Hi, welcome to Happy Chicken. - return to OP Poultry

This isn't a "how-to" site because there are other, better ones out there. It's not a "know your Breeds" site either. Happy Chicken is the original Free-Range, Free-Market, Chick-o-nomics web site.

Chick-o-nomics is the art of integrating your egg surplus into your community in a way that benefits your chickens, yourself and your neighbors.You can barter, trade or seek profit, those details are up to you. Covering your costs, if nothing else, has a certain logic. The model we offer here is only one start. it is meant to be tweaked, modified and adapted to local conditions and needs whenever possible.

Sure, chick-o-nomics is utopian, just another crazy idea, but it seems to work when only a handful of families are involved per flock.

Fact: getting chickens turns you into a food producer. This may not even be your main motivation, but eggs you will get, more than you can eat.

Happy Chicken is a response to that new status. It's a tentative exploration into food supplies, food distribution chains and all sorts of interesting related issues, with a strictly local focus and family flocks. Factory chickens aren't Happy Chickens and they don't lay happy eggs.

Oh, I'd better warn you. It's probably illegal to actually sell food to your neighbor without the proper licensure and payment of fees etc.

Funny how something that seems to make sense in the big picture makes none at all in your backyard. Sometimes regulations seem designed to protect you, but how many times do they hurt, hinder or delay? How many have damaging unintended consequences? How many are simply not relevant or needed in your case?

Don't get me started, OK?

Don't worry, were not just crassly pushing eggs here, those pages are for local customers - we wanted to share some cool stuff too.