Comment by staticelf

As a european that until recently owned 20+ chickens I can tell you no, it is not the answer unless you really want your own chickens.

Owning your own chickens has a bunch of downsides:

- They get sick / get parasites and may require expensive medication or massive amounts of work.

- They require warmth if you live in a cold place like me, and heating costs money.

- They eat a lot and unless you buy in large quantities, it is expensive. And if you buy in large quantities, you must protect the grain from mold and mice which can be hard.

- They require a lot of maintenance since they are pretty stupid and dirty animals that poop in their own water supply, food etc.

- You will get a lot more mice on your property and possibly, in your house.

- You are worried about bird flu, so you need to cover the coop with a roof. Building a roof is expensive, I spent ~$1300 for materials. That is a lot of eggs.

That said, you can get colorful nice eggs from animals you know have a good life and are healthy. Where I am from, that is largely possible in regular stores however but in some areas of the world I assume animal care is a lot worse.

I think more people should have their own animals, but they do require time and effort, more than most people can spare I would believe. We sold all of them due to this reason. We did not profit from having them, but rather lost both time and money but it is (mostly) a fun experience at least. And our waste was heavily reduced since you can feed them your food even if that is illegal where I live if you want to sell your eggs (you can buy a carrot, put it in your bed and sleep with it a week but if you lay it on a plate where you eat your food, it becomes illegal to give them it if you intend to sell the eggs).