Correct answer right here. They are a hobby, and can be quite an elaborate one depending on your location, space, local ordinances, and budget.

Cheap eggs are cool and meat is cool too if you can stand to kill them. But if you’re going into that for those reasons then you’ll be sorely disappointed.

They’re also extremely sweet creatures when hand raised. They’ll come running and want to be picked up and everything. Eating them or having them die is awful.

It’s worth noting that their ability to avoid predators depends heavily on the predators where you live.

Coyotes and bobcats decimated my chickens regularly when I had them. They’d tear right through chicken wire in the winter time. I’m also not unconvinced that a few of the smaller adults didn’t die to some of the larger hawks in my area, but I have no evidence to back that up.