Chickens

My sister and brother-in-law just installed a clutch (herd? flock?) of chickens on their 20 acre patch in upstate New York. My next door neighbors did the same on their half acre a couple of months ago. The putative reason is that chickens produce eggs and eggs feed the family. Unfortunately, neither my sibling's birds nor my neighbor's birds have produced so much as an empty shell. Is this some kind of hoax? Not so, says none other than The Economist. Not only is it for real, but it is actually a "craze." (Read about it here: http://www.economist.com/world/unitedstates/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13856313). So, why doesn't Rural Ways keep chickens? For the same reason that we don't keep a horse, a dog, a cow, or a goat: Animals require care . . . all the time . . . even on the weekends. Because our weekends, and even our weeks, are often spent traveling away from The Homestead, it doesn't make sense.