I once participated in a project for someone’s Master’s degree thesis.
We had to train chickens to wear costumes and perform in a ‘chicken stage-play’. (I’m not kidding; the final result was actually shown on local TV; and the lady who was going for the degree wound up a very accomplished animal trainer.)
Anyhow, I loved the chickens. You’d pick them up, and hold them; and they’d settle down in your lap and ‘suck heat’. They loved being held and petted.
BUT: BEWARE the ROOSTERS! I almost had my knee broken, and an eye poked out, when I picked up one of those roosters. He didn’t like wearing the costume that I was trying to put on him :-) And you wouldn’t believe how powerful those guys are, when they rear back and peck at you!
The upshot is: those hens were ALWAYS laying; all of us involved with the project would get fresh eggs every week, and they were the best eggs I ever had. If you broke them open, you could hold them up high, and the whites wouldn’t even fall more than a few inches.
I baked cakes from these that were wonderful - but they’re NOT good for boiled/deviled eggs; you want older ones for that.
-JT, Reminiscing
Duck eggs ate my preferred egg for baking. Cakes rise higher and lighter than with chicken eggs.
Chickens are nice, meat birds on the other hand are disgusting and filthy. We did two seasons raising them for the freezer. 25 each time. It’s sad what has been done breeding the meat bird. They grow to slaughter age in 6 weeks, and all they do is eat and poop. They are gross to take are of and by 6 weeks some of them are almost not able to walk. They are bred to grow fast. Having a bath of laying hens would be much nicer, you’d get eggs and could go outside when you wanted a fresh chicken for dinner.