Backyard Chickens: 10 Reasons To Keep Them (And 4 Honest Warnings)
In a small Harare suburb, just behind a two-roomed cottage, seven brown hens shuffle through the grass. Children run past with a ball, a neighbour’s radio crackles, and from the makeshift coop comes the gentle cluck of birds settling on their perches. Tomorrow morning, there’ll be eggs for sadza and tea — fresh, warm, and laid just a few metres from the kitchen door.
Across African cities and growth points, more families are asking: should we keep a few chickens in the backyard? A widely shared homesteading blog from the United States lists 10 reasons to get backyard chickens — and four reasons not to. The heart of it translates well to Zimbabwean yards, peri-urban plots, and even rural homesteads: chickens can bring food, income, and joy, but they also bring noise, mess, and responsibility.
Why Eggs Still Come First
The first and most obvious reason the original blogger gives is simple: eggs. Country eggs — whether laid in Louisiana or Zvimba — are different. Richer yolks, firmer whites, and the deep satisfaction of knowing exactly what’s gone into the bird that laid them.
For the U.S. family behind the blog, eggs were the original motivation to get chickens. For Zimbabwean households, the logic is similar: a small flock of laying hens can supply protein for the family and sometimes a few trays to sell at the gate or to colleagues in town.
Backyard layer projects already help many urban and peri-urban families smooth cashflow in between paydays or during off-season months.
Low Maintenance, High Return
The blogger calls chickens a low-maintenance “gateway animal” for people exploring self-sufficient living. Once the coop is built and basic routines are in place, daily care is fairly simple: provide feed and clean water, collect eggs, and lock the birds up securely at night.
Unlike dairy cows or pigs, chickens don’t demand constant attention or complex equipment. For busy families balancing jobs and side hustles, this matters. In a high-density suburb like Mkoba, Gweru, making time for livestock between kombi rides and market trips is a real challenge. Chickens fit into the cracks of that schedule.
FFA Explainer:
Backyard chickens are small flocks — often 3 to 20 birds — kept primarily for household eggs and sometimes meat, usually in a simple coop and run attached to a home, rather than on a full-scale commercial farm.
Small Space? Still Possible
One of the striking points in the blog is how little space chickens actually need. The writer keeps her birds in “the middle of the city” and lets them free range in a fenced backyard that was already there.
For African cities under pressure — from Mbare to Mufakose, from Luveve to Sakubva — this is encouraging. Even a modest yard can host a small coop. Local by-laws vary, and it’s important to check council rules, but in practice many urban families already keep a few hens, provided they manage cleanliness and noise.
Inside the house, they’re not welcome — the U.S. blogger jokes about chickens sneaking through an open back door — but outside, they integrate easily into family life.
More Than Livestock: Chickens As Characters
One of the unexpected joys the blogger found is that chickens have personality. Her family named each hen, trained them to come when called, and discovered quirks and “crazy antics” that made evenings in the backyard a kind of free theatre.
She describes birds that love to be petted and held, and flocks that get excited when a rabbit hops nearby, all jumping and squawking in response.
For children growing up far from their grandparents’ rural homes, backyard chickens can be their first, daily connection to animals. They learn care, empathy, and where food really comes from. In townships from Dangamvura to Dzivaresekwa, parents already talk about how a few hens teach kids responsibility in ways that screens never can.
Your New “Pest Control Officer”
Another strong argument from the blog: free-ranging chickens act like a personal pest control company. They eat:
- Insects of all kinds.
- Garden caterpillars.
- Grubs in the soil.
- Even small snakes, according to the writer’s experience.
Her flock quickly learnt to stand outside the vegetable garden gate, waiting for her to bring them caterpillars from the plants. Many Zimbabwean gardeners already know this trick: toss tomato hornworms, cutworms, or fall armyworm larvae over the fence, and the hens will handle the rest.
As integrated pest management grows in importance under climate stress, chickens can be part of a more natural approach, reducing reliance on expensive chemicals and turning pests into protein.
Lawn Service Included
In Louisiana’s long mowing season, the blogger says her family used to cut their grass weekly from March to October. Once the chickens were free ranging in the backyard, they mowed that area only half as often. The birds nibbled grass and weeds, and fertilised as they went.
While not every Zimbabwean yard has a lush lawn, many peri-urban and rural homesteads do have patches of grass or weeds around houses and outbuildings. Chickens love the weeds most, the blogger notes, which means they can tidy problem patches while spreading manure.
On smallholdings in places like Ruwa and Esigodini, combining chickens with fruit trees or vegetable patches can turn a rough backyard into a productive, living system.
When The Budget Is Tight
The U.S. writer runs the numbers: in one year, her seven laying hens consumed about US$70 worth of feed and produced 68 dozen eggs — roughly US$1 per dozen. In her market, similar “free-range” eggs might sell for around US$6 per dozen, making the home flock highly economical from her perspective.
Prices and feed costs in Zimbabwe are different, but the financial pattern is familiar. Once the coop and birds are paid for, home-produced eggs often undercut shop prices, especially for families that can supplement commercial feed with kitchen scraps and garden greens.
Even if capital costs — the coop, drinkers, feeders — are included, the long-term cost per dozen often stays well below supermarket levels, particularly where eggs sell at a premium in informal markets.
A Better Way To “Throw Food Away”
The blogger confesses she used to cringe when throwing out leftovers or half-damaged garden produce. Now she smiles, because everything goes to the chickens and “will soon become eggs.”
Her birds eat almost anything: bread, rice, vegetables, meat scraps, yoghurt, oatmeal, compost-bound peelings. The family has developed a simple habit of scraping plates into a bowl for the flock.
In African households where food waste is painful — and often still happens — chickens act like a living recycling system. Every scrap becomes part of the next day’s breakfast. For families supporting relatives, this can support both nutrition and dignity.
Meat As A Next Step
The blogger is honest: moving from laying hens to meat chickens is a big emotional step. Her family “stumbled” into it when a batch meant to be hens turned out to contain five roosters — birds they couldn’t legally keep in the city because of noise.
They learnt how to slaughter and process the birds and turned them into gumbo, discovering that home-raised organic meat could rival expensive supermarket chicken.
Many Zimbabwean families have long experience slaughtering birds for holidays and ceremonies. For others, especially newer urban generations, backyard broilers or spare cockerels can be both a cultural reconnection and a practical way to reduce meat bills.
Stress Relief You Can Hear And Touch
The blogger’s final “reason to get chickens” is intangible but powerful: stress relief. After a day of screens, meetings, and deadlines, she writes about sitting on a backyard swing, watching hens peck and scratch. The rhythm of beaks and feet against the soil seems to wash away digital noise.
She calls it reconnecting with something “real, something tangible” — a reminder that life creates food which sustains life. For office workers in Harare, Lusaka, or Nairobi, a few minutes with chickens at dusk can create the kind of mental reset that wellness apps only promise.
Four Honest Reasons Not To Keep Chickens
The blog doesn’t romanticise backyard flocks. It offers four clear warnings, all of which apply just as strongly in African settings.
They Can Destroy A Garden
Chickens love to dig, scratch, and fling soil. To them, a freshly mulched flowerbed or vegetable patch is a perfect playground. The blogger describes hens uprooting plants “for fun” and trampling her tulips.
Her solution was to fence the yard into two clear zones: one for people and gardens, one for chickens. Escapes still happen, and she jokes about threatening “chicken for dinner” when they flatten her flowers.
In Zimbabwe, the same principle holds. If you value your tomatoes, onions, and flowers, protect them with fencing, raised beds, or netting. Managing free-range birds is as much about boundaries as about feed.
Noise Is Real
Not all chickens are quiet. The blogger notes that some breeds are louder than others, and individual birds can have “loud personalities.” They make noise when:
- They’re hungry or bored.
- The neighbour’s dog or cat is nearby.
- They lay an egg — cue the famous “egg song.”
In dense urban areas, this can strain neighbour relations, especially if roosters are involved. The blogger chooses to tolerate the noise “as long as it means eggs,” but acknowledges it can be an issue.
For high-density suburbs or flats, hens-only flocks, good coop design, and feeding on time can reduce tension. Still, if you or your neighbours crave silence, chickens might not be the best fit.
Losses Hurt
Perhaps the hardest downside in the blog is death. The writer describes losing birds to neighbours’ dogs, hawks, and disease such as gape worm. She shares a photo of a favourite hen, Oreo, sitting with her husband while he had the flu — and explains how deeply they grieved when a dog later killed that bird.
Anyone who has kept chickens in rural Zimbabwe knows this pain: dogs, mongooses, snakes, thieves, and illness can quickly thin a flock. The emotional impact is real, especially when birds have names and personalities.
Secure housing, vaccination where possible, and careful predator-proofing can reduce, but not eliminate, that risk.
Holidays Become More Complicated
Lastly, chickens tie you down. Like any livestock, they need daily care. The blogger notes that while many people are happy to dog-sit, they feel “a little strange about chicken sitting,” even though the job is as simple as filling a feeder and collecting eggs once a day.
For families planning trips back to the rural home, or cross-border trading runs, this matters. Trusted neighbours, relatives, or paid minders become part of the flock’s survival plan.
So, Are Backyard Chickens Worth It?
The blogger’s final verdict is clear: for her family, the pros far outweigh the cons. They can’t imagine their yard without chickens. Many Zimbabwean and African families who’ve tried small backyard flocks would say the same.
For policymakers thinking about urban food systems under NDS1 and SDG 2, backyard chickens aren’t just a lifestyle trend. They’re part of a quiet network of micro-livestock that keeps protein flowing into low-income households when formal supply chains stutter.
Yet the decision to keep chickens should be honest. They will dig where you don’t want them to, make noise, sometimes die in upsetting ways, and always need someone to care for them, even when you’re tired or away.
Back in that Harare yard, the evening settles in. The hens hop up onto their perches one by one, the last egg of the day still warm in a child’s hand. Somewhere in between the joy of fresh eggs and the worry about dogs over the fence, a small, practical kind of resilience is taking root — feathered, noisy, and very much alive.
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