thespindrifter: EvilEgg: I have chickens, they are amusing but it's cheaper to buy your eggs. And killing and cleaning a chicken isn't worth it.

Weird, I found it was cheaper to raise the eggs than buy... maybe because I live in an oil boomtown where they want $4 a dozen for a decent egg. I also found the birds made mostly awesome pets, so long as the coop was kept OUTside the fence and they were only allowed to briefly visit inside.

Had to give up the coop when we moved into town, but I swear I am thinking about keeping a Bantam or two as pets on the back patio in a stealth coop and a fresh egg factory. The hard part is taking them out for a walk without property management seeing them and asking a lot of shiatty questions.

I posted this last year and it had a sad ending, but my insane mother in law found a nest of blue quail eggs in the front garden hidden in the mint and wanted to raise them. Four of the 12 eggs hatched and sadly they actually bonded to the Bantam. They never got very big and I strongly suspected something was missing from their diets that bugs and grains and grasses and kitchen scraps alone could not provide. One got hung in the netting. One died under mysterious circumstances (a weasel got it?? a rat maybe?) and the last two I tried to set free to join a fellow covey that came to visit but they refused to leave the Bantam. They died.

We should have just enjoyed the pickled eggs.

But seriously, Bantams make fantastic pets, they are soooo sweet!! And I imagine they would make good stock also.