Growing in popularity, the practice of keeping chickens has captured the imagination of a wider demographic by providing fresh eggs and a new relationship with animals for urbanites. It’s a commitment to be sure, and requires a decent amount of time, resources, feed, and chicken wire, but enthusiasts are quite enthusiastic. Downsides include smells, noises, chickens dying, and you need to build a coop and manage the space (including the poop).

In the garden, chickens can be very helpful — they’ll eat the weeds and insects and mix up the soil in the process. Chicken poop itself can be composted into a soil nutrient (it takes additional work but is powerful). They lay an average of one egg per hen per day, but stop laying eggs when days grow shorter in winter or when they get older.