As I mentioned in an earlier Content Challenge post, my husband and I listed an efficiency apartment on Airbnb almost 6 years ago. As hosts, we’ve discovered both pros and cons of utilizing Airbnb or another vacation rental platform. Through our contact with hundreds of guests, we’ve also learned what Airbnb guests appreciate. Today's Content (Marketing) Challenge shares those discoveries. ​

In addition to an old dog, we keep a small flock of backyard chickens. Actually, we keep only hens. Roosters are too noisy for our 3/4-acre lot with homes around it; most real roosters aren't like Foghorn Leghorn. They don't wait patiently until dawn to crow. Instead, they are apt to sound off before dawn, after dawn, and several times throughout the day. That's hard on neighbors. 

​​Fresh eggs taste better. 
Remember last summer when you sliced a homegrown tomato and added a piece to your sandwich? If it was fresh-picked, you probably noted how much better it tasted than the one you purchased in the grocery store. The contrast between a fresh egg and a store-bought egg isn't as stark, but it's there. Fresh eggs taste better. 

Fresh eggs are much . . . fresher.  Duh, but hear me out. By law, farmers have up to 30 days to get an egg from the hen that laid it to the egg carton. Once in the carton, the egg can be sold for up to 30 days. So, if you pick up a dozen eggs with a "Use By" date just a few days away, you could be buying eggs that are almost 2 months old! That's part of the reason that fresh eggs taste better. 

Laying hens are treated better in backyard flocks. I'm not trying to bash commercial egg producers. However, the industry has a reputation for keeping hens in tiny, barren cages that barely allow them to stretch their legs or wings. Most backyard flocks have at least a sizeable coop in which the birds can move around. Many--including ours--also have fenced areas outside. As a result, backyard hens live better lives.

Sustainability is a buzzword that's applied to situations both globally and individually. What's the word mean on both levels? How does keeping a small flock of hens in your backyard help you live more sustainably? 

According to a United Nations committee report, global sustainability is “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." Global sustainability focuses on how nations enact laws that protect or destroy Earth's resources and how responsibly they use those resources.

In contrast, individual sustainability has a down-home flavor focused on what on individuals or families can do to minimize their effect on the environment.  Raising chickens is one aspect of down-home sustainability. Other popular activities include gardening, composting and beekeeping.   

Here are specific ways in which raising backyard chickens helps families live more sustainably:

• Chickens are living compost bins. They love to eat fruit and vegetable peels, grass clippings, and other selected scraps. You don't want to overload their diet with these things, but you can significantly reduce the number of food scraps that you put in the garbage.
• Chickens produce fertilizer. Chicken manure makes excellent fertilizer for your garden. It contains lots of nitrogen as well as moderate amounts of potassium and phosphorus. NOTE: You can kill your garden plants if you use it straight, so learn about using chicken manure as fertilizer before you try it. 

Raising chickens teaches children--and adults--valuable life lessons. Here are a few of them:

• Responsibility. Chickens must have food and water every day. They need a clean spot to lay eggs, and they benefit from interaction with people. Someone needs to make sure they have all these things. Young children may need help with waterers or feeders, but they can tend to nesting boxes, gather eggs, and help socialize your flock.
• "Birds and Bees."  I won't go into detail, but raising chickens provides an easy way to teach children why our hens can lay many eggs, but they can't hatch out chicks if we don't keep roosters.  Surprisingly, we've encountered some adults who don't understand this.
• Death is a part of life.  Even though we're careful, we've lost chickens to dogs and raccoons as well as disease and injury.  Death is a part of animal husbandry. It's a hard lesson, especially when we realize that one of our actions inadvertently put our hens at risk. However, we can't eliminate all danger and still allow our flock to live normally.  

If you'd like to learn more about chickens and backyard flocks, I recommend you go to the website for the Murray McMurray Hatchery  and request a free catalog. (The link is at the top right of their homepage.) The catalog contains a wealth of details about chickens and backyard flocks. It is well-written and full of fun photos, too. I read ours from cover to cover every year. 

Here's today's content marketing, no-strings-attached CTA geared to benefit every reader: 
You Accept the CHallenge, Too! If you could start your own little flock, I encourage you to at least consider doing so. Read the sources I've linked. Talk to someone who raises chickens. 

If that's not a possibility, consider buying fresh eggs from a local market or someone you know. You'll pay a little more, but you'll be eating fresh eggs that taste better and are laid by a hen that isn't confined to a cage.  

Watch for tomorrow's Content Challenge. Drop me a comment if you have questions.