Okay, I was challenged.

I’ve been writing about quite a lot of things about & found in Michigan: restaurants, shops, food, movies, haunted locations, abandoned sites, historic events, and SO much more stuff.

So someone posed a challenge to me to write about chickens…and to tie ‘em in with Michigan. That’s right…CHICKENS.

The first thing that came to mind? Michiganders do love chicken: fried, baked, barbecued, rotisserie…..wings, leg quarters, nuggets, tenderloins…..picked up in a drive-thru, grilled in the backyard, all-you-can-eat in a buffet, or taken home in a bucket. The majority of Michiganders DO love their chicken(s).

But there’s another side to chickens in Michigan. The farms, of course, where the hens are kept and bred to lay eggs to sell in the stores, along the road, or from the house. Not to forget the many, many Michiganders who keep chickens as pets. Oh, you bet! Some of you may scoff, but chickens make good pets and company. The majority of pet chickens – hens and/or roosters are kept outside, but there are households who have a chicken or two in the house as domestic pets. Some pet-chicken owners live elsewhere besides farms: normal neighborhood homes and even some apartments (and there are few apartment building owners who allow it).

Does it smell bad? Well…..probably, yeah.

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But having a chicken for a pet…makes you wonder how long they’ll live. Do they live as long as dogs or cats? According to almanac.com, “most hens generally (live) between 3 and 7 years…..with ideal care, they may live even longer. If a chicken is kept safe from predators (including dogs) and doesn’t have genetic issues, they can certainly live 10 to 12 years old.” So take good care of that household chicken and it can live just as long as any domestic animal!

Can chickens love you? They sure can, just like a normal pet, but it all depends on you. Families that get the kids involved in raising chickens from little chicks actually have fun; small children really get a kick out of it (take a look at a couple of Michigan children with their pet chickens here)! It takes reading instructions how to properly take care of them, and you need to follow the guidelines that will make your chicken(s) happy.

Wanna pet chicken? Michigan has very specific rules about it: how many you can have, whether or not you can sell the eggs, how big the coop should be, how often to feed ‘em, etc. You can find all that detail here.

Plus you can even rent-a-chicken! Read about it here

With all that said, I hope I fulfilled that person’s challenge by doing an article on Michigan chickens…but it doesn’t stop here. Take a look below at a gallery of different aspects of chickens in Michigan…pets, farm birds…..yeah, and chicken restaurants. As I already mentioned, Michiganders DO love chickens!

Michigan's Love of Chickens

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Michigan Zoos, 1910s-1950s

Michigan Ice Houses and Delivery Wagons, Early 1900s

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