Commentary: Chicken Saloons For Dummies

"It has a calming effect," Travis Rayner, president of the Mobile (Alabama) Bay Area Backyard Chicken Club, told Alabama.com. "While petting the family dog is nice, and I certainly enjoy petting on my dog, there is something curiously satisfying to petting on a chicken."

The explosion of backyard chickens in America leads to the inevitable question, are they pets or food producers? Most owners claim they are both, though the food part is mostly just for eggs. Few would ever dream of butchering one of their chickens, or even know how to perform the task.

While the whole chicken-as-pets concept is lost on me, there’s no denying some folks are crazy about their chickens. And whenever Americans with disposable income become attached to something, there are folks who gladly create opportunities to dispose of some income.

Most folks know – or they soon discover – if you have chickens you will soon have predators seeking an easy dinner. To keep the fox and other varmints out, a backyard chicken raiser needs a chicken coop.

Building a chicken coop might be a relatively easy task for your average farmer. Not so for the folks in suburbia who last used a hammer to unstick the closet door. Those are the folks who buy chicken coops online.

You’ll get no criticism from me about Chicken Saloon, a six-year-old company marketing what might be called the Taj-Mahal of chicken coops, after all, they are supplying products to fill a need. Chicken Saloon offers several variations on the standard chicken coop, ranging in price from $450 to $900. I’ll wait while you compose yourself.

Again, that’s $450 to $900 for a luxury chicken coop large enough to house 12 to 15 chickens. Let’s see, a dozen eggs a day, valued at $1.80 a dozen….

If that all sounds a little expensive for fresh eggs, Chicken Saloon offers a bonus with online orders – a free copy of “Raising Chickens For Dummies.”