—it's also their mothers.

Continue reading

GUIDE

The Ultimate Egg-Replacer Guide

Are eggs really necessary? Spoiler alert: they're not! Whether you're transitioning to a plant-based lifestyle or just looking for healthier, cruelty-free alternatives, vegan egg replacements make it easier than ever to whip up your favorite dishes without compromising on taste or texture.

Continue reading