Poultry Survey by Poultry Sci Mag

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The magazine did a survey, some interesting things they found were ...

The  5  breeds  most  favored  by  respondents  were  Rhode Island Red, Plymouth Rock, Ameraucana, Orpington,
and  Wyandotte,  all  predominantly egg-laying  breeds.

The sex composition of the flocks was, as expected, predominantly female: 68% of flocks had no rooster,
although 15% had 1 and 17% more  than  1.

Flock owners also appeared sensitive to egg color, as all of the 5 most frequently cited breeds lay colored eggs as the
5 most frequently cited breeds lay coloured eggs as well.  Most popular were the “blue-green egg” layers
(Araucana and “Easter Egger”)  and  chocolate  egg  layers  (Marans  and  Wellsummer). This high prevalence
of colored egg layers could possibly  be partly explained by their color dissimilarity with the predominantly
 white eggs laid by commercially raised hens.

A minority (15.4%) of individuals mentioned keeping other  poultry  species  besides  chickens.  This  occurred
more frequently in rural areas (24%) than in suburban (11%)  and  urban  (8%)  areas.  Nevertheless,  82.1%  of
them did not allow contact between their chicken flock and the other poultry. The most commonly kept species
were ducks (55%) and turkeys (29%).

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The survey also found that the


Respondents  wanted  to  learn  more about various flock management topics, especially how to detect (64%) and treat (66%) health problems.
And the major  reasons  for  keeping chickens  were  as  food  for  home  use  (95%),  gardening partners (63%), pets (57%), or a combination of these. The remaining possible  answers  were  source  of  income,  family  tradition, shows  (4-H),  and  “other,”  which  were  together  cited
by less than 35% of respondents. As this question (and various  others)  allowed  respondents  to  select  multiple answers, the total percentages do not add up to 100%. Even  though  this  question  did  not  specifically  ask  if chickens were kept for eggs only, meat only, or both, the breeds favored by respondents indicate that almost all individuals surveyed kept at least some egg-laying hens.

The Internet was the main source of information (87%) used by backyard flock owners, followed by books/magazines (62%) and feed stores (40%).
Minimizing predation was the most cited challenge (49%), followed by providing adequate feed at low cost (28%), dealing with soil management (25%), and complying with zoning regulations (23%).

Carcass  disposal  methods  were  mainly  divided  between burial on premises (40.9%), put in trash (30.7%), or “other” (16.9%). Among “other,” the most frequently cited methods were to bring the carcass to a diagnostic laboratory  or  a  veterinarian,  or  to  feed  it  to  wildlife.

Most respondents were from California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina & Connecticut.